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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Seeking inroads in the fight against sexual violence, the University of Kentucky released a campus-wide survey Monday showing nearly 5 percent of its students indicated they were sexually assaulted in the past year and that many were reluctant to report attacks to campus authorities.
Preliminary results were from the survey that students were required to complete last spring. It signaled the start of a five-year initiative to assess student perceptions and experiences regarding violence and harassment at the state's flagship university.
The survey looked into where assaults occurred, whether UK students committed attacks and how safe students feel on campus.
"This is a project that will help us make informed policy decisions to make this the safest campus possible," UK President Eli Capilouto said as the findings were released on the Lexington campus.
The Campus Attitudes Toward Safety study surveyed 24,382 students. A total of 1,053 UK students indicated they had been sexually assaulted in the past year. The 4.9 percent of students who said they had been assaulted was consistent with on-campus surveys elsewhere in the country, UK officials said.
More than 60 percent of victims did not seek help from campus services that provide counseling and other assistance, the survey found.
"Too many students still believe sexual assault is a shame and scorn they cannot share," Capilouto said. "And still too many students don't fully understand the resources at their disposal and the people — so many people — who want to help."
Among students who provided information about where they were victimized by assaults, 37 percent indicated the attacks occurred in UK housing or UK-affiliated housing on or off campus, the study found. Off-campus attacks also mostly occurred in students' apartments or houses, it showed.
"It seems to be happening where the students live," said Diane Follingstad, director of the UK Center for Research on Violence Against Women.
Students who didn't reach out for help from UK mostly indicated they wanted to forget the attack happened, considered it a private matter or felt embarrassed or ashamed, the study found. Others said they didn't' want to deal with the formal procedures for reporting sexual assault.
The report indicated a high level of under-reporting of sexual assaults.
UK reported 12 sexual assaults on campus in the 2013-2014 school year in a federally mandated report, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported earlier this year. That same year, 67 people reported sexual assaults to the school's Violence Intervention and Prevention Center, the newspaper said.
Among the students who provided details about their attackers, 74.6 percent said they were attack by fellow UK students, the study showed.
Twenty-three percent of UK students indicated they were sexually harrassed in the past year, the survey found.
Meanwhile, the study showed that students perceive UK to be a safe place.
More than 98 percent reported feeling safe on campus during the day, and 77 percent felt safe at night. Almost all students see UK as caring about their safety, and more than 90 percent indicated they trust the institution, including campus police, to manage sexual assault reporting in a fair and helpful way.
Capilouto said the survey is part of an ongoing, five-year project.
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