What Went Wrong with Stanford’s Campus Climate Survey
In Spring 2015, Stanford University implemented its own climate survey in hope of gathering accurate data on the scope of sexual violence on campus and to inform administration on the development of education programming and allotment of resources. However, Stanford’s survey dangerously misrepresented sexual violence on campus.
Opting to use its own survey mechanism over the AAU’s, Stanford utilized an overly narrow definition of sexual assault and under-counted incidences. Under Stanford’s definition, many behaviors classifiable as felonies are instead misclassified as “sexual misconduct,” not sexual assault. Moreover, sexual violence affects different student populations disproportionately: undergraduate women, women of color, transgender, and gender non-conforming students face higher rates of sexual harassment and assault, but Stanford chose to not acknowledge this. Instead, Stanford repeatedly publicized that only 1.9 percent of students experience sexual assault — a misleading number achieved by averaging numbers from both undergraduate and graduate men and women, and by excluding many incidences of assault.
By re-examining Stanford’s data using AAU definitions, students and faculty found that 43.3 percent of undergraduate women had experienced sexual misconduct and/or assault in their four years at Stanford — a far cry from 1.9 percent.
Rising Support for AAU Survey
In the years following, students, faculty, and alumni have protested for more accuracy and transparency from the Stanford administration.
In Jan. 2016, ASSU Senator Matthew Cohen introduced a resolution to the Undergraduate Senate asking Stanford to implement the AAU survey. It was a unanimous yes-vote.
Four months later, 90.6 percent of undergraduate students voted in favor of the AAU survey in a Spring 2016 advisory referendum.
In Apr. 2016, several letters were directed to the Stanford administration to join the student vote. First, 31 faculty, from a variety of departments and the graduate schools of business and medicine, signed a letter to the Faculty Senate in support of the AAU survey, followed by 109 alumni who wrote to the Stanford administration, the Board of Trustees, and the Faculty Senate with the same demands. Finally, the Stanford graduate student community came forward with two letters, totaling 215 graduate student signatures, supporting the undergraduate vote and denouncing Stanford’s 2015 survey.
Despite this outcry, Stanford has done nothing. In recent town halls, Stanford administrators remained focused on implementing Stanford’s own survey this year — but this survey cannot be sufficiently remedied in the university’s proposed timeframe. If Stanford wants to build student trust by avoiding repeating the same mistakes from 2015, it can start by implementing the AAU Survey next year.
Advantages of the AAU Survey
The AAU Survey is superior to Stanford’s Campus Climate Survey. The survey supports transparency through using an independent, recognized, expert organization to collect and represent the data. Further, by joining the national dataset, Stanford would be able to compare AAU Survey results across universities. The AAU survey also utilizes better methodology and more thorough questions than Stanford’s.
Stanford Can Do Better
Our university prides itself on listening to student voices. Over and over, administrators tell us, “We welcome the conversations that are occurring here, about what the university did, or could have done differently, in the past. We learn from every single case and every situation.”
In the past under the previous administration, especially in regards to the climate survey, Stanford has only proven the opposite — that student voices do not matter. We invite this new administration to honor their commitment to listening to students.
For three years, the efforts of countless students, numerous faculty members, and the broader Stanford community have had one ask — for Stanford to administer the AAU survey. We have done everything that we can — we have come together to hold events, write letters, sign petitions, and speak out. It is time that Stanford listens.
With respect, we urge Stanford to implement the AAU Survey in 2019.
Signed,
Stephanie Pham, Co-Founder of the Stanford Association of Students for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP)
Matthew Baiza, Co-Founder of ASAP
Jacqueline Lin, ASAP Officer
Shanta Katipamula, 18th Undergraduate Senate Chair
Kimiko Hirota, 19th Undergraduate Senate
Justice Tention-Palmer, ASSU Executive President 2017-18
Vicki Niu, ASSU Executive Vice President 2017-18
Kojoh Atta, 19th Undergraduate Senate Chair
Gabe Rosen, 18th and 19th Undergraduate Senate, President of Stanford Democrats
Hamzeh Daoud, 19th Undergraduate Senate
Ana Carolina Queiroz, 19th Undergraduate Senate
Lizzie Ford, 19th Undergraduate Senate
Erica Scott, 19th Undergraduate Senate
Cole McFaul, 19th Undergraduate Senate
Doris Rodriguez, 19th Undergraduate Senate
Jayaram Ravi, 18th Undergraduate Senate
Carson Smith, 18th Undergraduate Senate
Alpha Hernandez, 18th Undergraduate Senate
Khaled Aounallah, 18th Undergraduate Senate
Matthew Cohen, 17th and 18th Undergraduate Senate
Jasmín Espinosa, 17th and 18th Undergraduate Senate
Hattie Gawande, 17th and 18th Undergraduate Senate
Cenobio Hernandez, 17th and 18th Undergraduate Senate
Chiamaka Agali, Co-President of Stanford African Students Association (SASA)
Blessing Edem, Co-President of Nigerian Students Association (Naija)
Maki Asrat, Co-President of Stanford Ethiopian and Eritrean Student Association (SEESA)
Awua Buahin, Co-President of Akwaaba Ghanaian Students Association
Moses Swai, President of Stanford Africa Entrepreneur Network (SAEN)
Michael Ocon, Interfraternity Council Vice President of Standards, NAACP Activism Committee Chair
Student Organization Co-Sponsors
African American Fraternal and Sororal Association (AAFSA)
Asian American Student Association (AASA)
Black and Queer at Stanford (BLAQS)
First-Generation, Low-Income Partnership (FLIP)
MEChA de Stanford
Stanford American Indian Organization (SAIO)
Stanford Asian American Activism Committee (SAAAC)
Stanford Association of Students for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP)
Stanford Democrats
Students for the Liberation of All People (SLAP)
Stanford National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
If you have further questions, please contact Stephanie Pham at spham18@stanford.edu.