A majority of Americans don't think colleges do a good job at protecting students from sexual assault, according to a new WGBH News/Abt Associates poll.
Fifty-four percent of 1,002 adults surveyed say colleges aren't doing enough to prevent sexual assault. That number jumps to nearly 60 percent for women as opposed to 48 percent of men who feel the same way.
Wendy Murphy, an adjunct professor of sexual violence law at New England Law in Boston, told WGBH News that public opinion would be even more negative if people knew more about the situation on campus.
"If you ask just people on campus, if they're doing a good job, the answer would be not even close," she said. "And I say that because the numbers continue to be high."
Between 20 and 25 percent of women and 15 percent of men experience sexual assault on college campuses, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. About 90 percent of victims on campus don't report sexual violence. And almost two-thirds of college students encounter some form of sexual harassment.
Since the rise of the #MeToo movement, there has been a renewed focus on how colleges deal with sexual assault. The Obama administration had implemented rules required colleges to use a lower standard of proof to decide whether a student was responsible for a sexual assault. But the Education Department, under the leadership of Secretary Betsy DeVos, scrapped those regulations and has in the interim adopted new rules that critics charge are tilted to the benefit of the accused.
On the issue of mental health, 50 percent say colleges don't do a good job taking care of students who need help. Again, a gender gap is evident: 57 percent of women and 43 percent of men hold that opinion.
Many colleges have detected signs of anxiety and depression among a growing number of students. Some schools have responded by expanding mental health services on campus.
At its extreme, the rise in mental illness has resulted in clusters of student suicides at some colleges, including Columbia University and MIT. Documents filed in a court case involving MIT estimated 1,100 college students a year take their own lives.
Americans who have never attended college have a better view of how colleges protect students from sexual assault and look after the mental health needs. Less than 50 percent of those with a high school degree or less say colleges are doing a bad job, compared to clear majorities among those with at least some college experience.
The poll conducted Aug. 21-25 has a margin of error of 3.5 percent for the entire sample of 1,002 adults.
David Ciemnecki is a senior analyst at Abt Associates. For more on the poll's methodology, click here.
Our higher education reports are a collaboration with The Forum for the Future of Higher Education and made possible with support from Lumina Foundation and the Davis Educational Foundation.
