In late 2014, Sociology faculty members Sandy Levitsky and Elizabeth A. Armstrong launched a research project examining how universities were responding to student sexual misconduct in a rapidly changing legal environment. Education doctoral student Kamaria Porter joined the team in 2015 and has moved into a leadership role on the team. The NSF-funded project, formally titled University Responses to Sexual Assault (URSA), hosted a multidisciplinary workshop in October to present their preliminary findings to members of the University community as well as other experts in the field.
Anna K. Wood and Zoe Chanin presented their findings about media coverage in a presentation titled “Kangaroo Courts?: Media and Contestation over Campus Adjudication Processes”.
Katherine Leu reviewed the variation in consent definitions in her presentation, “No Two Are the Same: Mapping variation in University Sexual Consent Definitions.” In “Institutional Variation in University Sexual Consent Definitions: Race, Class, and Institutional Status”, Kamaria Porter highlighted that universities with more Pell grant funding and higher percentages of Black undergraduates were more likely to have less comprehensive consent definitions.
In her presentation, “Conceptual Inconsistencies in U.S. University Sexual Misconduct Policies”, Leanna Papp revealed that sexual assault was defined broadly by 86% of schools using the term, and that many schools provided multiple, conflicting definitions of “sexual assault.”
Jared Eno reviewed university website communication about compelled disclosure and discovered that many websites feature incomplete, missing, or incorrect information about compelled disclosure. In his presentation, ““How is a Student to Know Who They Can Talk To?”: University Website Communication about Sexual Assault in the Context of Compelled Disclosure”, Jared provided recommendations for how universities can fix this issue.
Jesse Yeh discussed litigation in the context of Title IX, including predictors and characteristics of lawsuits, in his presentation entitled “Trends and Predictors of Lawsuits against U.S. Universities for the Handling of Sexual Misconduct”.
Armstrong commented, “The student presentations were terrific, and we are grateful for the time and engagement of the discussants and attendees. University of Michigan has a wonderful interdisciplinary community interested in studying sexual harassment and sexual violence on university campuses.”
More information about URSA, including findings and project areas, can be found on the project website. Inquiries can be directed to contactursa@umich.edu.
