U. advertises sexual misconduct survey heavily in hopes of high response rate

The University has been advertising heavily for students to take its survey about the climate for sexual misconduct on campus because it wants to conduct the survey in future years, Daniel Day, the University’s acting director of communications, said.

A high response rate this year would give the University a good baseline for later comparison, he explained.

“We’ve had a good initial response,” he said. “What we’re really hoping for is that we can get as close to 100 percent as possible.”

A number of emails, including from University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 and Undergraduate Student Government president Ella Cheng ’16, have been sent to the student body asking students to take the survey. The emails emphasized the importance of the survey to the University, the little amount of time needed to complete it and that students do not have to have had direct experience with sexual misconduct to share their thoughts.

“I think President Eisgruber sending out the email was the main reason I took the kind of long-ish survey,” Michael Kim ’16 said.

He said that the advertising of the survey made it seem like the University cared about getting a complete picture of sexual misconduct on campus.

Students need to understand the importance of the survey, English professor Deborah Nord, a member of the committee,said, adding thatthe information will not be as valuableif survey response does not reach a certain critical mass of the student body. She said the target response rate is between 30 and 50 percent of the student body.

As far as what may happen if not enough students respond to the request for survey, committee members interviewed said they were not anticipating this problem, but would adjust accordingly if it arose.

The survey was mandated by the University’s 2014 resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights, which settled allegations of Title IX violations against the University. The survey was designed by the University in contrast to its original plan to use an Association of American Universities survey, over which USG expressed concerns about transparency and customization of questions.

The University has allocated about $10,000 for promoting the survey,Carl Adair GS noted.

The survey process is exciting because it is largely student-led, unlike the previously proposed Association of American Universities survey, Alyson Neel GS, a member of the Faculty-Student Committee on Sexual Misconduct, said.

“It’s because of students, because of the Undergraduate and Graduate Student Governments pushing the administration and saying, ‘We don’t want to be part of [the Association of American Universities] survey,’ ” she said. “ ‘We want Princeton to administer its own survey, and we want the results to be transparent.’ ”

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The student response so far has been good, Nordsaid.

“The student response has been healthy,” she said. “It increases a little bit every day. We are hoping that, with various reminders, there will be an even greater increase than the average daily one.”

Vice Provost for Institutional Research Jeb Marsh declined to disclose the number of students who have participated thus far saying that, at this stage in the survey, numbers are constantly fluctuating, making any number inaccurate by publishing time.

Elsa Welshofer ’18 said she hasnot yet had the timeto fill out the survey.

“I want to make sure that, when I do fill out the survey, I give my best attention to it,” she said.

News editor Jacob Donnelly contributed reporting.

Corrections: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated the amount of money the University allocated for promoting the survey. The University allocated $10,000. Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated Carl Adair's position at the University. He is a graduate student. The 'Prince' regrets the errors.