Prevalence of sexual misconduct drops sharply at Harvard, study shows | News

The prevalence of sexual misconduct at Harvard has fallen sharply since 2019, according to results released Monday from the Survey on Sexual Misconduct and Awareness in Higher Education.

While the prevalence of sexual misconduct at Harvard dropped significantly, graduate and undergraduate students at Harvard reported less knowledge of campus resources, despite the university’s efforts to increase Title IX support for students over the past five years to expand.

The percentage of female students who experienced sexual contact involving ‘physical violence, the inability to agree or stop what was happening, coercion or without voluntary consent’ decreased from 32.5 to 22.1 percent, while for gender no -binary, transgender, questioning or self-identified group dropped the same figure from 24.8 to 14.7 percent.

However, students this year also had less confidence in the university’s ability to investigate cases of sexual misconduct, as well as less knowledge of campus resources.

Across all gender identity groups and at all colleges surveyed, the percentage of individuals who responded that they believe a campus official would take a report of sexual assault or other sexual misconduct “very” or “extremely” seriously decreased significantly from 2019.

The data collected showed a decrease from 54.6 percent in 2019 to 45.4 percent in 2024 for undergraduate women and from 75.8 to 67.6 percent for undergraduate men.

At Harvard, the number of undergraduate women fell even sharper, from 49.3 percent to 37.7 percent. For undergraduate men, the decline was even greater: by almost 20 percentage points, from 74.7 percent in 2019 to 55 percent in 2024.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 wrote in a university-wide email Monday announcing the results that despite a “statistically significant decline in sexual misconduct since the most recent AAU survey in 2019, its prevalence remains alarmingly high and it calls into question the idea that all members of our community can continue their academic and professional work unhindered.”

“One instance of sexual assault or sexual harassment is too many,” Garber added.

The HESMA survey was administered in April to students at ten universities across the United States and aimed to assess campus climate regarding sexual assault and sexual misconduct. This year marked the third time Harvard was included in the study, having previously participated in 2015 and 2019.

The survey consisted of a core set of 54 questions, with additional follow-up questions if a respondent indicated that they had become a ‘victim’. Each potential respondent was offered a $20 gift card to complete the survey, but of the 24,115 enrolled students invited to participate, only 35.1 percent completed the survey – a 1 percent decrease from 2019 and a decrease of 18 percent compared to 2015.

Garber wrote in his statement that he was “encouraged” by the participation level, which was more than 10 percentage points higher than the average participation rate of the other institutions participating in the study.

Aside from including more categories for gender identity traits, disability status and sexual orientation, the 2024 questionnaire “replicated the 2019 AAU survey” to allow schools to track changes since 2019, the HESMA report said.

Following the 2019 survey, the Title IX office under the Office of Gender Equity underwent significant changes and reprogramming. The Title IX Office and the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response office merged in 2021, raising concerns that students would be less willing to provide confidential assistance if they believed these services would become entangled in Title IX reporting processes.

New features have also been added to the team. In August, Lindsey Ciolfi was named associate director of College Title IX, a newly created role.

In addition to staff increases, there have been significant policy changes over the past five years. In 2022, Harvard proposed changes to its discrimination and sexual harassment policy, which updated the university-wide definition of consent to require “active, mutual consent.”

The survey asked students if they had experienced sexual harassment “since starting school.” The reported rate of harassment was 8.1, 17.2, 21.9, and 21.3 percent for first-year, second-year, third-year, and fourth-year or higher students, respectively.

Most members of the Class of 2024, who were in their fourth year at the time the survey was collected, entered college at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in the fall of 2020, which was marked by restrictions on social activities , online classes and fewer students present on campus.

Despite changes in Title IX programming at Harvard over the past five years, the percentage of students who reported being well aware of resources if they or a friend experienced sexual assault or misconduct has fallen statistically significantly from 47.6 percent in 2019 to 47.6 percent in 2019. 38 percent in 2024.

Similarly, the percentage of undergraduate women who say they know where to report an incident of sexual assault or sexual misconduct has fallen sharply over the past five years from 32.3 percent to 29.4 percent. The same figure for undergraduate men fell from 40.4 to 35.0 percent.

Despite this, female students at Harvard who experienced non-consensual sexual contact involving physical force or the inability to consent as a result of penetration contacted a program or resource at a higher rate than the average across all schools surveyed. At Harvard, just over 56 percent said they had not contacted a program or resource, while the same figure in the overall report was 69.8 percent.

The most common reason for not using available resources – cited by 58.3 percent of female respondents – was ‘I could handle it myself’. The second most common reason, cited by 34.7 percent of female respondents, was that they did not believe the matter was “serious enough” to seek support from available resources.

Peggy Newell, vice president and deputy to the president, said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette, a university-run publication, that “a critical part of this communication involves engagement with our faculty and staff.”

In the coming weeks, an updated version of the required eLearning course on sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct will be assigned to all faculty, staff and postdoctoral fellows to “encourage this dialogue,” Newell said.

“This is an important conversation for every member of our community,” she said.

—Staff Writer Caroline K. Hsu can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CarolineHsu_.

—Staff Writer Hana Rostami can be reached at [email protected].