After a number of sexual assault victims have been unable to take the Campus Climate Survey on sexual assault and sexual misconduct because they restricted their directory information, MSU is taking steps to fix the problem.
About 44,000 students were originally sent the survey on April 6, but approximately 2,900 had restricted their directory and did not receive it, MSU spokesman Jason Cody wrote in an email.
MSU is working closely with the research firm which handles the survey and will hopefully have those who missed the original email sent the survey by the end of the week, most likely on Friday, Cody said.
“The original survey email should have (gone) to all students,” Cody said. “Including those that restricted their information, and we apologize for the delay in getting them the survey.”
At last Tuesday’s Steering Committee meeting, President Lou Anna K. Simon said the number of students who weren’t sent the survey would not significantly affect the results.
Many of them were sexual assault victims, who might have restricted their directory to prevent being stalked by their assailant, including English senior Meg Hughey, who both removed her information and filed for a restraining order against a man who allegedly sexually assaulted her during the summer.
“I didn’t want him to know where I was,” Hughey said. “And I didn’t want him to be able to contact me.”
Hughey said she believes the administration knew “exactly what they were doing” when allowing the survey to not be sent to those in similar situations. She said she knew of not only herself taking her information down, but of her boyfriend, many of her friends and other survivors who did the same and pointed out she had other problems with the administration in the past.
She said she thought the survey itself was for the university to project an image of being against sexual assault because of various federal investigations into how it’s been handled at MSU. She said the survey wasn’t set up for people to share their personal experiences in a meaningful way.
“(The university) is doing the survey because they have to, but ultimately they don’t want to know what people who’ve actually experienced sexual assault think,” Hughey said.
