On Wednesday, Chico State’s: Safe Place, Title IX department, Associated Students Academic Senate and California Faculty Association hosted a keynote presentation. Chico State’s Department of Health and Community Services assistant professor Dr. Christine Leistner broke down the results of the Chico Speaks Survey which gauged Chico State students’ experiences with sexual assault. 

Examining the results of a survey administered to students through email during April of 2018, information was presented in an effort to receive feedback to improve how the university should address sexual assault. 

“One in three women and one in four men in the US have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime that involves physical contact, so this effects many of us,” Leistner said. “Additionally, in a recent poll of 550 experts on women’s issues around the world, the United States was rated in the top 10 as far as areas that are the most difficult and unsafe for women and that includes a lot of sexual violence and domestic, interpersonal violence.”

Leistner continued that although 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men experience sexual violence while in college, the reporting rate demonstrates that 90% of survivors don’t report these experiences. 

The survey drew a sample of 4,000 students with 3,000 of them fully completing it, while other universities conducted the same survey.

Results from the survey found that prior to entering college, almost 25 percent of survey participants had experienced unwanted sexual contact with nearly 44 percent of that data representing the trans and gender non-conforming community, and almost 31 percent representing women and around 10 percent men. 

“We wanted to display this to let people know that a lot of people are coming into this campus with unresolved trauma, so we want to have more organizations like Safe Place and Title IX,” said Mikie Weidman, an intern with Safe Place. “more counselors so students can have the best learning experience.”

Kimberly Morales can be reached at [email protected] or @kimberlymnews on Twitter.