Sexual assault is a deeply rooted issue on American college campuses. The purpose of this study was to examine the systems that enable a culture of sexual assault and then enact an action step that strengthened the institutional strategies for preventing these incidents on campus. This qualitative action research study took place at a mid-sized…

Sexual assault is prevalent on college campuses all over the world. Male fraternal settings have historically been a source of high levels of sexual violence. In fraternal settings, often times, partying and alcohol use are contributing factors to sexual assault and many studies have examined these issues (Annan, 2009; Banyard et al., 2003;…

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) have been federally mandated to prevent and respond to reports of sexual violence on campus via Title IX for over 30 years as the trauma that results from campus sexual assault is considered prohibitive to accessing education. Yet, students may not be the only parties harmed when sexual violence is…

Sexual violence continues to be an issue that impacts student safety on college campuses. Approximately a quarter of students directly face violence in higher education. In the last several decades, college professionals have implemented a variety of sexual violence prevention programming and policies. However, these efforts have not decreased the…

Colleges across the country are striving to ensure student safety, promote cultures of consent, and maintain compliance with the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (Campus SaVE Act) through sexual violence prevention programs and education (Cox, 2018). These concepts are already complicated, but colleges and universities often gear their…

Prevention of sexual violence is of vital importance, especially on university campuses where sexual violence occurs at particularly high rates. Universities are federally required to implement prevention programming, but little is known about retention over time. In addition, research has not analyzed the relationship between sexual violence…

Sexual violence is one of the most serious issues on college and university campuses today. It is estimated that approximately one in five college women experiences sexual assault in their lifetime, and sexual assault has appeared on the AASCU's list of top ten issues in higher education almost every year for the last decade. However,…

Black women experience higher rates of unwanted sex, assault, and harassment, yet rarely report these incidents to police or campus officials (Slatton & Richard, 2020; Washington, 2001). To date, most research on campus sexual assault reporting focuses on white, heterosexual, cis-gendered women at elite institutions (Brubaker et al., 2017;…

Sexual violence is a pervasive problem at institutions of higher education, contributing to a hostile environment that impedes institutional missions and individuals' success. Institutions are challenged to comply with regulations and laws, while responding to the needs of their communities. The purpose of this study was to understand the…

Higher education institutions strive to implement policies and practices to remedy and prevent campus-based sexual violence. The current research on campus-based sexual violence offers a breadth of evidence for identifying strategies to increase reporting among college students. However, very little evidence includes the experiences of Black…

Sexual violence on college campuses is a prevalent issue that has received recent, federal guidance for how colleges should facilitate their student conduct administrative processes. The purpose of this study was to examine student conduct administrators' perspectives, by higher education institution type, on contemporary federal guidance for…

In 2018 the Trump Administration's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under Betsy DeVos moved to institute new recommendations for implementing Title IX in American educational institutions. In this dissertation I converse with the OCR regarding their new guidelines for interpreting Title IX in colleges and universities with respect to sexual…

The purpose of this study was to determine students' perceptions of on campus safety and their awareness of administrative policies regarding safety. Specifically, this study assessed students' perceptions of safety when considering sexual assault, assault, robbery, and burglary. Following a fatal shooting that occurred on campus in the Fall…

Sexual assault is a major issue on college campuses throughout the United States. Approximately 28% of women report being assaulted at some point during their college careers, while 2-4% of men report being victims. In order to address this ongoing problem, the government issued the Campus SaVe Act, which states that colleges are required to…

The United States' evolving federal regulations and laws are doing little to disrupt systemic sexual violence, and more narrowly, are doing very little to protect Black women (Dunn, 2014; Harris, 2017; Harris & Linder, 2017; Konradi, 2016; O'Toole et al., 2015; Yung, 2015). Further, Black women are underrepresented in college sexual assault…