At Wednesday, Sept. 23’s ASM meeting, Dean of Students Lori Berquam and University Health Services Director Sarah Van Orman continued the conversation about the Association of American Universities sexual assault data.

The survey was available to all students and conducted last spring. The results represented the voices of 9,000 University of Wisconsin students, which include data on various types of gender-based violence including sexual assault and sexual harassment.

University officials shared the results in a press conference Sept. 21. Van Orman, who heads the sexual assault taskforce, said the results of the survey are “just a start” in the effort to address sexual assault on campus.

One finding was that 27.6 percent of UW undergraduate females reported experiencing sexual assault, which is 3.6 percent higher than the national average. Van Orman also said Native American and LGBTQ students have a higher risk.

Additionally, half of both undergraduate and graduate students report being sexually harassed. Van Orman said more than one-fifth of female graduate students reported being harassed by a faculty member.

“That’s very concerning from a workplace standpoint. This is something we really need to address with the faculty,” Van Orman said.

The survey showed that most of the perpetrators were male students who were friends or acquaintances. This explains why the results showed many of the assaults occur in private residences, campus housing and Greek houses.

Van Orman said 16 percent of sexual assaults occur on fraternity and sorority property — a high percentage considering less than 10 percent of the student population is involved in Greek life.

While sexual assault can have psychological and physical consequences for victims, Van Orman said students most commonly reported a decline in academic performance. Most students, though, are not well informed on the resources that the university provides.

“We do have resources in place, but we need to do more because less than half of students say they know where to go,” Van Orman said.

Report: More than one in four women sexually assaulted at UW

Berquam said the university has several initiatives to prevent sexual assault.

The Tonight program, which incoming freshmen are required to participate in, is currently being updated to include broader information on gender-based violence and the LGBTQ community. This year, a similar prevention program was launched for incoming graduate students.

UW crime alerts have also been expanded to include fraternity and sorority housing. Berquam said the taskforce will also address the disproportionate number of Greek life-related sexual assaults by requiring male members to participate in more education programs.

But both Berquam and Van Orman stressed the importance of continuous exposure to education on sexual assault.

“People need to come in contact with information more than once,” Van Orman said. “So one of the strong recommendations that we are committed to is, by next fall, having a strong second dose of this information to our students who are Greek and living on campus.”