University of California, San Diego

Background

The Student Safety Awareness & Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), under the division of Student Affairs, was established in 1988. Now known as the Sexual Assault & Violence Prevention Resource Center (SARC), it is the primary resource for rape, sexual assault, dating violence, and general personal safety education at UCSD. It has a solid reputation on campus and in the community as a valuable intervention-prevention resource, creating interactive workshops as well as responding immediately to crises. SARC student peer educators provide timely, accessible presentations on the prevention of sexual violence to campus students.

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2000, SARC initiated a campus-wide program to address violence prevention. Called Campus Factoids, Men’s Workshops, & Social Norms: Evaluating Effectiveness of Violence Prevention for Men the project started in October 2000. During the course of the 27-month grant SARC accomplished among other things, the following:

• A random sample of 4,000 UCSD male students were given a survey to assess knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs about sexual myths, sexual coercion, and sexual assault. The response rate was 21 percent.
• Student peer advocates conducted a comprehensive environmental scan of the UCSD campus using key informant interviews and policy review.
• Staff, faculty, and student peer advocates participated in a training session on the use of social norms marketing to correct misperceptions of normative student behavior.
• Social norms posters were developed based on feedback from student focus groups and distributed on the UCSD campus.
• Three public service announcements were produced and shown in a number of different venues.
• A Campus Violence Prevention Coalition was established. Participants include campus police, Psychological and Counseling Services, Student Health, Greek Life, Intercollegiate Athletics, faculty, Office of Sexual Harassment Prevention & Policy, College Deans and Residence Life, and a representative from the local rape crisis center.

Building upon the experiences of the first grant, SARC was awarded a second grant by the U.S. Department of Education. This two-year grant, called Perceptions of Rape: Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Social Norms Approach to Rape Prevention Targeting First Year Students, started in 2005. During the course of the grant SARC accomplished, among other things, the following:

• An online survey called Healthy Relationships asked students about their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors regarding sexual behavior and rape. The survey also asked students what they felt would be the “typical UCSD female/male” responses to the same questions.
• The Most Tritons campus-wide media campaign published four posters, each with a different message aimed at correcting the misperceived norms found in the Healthy Relationships survey results. The media campaign also included the development and on-campus broadcast of public service announcements.
• SARC peer educators conducted 32 workshops, some for single sex and some for mixed gender audiences.
• The Campus Violence Prevention Coalition continued to provide support to prevention efforts.

Evaluation

To determine whether the project had an effect on students’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, the Institute for Public Health at San Diego State University examined student surveys that took place in fall 2005 and spring 2007.

The surveys asked students a number of questions related to their sexual activity and their perceptions of the sexual activity of “typical UCSD students.” For example, students were asked how often the statement: “I stop sexual activity when my date says ‘no’” was true for them, and “How often do you think the typical UCSD male student stops when his partner says ‘no’ to sexual activity?”

Results

Preliminary evaluation research finds that the Most Tritons social norms marketing campaign was effective in correcting students’ misperceptions of the norms on campus when it came to sexual activity and assault.

In 2005, 86 percent of male respondents said that they “always” stop sexual activity when asked to by their date. But they believed that only 7 percent of “typical UCSD male students” always stop when asked to do so.

The discrepancy between the behavior male students report for themselves and what they think the “typical UCSD male” does formed the basis for one of the Most Tritons media campaign posters. The poster message was “Most Tritons—9 out of 10—always stop sexual activity when their date says ‘no.’”

The spring 2007 survey found no change in male students’ reports of their own behavior. But their perceptions of the behavior of others changed substantially, with respondents saying that 13 percent of “typical UCSD male students” always stop sexual activity when asked to do so.

According to the Institute for Public Health, although this discrepancy was not completely corrected in the follow-up survey, it has improved in a statistically significant way between the baseline and follow-up surveys. When the percentages are examined, there was a corrective increase toward the true behavior.

Evaluation of the follow-up survey found more corrective changes in students’ perceptions about the behavior of others. For example, there was a decrease in the perception of how often the “typical UCSD male” engages in sex with a date who has been drinking. 

Further Information

The Sexual Assault & Violence Prevention Resource Center Web site is located at http://studentsafety.ucsd.edu/.