A campus’ social climate for tolerance and its treatment of women and minorities aren’t criteria that factor in traditional college rankings, but they probably should be.
Overall campus safety, tolerance and treatment of women and minorities should be factored into the equation of choosing a college, according to the results of a pilot study released today by the Campus Tolerance Foundation.
Over the course of three months, 1,039 undergraduate students from three colleges — Columbia College, Michigan State University and the University of California, Berkeley — responded to an online survey about topics relating to campus diversity, security and mutual respect. Among the findings, 40 percent of students say that female students are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to be sexually harassed.
The findings released today are the first component of a three-part series of the pilot study called, “If I’d Only Known: University Students Talk About Tolerance and Safety on Campus.” Officials say that the overall objective of this research study is to eventually craft a “national survey mechanism” that uses concepts such as campus tolerance and social climate to rate colleges and universities across the country.
“The mission of the Campus Tolerance Foundation is to advance the conversation and have a better understanding of what the actual situation of tolerance and safety is on college campuses,” says Michael Remaley, the director of communications for Public Agenda: a nonprofit public policy research organization that assisted with the study. “However, a national survey would allow students and families to figure out where to send their kids to college and have this as a factor to consider.”
Although female students are beginning to outnumber their male counterparts on college campuses across the nation, an online report detailing the study’s findings states that the “persistence of wide-ranging sexual harassment is unnerving.” However, about 90 percent of the study’s female participants say their college is open and accepting of women.
