Oregonian
September 30th, 2014
One in 10 current female students at the University of Oregon indicate they have been raped while attending college, according to a new survey of 982 students released Tuesday by Jennifer Freyd, a professor in the UO's Department of Psychology.
Equally alarming, only 14 percent of the rape victims -- one in seven -- say they reported the assault to university officials.
The on-line survey on sexual violence -- conducted in late summer by Freyd and doctoral students Marina N. Rosenthal and Carly Parnitzke Smith -- was one that university administrators went out of their way to discourage.
The university initially rejected Freyd's request for funding, with Robin Holmes, vice president for student affairs, citing her concerns that the survey might produce "confirmation bias in the results," owing to Freyd's ongoing dismay with UO's sexual violence policies.
In a letter to Randy Geller, then UO's general counsel, Freyd called those comments "false, malicious, harmful and seemingly retaliatory."
The administration -- which has convened its own sexual-violence task force -- eventually backed off. Funding for the $20,000 survey -- all of which was used to compensate participants -- was provided by the university's Center for the Study of Women in Society and private donations.