Sexual assault and misconduct remain difficult problems on college campuses across the United States. To learn more about these issues at Washington University, we asked all students to answer climate surveys on sexual assault and misconduct in 2015, 2019, and 2024. The 2015 and 2019 surveys were sponsored by WashU in collaboration with the Association of American Universities (AAU) and administered by Westat. In 2024, WashU again partnered with Westat.

The Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness (HESMA) Survey was conducted in collaboration with Westat in Spring 2024, and results were released October 21, 2024. Ten colleges and universities participated in the survey. The results included 42,133 undergraduate, graduate and professional students across the country.

HESMA maintained consistency with previous AAU surveys, allowing universities to track changes over time. The most recent results indicate fewer WashU students are reporting sexual violence; this may be linked to remote learning in 2020 and 2021. Far too many students continue to experience sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. The results of these surveys have been and will be used to guide policies to encourage a healthy, safe and nondiscriminatory environment at Washington University. The survey is an important tool for the university to assess current programs and to shape future policies. The university’s goal is to develop programs and services that minimize sexual assault and misconduct, as well as respond to these events when they do occur.

2024

2019

2015

Other Statistics

To review reports of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking at WashU, visit Appendices D (pg. 73) and E (pg. 82) in our annual Safety and Security brochure (PDF).

Please note that any incidents reported confidentially to the RSVP Center that meet the reporting requirements of the Clery Act – a federal statute that requires disclosure of campus crime statistics and security information by colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs – are included in the report. However, we do not provide or share any identifying information related to these cases.