UK Officials Offer Campus Climate Consortium Opportunity for Kentucky Colleges and Universities

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 3, 2015) — Earlier this week, University of Kentucky officials unveiled preliminary data from the campus-wide Campus Attitudes Toward Safety (C.A.T.S.) student survey. Today, they have begun working with other colleges and universities in Kentucky and beyond to conduct similar surveys while instituting a statewide consortium on campus safety.

"This survey – among the first of its kind to be distributed to an entire campus’ population – is the next step for UK to develop a safer campus for our students," said President Eli Capilouto. "Thanks to the work of those who came before me, we’ve been leaders on this issue for 10 years. It is our hope that today’s conference will help us build partnerships with our sister institutions in Kentucky and the SEC to provide a safer college experience for all students."

The UK C.A.T.S. project directors are hosting a conference in Lexington today where they announced the Campus Climate Consortium opportunity to conference attendees who represent all eight of Kentucky’s public colleges and six private institutions. A representative from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is also in attendance. This consortium will offer these colleges and universities the opportunity to utilize UK's survey instrument, electronic survey platform, and data management and analysis systems. The goal is to build upon UK’s successful model by employing the same data-rich process to identify key strategies for improving campus safety at other universities while creating a statewide data collection. 

"By collaborating in this consortium, colleges and universities can take advantage of the research infrastructure developed at UK, identify strengths and areas of opportunity on their campuses, and utilize de-identified benchmark information based on the combined data from all consortium members," said Diane Follingstad, Women’s Circle Endowed Chair and Director of the UK Center for Research on Violence Against Women. "Because of the methodology UK uses to administer our instrument, the reports for all participating institutions will yield consistent and comparable data that can be used for introducing policy changes, developing programming, and initiating culture change on campuses. This is an opportunity for colleges and universities in Kentucky to lead in improving safety on their campuses by utilizing our shared expertise."

Over the last year, the UK Center for Research on Violence Against Women developed a research-based instrument to determine a baseline understanding of UK's campus climate. This five-year CATS survey initiative is a confidential tool that measures social and cultural environments at UK, consisting of several sections that ask questions about students' beliefs, opinions, and knowledge of campus safety, as well as assesses their adverse experiences over the past year.  More information about the first year's results is available at http://uknow.uky.edu/content/campus-safety-survey-reveals-student-perceptions-and-experiences.

"The national dialogue on sexual assault and personal violence on college campuses has grown over the last 16 months: media coverage; congressional hearings and potential legislation; a White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault; the It's On Us" campaign; and various public, private, and higher education leaders have honed our national focus on this important issue," said Capilouto. "But these important campus issues cannot be addressed without a coordinated effort from departments, personnel, and partners who are guided by data-driven decision making."

This type of collaboration across colleges and universities in forming a consortium for assessing campus climate and violence has the potential to become a model for other associations of which universities are members.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jenny Wells, 859-257-5343; jenny.wells@uky.edu