res 11.16

1. THE UNIVERSITY PARK UNDERGRADUATE ASSOCIATION
The Pennsylvania State University
16th Assembly
2021 - 2022 Session
Resolution #11-16
September 15th
, 2021
Be it decided by the Assembly of Student Representatives,
having been brought to the floor by a vote of 2/3rds, a
Resolution
Supporting the Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition Open Letter
Nature of the Situation:
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In response to pervasive sexual violence at Penn State, the Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition1
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has released an open letter2
to Vice President of Student Affairs Damon Sims asking for the
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results of the 2018 Penn State Sexual Misconduct Survey and to commit to completing future
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sexual misconduct surveys as was promised by Penn State President Eric Barron in 2014. Their
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letter has received over 500 student signatures and over 600 in total. The full open letter is
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attached in Appendix I.
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Students began their return to campus on August 11th, and since then there have been nine
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Timely Warnings for Forcible Sex Offenses. Four of these Forcible Sex Offenses were reported
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in a single weekend on the dates of August 28th and 29th.
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The Gender Equity Coalition is committed to educating the Penn State student body about sexual
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violence, and they posted a graphic3
to their Instagram page that said, “The 2015 Penn State
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Sexual Misconduct Survey revealed that only 3% of victims of sexual violence report their
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assault to the university’s Office of Student Conduct.” Using this statistic from the most recent
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survey conducted, this would mean closer to 300 students in total have been sexually assaulted
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during the first five weeks of the Fall 2021 semester, and close to 130 of those would have been
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during the previously mentioned August weekend.
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1
https://www.geneqcoalition.org/about
2
https://009b09a3-0372-426b-8265-
1d497df20d4e.filesusr.com/ugd/7274eb_1ea26e9aa4a746d3b174983dcb6068cb.pdf
3
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTpNfherIS8/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

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Also during the Fall 2021 semester, the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA)
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disbanded the Department of Rights and Equity which included dissolving the Director of Sexual
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Assault and Misconduct Prevention at the discretion of the UPUA Executive Branch. As a result,
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the UPUA has now waited weeks to formally address the sexual violence on campus since the
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semester started, so swift action is necessary to atone or our lack of response.
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Recommended Course of Action:
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The University Park Undergraduate Association, on behalf of the University Park undergraduate
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student body, hereby supports the Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition’s open letter addressing
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concerns of the 2018 Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey. Specifically, the UPUA calls on Vice
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President Damon Sims to publicly release the 2018 survey results along with a statement about the
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promised 2021 administration.
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UPUA Student Body President Erin Boas is hereby charged with utilizing the UPUA’s mass
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emailing privilege to further distribute the Gender Equity Coalition’s link to sign on to their letter
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to University Park undergraduate students to encourage students to sign.
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The UPUA Department of Public Relations is hereby charged with distributing social media
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materials only created by the Gender Equity Coalition to amplify the work already being done and
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to educate constituents to all UPUA social media platforms. Additionally, the department should
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add the link for students to sign on to the Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition’s open letter to the
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UPUA LinkTree.
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3. Respectfully submitted,
Annmarie Rounds-Sorensen
At-Large Representative
Noah Robertson
College of the Liberal Arts Representative
Vice-Chair of Academic Affairs
Sam Ajah
At-Large Representative
Vice-Chair of Governmental Affairs
Nora O’Toole
At-Large Representative
Civic Engagement Liaison
Lakyn Meeder
At-Large Representative
Chair of Governmental Affairs
Committee Vote: N/A
Assembly Vote: Unanimous
Speaker of the Assembly ________________________________________________
President of the Student Body ________________________________________________
The University Park Undergraduate Association

4. Appendix I: Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition open letter.
TO: DAMON SIMS, VICE PRESIDENT OF STUDENT AFFAIRS AT PENN STATE
RELEASE RESULTS OF THE 2018 PENN STATE SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SURVEY
AND COMMIT TO COMPLETING FUTURE SEXUAL MISCONDUCT SURVEYS
In 2014, Penn State President Eric Barron announced the University’s Task Force on Sexual
Assault and Sexual Harassment — a Task Force urged to consider how Penn State could
“become the benchmark by which other universities are judged when it comes to sexual
misconduct prevention and response.”4,1
The Task Force report, released on January 23rd 2015,
included eighteen recommendations. On February 17, 2015, President Barron accepted all
eighteen,2
including the recommendations that the “University administer a climate survey [in
spring 2015]... and conduct regular surveys on sexual assault in succeeding years to give it the
knowledge required to create and sustain effective programs, services, and policies”3
and that
“the University consider the annual or semi-annual release of aggregate data on sexual
misconduct at the University, beyond merely data included in the annual Clery report.”4
These University-wide surveys are particularly important because, according to the 2015 survey,
“only 2.6 percent of undergraduates [who experienced sexual misconduct] went to campus or
local police, and about 3 percent reported the incident to the university’s office of student
conduct,”5
revealing that most data available publicly reveals only fragments of the reality of
sexual violence at Penn State. However, while a survey was initially administered in November
2015 and Penn State News reported it would “be repeated every three years,”6
students cannot
access the 2018 report and there has been no public comment about a 2021 survey.7
Last academic year (2020-2021), in an effort initiated by former and current members of the
Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition and then supported by the University Park Undergraduate
Association (UPUA) Executive Branch, members of Student Affairs and the Office of Sexual
Misconduct Prevention and Response committed to members of Penn State’s various student
governments to release the results of the 2018 survey by the end of the school year. Now, several
months later, no data has been released publicly.8
Students’ inability to access basic data about the prevalence of sexual misconduct at Penn State
— data that Penn State already committed to compile and release — indicates that Penn State’s
2015 commitments lacked the institutional support and long-term implementation plan to make
them more than a positive-publicity effort.
41Penn State University Task Force on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment. (2015). 2015 Penn State Sexual Misconduct Survey
Summary Report: University Park. pg 1.
2Penn State News. (2015, Feb. 17). President Accepts All 18 Recommendations Presented By Sexual Assault Task Force.
32015 Penn State Sexual Misconduct Survey Summary Report: University Park. pg 29-30.
42015 Penn State Sexual Misconduct Survey Summary Report: University Park. pg 35.
5New, Jake. (2016, Apr. 14). Telling a Friend. Accessed Aug. 17, 2021 at https://insidehighered.com
6Penn State News. (2018, Oct. 26). Penn State to Initiate Second University-wide Student Campus Climate Survey. Accessed Aug.
17, 2021 at https://news.psu.edu
7As of September 3rd, 2021
8As of September 3rd, 2021

5. Students deserve better. Why is Penn State failing to do the bare minimum?
We ask that, by October 1st, 2021, you publicly release the 2018 survey results with a statement
about the promised 2021 administration of this survey and you commit to completing future
campus climate surveys (with the below stipulations) at least every three years across all Penn
State student constituencies and campuses.
A) In preparation for future survey administrations:
❖ Empower a diverse group of students from student advocacy organizations and
student governments and staff from the Gender Equity Center and the Center for Sexual
and Gender Diversity to participate in the creation and approval of the survey instrument
❖ Ensure the survey instrument assesses the experiences of students with marginalized
identities, especially disabled, intersex, LGBTQ+ (especially trans and non-binary
students), and BIPOC students in an inclusive and meaningful way
❖ Include questions that assess
➢ students’ knowledge of available confidential resources
➢ students’ familiarity with the Title IX reporting processes at Penn State
➢ students’ understandings of consent, rape culture, and other pertinent topics ➢ the
frequency of misconceptions and myths about sexual violence
➢ the prevalence of sex work amongst Penn State students9
B) Following future survey administrations:
❖ Provide the results of the survey in a full report as well as a condensed, easily
accessible version within three months of survey completion
❖ Release a public statement about the significance of the report’s findings and how
these findings will influence future policies and programs within six months of survey
completion
We look forward to hearing from you.
9While there are no comprehensive statistics on how many sex workers in the United
States experience sexual violence, sex workers globally have a 45-75% change to
experiencing sexual violence (significantly higher than average) and their experiences are
commonly left out of conversations about sexual violence due to the stigma that
continues to surround sex work. See Cooney’s Sex Workers Say They’re Being Left Out
of the #MeToo Movement published online on Feb. 13, 2018, at time.com for more
information.
Signed,
The Schreyer Gender Equity Coalition
If you would like to join us in urging Penn State to take these necessary actions,
visithttp://www.geneqcoalition.org/campus-climate-surveys to sign.