Graduate Students are “Making a Big Fuss”: Responding to Institutional Betrayal Around Campus Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment

ABSTRACT

Research on sexual violence and sexual harassment (SVSH) in academia has grown since the 1980s; however, the needs of graduate student survivors have received comparably little attention, which contributes to forms of institutional betrayal that specifically impact graduate students. As part of a multi-campus study on experiences of SVSH and campus resources, graduate student researchers conducted in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with 43 fellow graduate students. Using thematic analysis, we identify three mechanisms that lead to graduate students’ feelings of institutional betrayal: “passing the harasser;” shifting responsibilities for SVSH-related prevention and response onto graduate students; and inadequate resources for preventing and responding to SVSH. Building on combined analytical frameworks, the Socio-Ecological Model and Whole School Approach, we offer student-centered and evidence-based multi-level imperatives for combatting graduate student SVSH and reducing institutional betrayal. Finally, we share a flowchart we designed to model how individuals can respond to SVSH within university settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual harassment
• sexual assault
• graduate students
• sexual violence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [NUF2CE002403] and the California Department of Public Health [16-10844]. The views and findings expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the official policies of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the California Department of Public Health; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [NUF2CE002403] and the California Department of Public Health [16-10844];

Notes on contributors

Brittnie E. Bloom

Brittnie Bloom, PhD, MS belongs to San Diego State University’s School of Public Health. Her primary research interests focus on violence prevention and education, specifically among diverse and marginalized populations - including student populations. She is dedicated to highlighting student voice in all of her student-based work and is interested in whole school approaches to violence prevention. She is also interested in facilitators and barriers to engaging in help-seeking behaviors among survivors of sexual violence.

Cierra Raine Sorin

Cierra Raine Sorin, MA is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology, with a doctoral emphasis in Feminist Studies, at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on consent knowledges, educations, and community response practices to sexual violence and sexual harassment in multiple settings, including on university and college campuses, in BDSM communities, and within the pornography industry.

Laury Oaks

Laury Oaks, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Feminist Studies at University of California Santa Barbara and affiliated faculty in the Departments of Sociology and Anthropology. Her interests center qualitative research methods to analyze sexual and reproductive health, politics, and social justice movements.

Jennifer A. Wagman

Jennifer A. Wagman, PhD, MHS is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. She is the Director of Violence Prevention Research for the University of California Global Health Institute Women’s Health, Gender and Empowerment Center of Expertise.