Dear Students:

Sexual misconduct is prevalent in our society and the University of Illinois is not immune. We are committed to doing all we can at Illinois to make the campus safer - both reducing the incidents of sexual misconduct and providing support to victims. But to do that effectively, we needed your help.  Last fall, we asked each of you, through your anonymous participation in a Sexual Misconduct and Perceived Campus Response survey, to tell us about your experiences in classrooms, residence halls, apartments, the library, bars, restaurants and everywhere in the community.

By understanding what is happening and how you believe and expect the University will respond, we can better address this critical issue and ensure that you have the best experience possible as an Illinois student.

The full report of the survey findings is available at http://www.wecare.illinois.edu/reports/. I encourage you to take a look and to read what your classmates had to say.

The report is extensive and includes much more in-depth data and explanation, but here are some key things you told us:

• You tell your friends or family, not necessarily University authorities, of sexual misconduct. From this we have learned that we need to increase efforts to help you, your teachers, all our employees and your parents learn about the resources available to help, so you know that we are committed to supporting you.
• You understand that we will respect your privacy and keep reports of sexual misconduct confidential.
• You are fairly confident that the University will handle incidents appropriately. Programs such as FYCARE, Bystander Intervention, the WeCare website and other promotional materials must be continued and enhanced.
• Although being under the influence of alcohol is not an excuse or reason for sexual misconduct, we know from your responses that there is a relationship between the misuse of alcohol and sexual misconduct. We will use this information to help you better understand this relationship and the dangers of being under the influence of alcohol in certain settings.

We greatly appreciate the time many of you took to share your experiences. More than 2,500 of our 44,000 students took the survey, and the respondents reflect current student demographics. All of us who work for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are committed to continuing efforts to understand your student experiences with sexual misconduct here and doing whatever we can to prevent and to respond to sexual misconduct on campus. As a part of this effort, we will conduct another campus climate survey in February of 2017 and will hold focus groups to explore more ways to improve our response to survivors.

We need to help students look out for each other, intervene when they see a potential problem occurring, and help friends and family seek assistance when someone they know feels that they have been the victim of sexual misconduct.

Together, we can all make, and we must, make a difference.

Sincerely,

Dr. C. Renée Romano
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs