The Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Sexual Misconduct and Awareness Survey is a university-wide initiative designed to gather comprehensive and accurate student data on the campus climate regarding sexual misconduct, awareness and prevention. The results will guide decisions about policies, programs and resources that address the needs and challenges of our community. Using this data, CMU aims to create evidence-based interventions and initiatives that foster a safer, more supportive campus for all.

All Carnegie Mellon University undergraduate and graduate students at domestic locations are invited to participate in this survey.

As a member of the CMU community, your participation is critical to:

• Better understanding the campus climate and awareness around sexual misconduct;
• Gaining insight into perceptions, behaviors, and needs regarding safety and prevention;
• Identifying gaps in resources and services related to sexual misconduct and support;
• Strengthening evidence-based decision-making for policies, programs and resource allocation; and
• Monitoring trends over time to assess progress and areas for improvement.

Your feedback will help shape a safer, more supportive campus for all.

The survey covers topics including:

• Campus climate and safety
• Bystander intervention 
• Awareness of sexual misconduct policies and resources
• Prevalence of sexual misconduct
• Reporting experiences and support
• Perspectives on prevention programs and resources

• Carnegie Mellon’s survey instrument was developed by the Administrator-Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative (ARC3), comprised of leading researchers in sexual harassment and violence, Title IX administrators and student affairs professionals. 

• The ARC3 Survey was developed in response to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault; it was designed to assess the perpetration and victimization of sexual midconduct on college campuses in the United States. 

• An advisory group of students, staff and faculty from Carnegie Mellon helped to refine the survey to ensure it fully represents our campus and our community. The results will help CMU better understand campus climate related to sexual misconduct, which is essential to maintaining a safe environment.

• The survey questions are designed to gather a comprehensive picture of a campus climate with regards to sexual violence issues. 

• The survey has been used by more than 300 colleges and universities in the U.S. as well as internationally. It has been implemented by the state university systems of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. It was also used by the entire university systems of Denmark and Ireland.

The Sexual Misconduct and Awareness Survey is sponsored by Dr. Wanda-Heading Grant, Vice Provost for Community Engagement, Development and Compliance, and Gina Casalegno, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students. Direct oversight of the project was managed by Elizabeth Rosemeyer, Assistant Vice Provost and Title IX Coordinator, and Shannon Foster, Associate Director of Institutional Research and Assessment.

The members of the advisory group were recruited based on the university-wide Student Assessment Responsibility Matrix. The advisory group drew on their respective areas of expertise to contribute to the refining of the survey instrument. They also helped inform approaches to survey promotion and incentives. 

Advisory Group Members

• Cody Ortiz-Oldham, Health Promotion Specialist, University Health Services

• Francesca Cain, President, Undergraduate Student Senate

• Lauren Moran, Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Director of First-Year Orientation and Family Engagement

• Maggie Sikora, Director, Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs

• Michael Young, Academic Diversity Officer, Mellon College of Science

• Matteo Sanchez-Dahl Gonzalez, VP Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, GSA

• Ryan Wilpula, Assistant Director of Education and Outreach of the Office for Institutional Equity and Title IX, Provost's Office

• Stephanie Larson, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Dietrich College

• Tera Monroe, Associate Dean of Student Affairs & Director of Residential Education

• Viviana Ferrer-Medina, Assistant Director of Outreach, Prevention and Education, CaPS

• Zuly Noriega, Executive Board, CMU Feminists Engaged in Multicultural Matters & Education (FEMME)

The survey is anonymous and responses will not be linked to your identity. After completing the survey, participants will have the option to opt into a lottery for the following prizes:

• Two winners will receive a Nintendo Switch Console.*
• Three winners will receive Apple AirPods (4th Gen).*
• Four winners will receive a JBL Clip 5 Portable Bluetooth Speaker.
• Four winners will receive a Keurig K-Iced Single Serve Coffee Maker.
• Three winners will receive a Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 Instant Camera.
• Twenty winners will receive a CMU Insulated Tumbler.
• Ten winners will receive a CMU Plush Scotty Keychain.
• Twenty winners will receive a Scotty Shield Lanyard.
• Ten winners will receive a CMU Crew Neck Sweater.
• One winner will receive a Yoga Mat Set, courtesy of CMU Community Health & Well-Being.

Pittsburgh-based students will also be entered into a lottery for the following prizes:

• One winner and up to six friends will enjoy the Twilight Pittsburgh Tour, a limousine tour of the city with dinner and refreshments, courtesy of Pepsi and CMU Dining Services.
• Eight winners will receive one pair of tickets to Titanic, The Musical, courtesy of CMU School of Drama.
• Three winners will receive a choice of various  CMU Athletic Department apparel, courtesy of CMU Athletic Department.
• Four winners will receive a choice of various Heinz College items and apparel, courtesy of Heinz Dice Office.
• One winner will receive a free (one-week) campus parking pass, courtesy of CMU Transportation Services.
• Five winners will receive three tickets to Oklahoma during Carnival week, courtesy of Scotch’n’Soda.
• Fifteen winners will receive one Block Meal Voucher, courtesy of Chartwells Dining Services.
• Twenty winners will receive one Smoothie Drink Voucher, courtesy of Chartwells Dining Services.
• TBD winners will receive TBD Carnival-related incentives, courtesy of Student Leadership, Involvement, and Civic Engagement (SLICE) Office.

Additional prizes may be added to encourage participation.

*Requires completion of Accounts Payable Non-Employee Prize Award Payment Form before claiming prize.

The survey will be available beginning on March 10, 2025.

• Participants will receive an email from Gina Casalegno, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, and Dr. Wanda-Heading Grant,  Vice Provost for Community Engagement, Development and Compliance with a link to access the survey. 
• Posters and digital displays across campus will include a QR code and survey link for easy access.

CMU is committed to protecting the privacy of survey participants and recognizes that confidentiality is vital to the success of a sexual misconduct climate study, particularly as sensitive and personal topics are discussed.

The survey is being administered by Rankin Climate. While members of the Rankin research team will have access to raw data, all reports and dashboards provided to the university will describe responses in aggregate and will not contain any information that could identify individual participants.

To further protect your privacy:

• The Rankin Climate research team is bound by Carnegie Mellon data sharing and confidentiality guidelines, per the executed agreement in place with our institution. Staff in the Office of Institutional Research and Analysis are bound by CMU’s internal data sharing and confidentiality guidelines. For more information on data privacy at CMU, please visit the Data at Carnegie Mellon University website.
• Data for any group that does not meet the university’s threshold for data suppression will not be shared.
• No data already protected through regulation or policy (e.g., Social Security number, campus identification number, medical information) is gathered through the survey.
• Confidentiality in participation will be maintained to the highest degree permitted by the technology used (e.g., IP addresses will be stripped when the survey is submitted). 
• No guarantees can be made regarding the interception of data sent via the Internet by any third parties; however, to avoid interception of data, the survey is run on a firewalled web server with forced 256-bit SSL security. 
• Additionally, any comments submitted in response to the survey will be separated at the time of submission to the consultant so they are not attributed to any individual demographic characteristics. Identifiable information submitted in qualitative comments will be redacted and the institution will only receive these redacted comments.

Finally, participation in the survey is completely voluntary, and participants do not have to answer every question.

In reviewing efforts by other universities to conduct comprehensive climate studies related to sexual misconduct, several best practices were identified. One was the need for external expertise in survey administration. The administration of a survey relating to a very sensitive subject like sexual assault and sexual misconduct is likely to yield higher response rates and provide more credible findings if led by an independent, outside agency. Members of a college community may feel particularly inhibited to respond honestly to a survey administered by their own institution for fear of retaliation.

After a review of potential vendors, the institution selected Rankin Climate. Rankin Climate has been working with college campuses for over 20 years and has conducted assessments on more than 230 college campuses nationwide. This project is advised by Dr. Kevin Swartout, one of the founding members of the ARC3 and a leader at Rankin Climate.

• Rankin Climate uses a research data security description and protocol, which includes specific information on data encryption, the handling of personally identifiable information, physical security and a protocol for handling unlikely breaches of data security. The data from online participants will be submitted to a secure server hosted by the consultant. The SaaS hosting platforms are SOC2. The firewall is via Next-Gen Fortigate Firewall. Data is stored in a SQL database which can only be accessed by VPN via authorized personnel only. Our encryption for communication is via HTTPS TLS 1.2. Rankin Climate associates working on the project will have access to the raw data. All Rankin Climate analysts have CITI (Human Subjects) training and approval and have worked on similar projects for other institutions. The server performs an hourly and daily backup and stores the backup on a separate context offsite for safety.
• Rankin has conducted more than 250 institutional surveys and maintains an aggregate merged database. The data from the Carnegie Mellon University project will be merged with all other existing climate data stored indefinitely on the consultant’s secure server. No institutional identifiers are included in the full merged data set held by the consultant. The raw unit-level data with institutional identifiers is kept on the server for six months and then destroyed.

• An IRB application was submitted and approved for the project. The primary investigator from the institution for the IRB process is Shannon Foster, associate director for institutional research and assessment in CMU’s Office of Institutional Research and Analysis. 

• Submitting the survey to an Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an important step in the sexual misconduct climate study project. There are several benefits to going through this process, even if the survey is considered to be "exempt" or "not human subjects research." First, it provides some assurance to potential participants that their responses to the survey will remain confidential. People who have participated in social science research may recognize and expect that the process has been reviewed by IRB. They may feel more comfortable sharing their confidential information and personal stories. Second, going through an IRB review provides some protections to the Principal Investigators (PIs) who will be entrusted with analyzing and managing the data, including both Rankin Climate and the institutional PIs. The expectation is that the data will not be shared with others, as designated in the data security plan. Finally, an IRB review provides some cache to the study in the eyes of those who conduct research professionally, such as faculty members and scientists. These individuals understand what an IRB review requires and the protections for the data to which research professionals commit.  

• The data from the sexual misconduct climate survey will not be used for generalizable research or participation. However, a select group of institutions in the Association of American Universities (AAU)  who are engaging with Rankin Climate have agreed to partner and use the aggregate data for benchmarking purposes.

The survey will be available from March 10, 2025 to April 2, 2025.

Yes, you can start the survey and return to complete it later. However, we encourage you to finish it in one sitting to avoid any potential technical issues.

To maintain the integrity of the survey, you cannot change your responses after submitting them.

The purpose of conducting the survey is to assess the campus climate regarding sexual harassment and sexual violence and to identify successes and opportunities for improvement. 

Rankin Climate will work with campus partners to analyze the survey data. Carnegie Mellon will be provided with an executive summary of findings from the survey and an interactive Tableau dashboard using aggregate data only. This data will be used by university leadership, with input from key campus constituencies, to create an action plan to further our efforts around sexual violence prevention and response. 

Your safety and well-being are our top priorities. If you feel overwhelmed, we encourage you to reach out to CMU’s resources for support:

• Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS): 412-268-2922
• IEX Team: institutionalequity@andrew.drordi.com | 412-268-7125 | Website