Campus leaders and members of the board that governs Iowa, Iowa State and UNI are reviewing the effectiveness of campus safety measures.
Jacob Simpson of Clinton is the president of University of Iowa Student Government. He says sexual assault is a “pervasive problem” on college campuses throughout the country.
“According to our campus climate survey on sexual assault, 21 percent of the undergraduate female-identified students who completed the survey reported being raped and then 11.4 percent of first-year undergraduate female-identified students who completed the survey reported being raped in their first semester on campus,” Simpson says. “These numbers are astonishing.”
Simpson spoke to a Board of Regents panel yesterday. Paula Knudson is the University of Northern Iowa’s vice president for student affairs. In the late 1980s, she was a resident assistant on a University of Iowa dorm floor when data showed about one in four or five women on campus said they had been sexually assaulted.
“If this was a health issue — and it is a health issue — it would be considered an epidemic,” she said. “And it hasn’t changed in that 25-year experience.”
Iowa State University’s student body president stressed the need for more lights and cameras on campus to enhance security and aid investigators when incidents occur.
A summit will be held on November 1 at Iowa State University to discuss safety and security issues on college campuses throughout the state.