Supporting Inclusion for all
In April 2025, the University at Buffalo administered the State University of New York (SUNY) Campus Climate Survey asking UB students, faculty and staff to provide information in order to inform our campus sexual assault prevention and response efforts.
In April 2025, the University at Buffalo began an online administration of the Sexual Violence Prevalence (SVP) Campus Climate Survey. This survey was administered to students and employees and addressed student and employee knowledge or experiences about:
In reviewing the results, we highlight that the survey indicated several important trends, as well as areas for increased focus.
Generally, students and employees are aware of policies prohibiting sexual violence and how to report sexual violence. Employee awareness of these policies and reporting options was slightly higher than student awareness. UB has seen a significant increase in both student and employee awareness, likely as the result of mandatory sexual harassment prevention training for employees and programmatic outreach to students. While student awareness of how to contact the Title IX Coordinator has increased significantly since UB started surveys on this topic in 2019, only 39% disclosed that they knew how to contact the Title IX Coordinator, although three quarters of students were aware of this resource on campus. The majority of students and employees reported being aware of counseling, advocacy, and health services.
While most students and employees reported that they did not experience sexual harassment in the past twelve months, 19% of students and 7.4% of staff reported experiencing sexually harassing conduct. Although the majority of students and most employees reported feeling it was likely or very likely that the university would take their report seriously, the majority of students did not tell anyone about their experience, and only a small percentage of students reported the incident. Similarly, the majority of employees reported not taking action after experiencing sexually harassing conduct.
If you have any questions about the survey or the results included in this report, please contact Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at (716) 645-2266 or equity@buffalo.edu.
The SVP survey is administered every other year by all SUNY campuses, who work closely with SUNY System Administration to coordinate the survey administration itself. An effort is made to keep the questions from one administration to the next as consistent as possible to allow for reliable and meaningful longitudinal data. System-wide IRB review takes place for each survey administration.
Our campus administered the student survey and the employee survey in April 2025. Excluded survey populations were individuals under 18 years of age, all incarcerated individuals regardless of age, and all students concurrently enrolled in high school regardless of age.
UB sent 7,565 surveys to eligible faculty and staff. Of this number, we received 1,568 responses for a response rate of 20.7%. 32.3% of respondents were faculty, and 67.0% were staff or administrators (the remaining 0.7% did not identify employee type).
A high percentage of respondents were aware of UB policies regarding sexual violence:
Most faculty and staff knew how to report sexual violence to UB:
In terms of where people can report:
The majority knew about supportive offices as an option for disclosure, including Counseling Services (82.8%), Advocacy Services (69.4%), and the Student Health Center (79.4%).
Smaller percentages of faculty and staff were aware of Affirmative Action (46.7%), peer counselors (27.0%), and health educators (21.3%).
Most faculty and staff reported receiving written or verbal information about sexual violence policies and reporting, including:
5.4% of faculty and staff respondents indicated that during the past year, a student or students disclosed an unwanted sexual experience, including sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence or stalking. 94.0% reported that they did not receive a disclosure, with 0.6% preferring not to respond. Of the individuals who did receive a disclosure, 61.2% reported the incident to an office on campus and 29.9% did not report the incident, with 9.0% preferring not to respond.
Faculty and staff reported disclosing the incident to the following offices:
37.5% of faculty and staff who did not disclose the incident reported that this was at the student’s request. The remainder did not provide a reason.
Most faculty and staff have confidence in UB’s investigatory process and ability to provide supportive measures.
Similarly, most faculty and staff reported an understanding of UB’s processes for addressing sexual violence. 80.4% agreed or strongly agreed that they would know how to advise a student who was sexually assaulted about where to get help on campus. A majority (60.1%) agreed or strongly agreed that they understood what happens when a student reports sexual assault at UB.
The majority of faculty and staff had confidence in the willingness of their colleagues to assist in the event of an incident.
Faculty and staff were asked about their own experiences with unwelcome sexual comments, slurs, and demeaning jokes, as well as unwelcome digital communications.
7.4% of faculty and staff respondents reported experiencing unwanted sexual comments, sexual slurs, or demeaning jokes. 90.7% stated that they did not experience this, and 1.9% preferred not to respond.
The faculty and staff who reported unwelcome experiences were also asked who engaged in this conduct. They reported the status of the perpetrators as follows: a student (11.8%), a faculty member (24.7%), a staff member (33.3%), someone from off-campus (38.7%). 5.4% preferred not to answer. They also identified the following locations where the conduct occurred:
The faculty and staff who reported unwelcome experiences were also asked whether they took action in response. The majority (57.6%) took no action following the experience. Other respondents reported taking action as follows:
Faculty and staff were also asked whether they received unwanted, sexually-suggestive digital communications, either words, images, or both, including emails, texts, social media communications, or in other written communications. 95.5% of respondents reported they did not receive these communications, while 2.9% indicated that they had. 1.6% chose not to respond. Of the people who reported receiving unwelcome communications:
UB sent 28,270 surveys to eligible students. Of this number, we received 852 responses for a response rate of 3%. 54.1% of respondents were undergraduates, and 45.9% were graduate or professional students.
A majority of respondents were aware of UB policies regarding sexual violence:
The majority of student respondents knew how to report sexual violence to UB:
In terms of where people can report:
The majority knew about supportive offices as an option for disclosure, including Counseling Services (67.1%), the Campus Advocate (54.8%), and the Student Health Center (62.4%).
Smaller percentages of students were aware of peer counselors (30.6%), and health educators (20.5%).
The majority of students reported receiving written or verbal information about sexual violence policies and reporting, including:
Students were asked about their experiences with unwelcome sexual conduct over the past year.
Respondents were asked about who perpetrated the incident. 36.3% reported that the perpetrator was affiliated with the UB community, and 49.0% stated that the perpetrator was unaffiliated with UB. 14.6% were unsure of whether the person was affiliated with UB. They described the relationship with the perpetrator as follows:
Students were asked whether they told anyone about the most recent incident of sexual harassment or sexual assault. 44.4% stated yes and 43.0% stated no, with the remainder preferring not to respond.
When asked whom students told about the incident, they reported the following:
Students who decided not to report or share their experience were asked the reasons why. They reported the following:
Students were asked about their experience with intimate partner violence over the past year.
Students were asked whether they told anyone about the most recent incident of intimate partner violence. 55.4% stated yes and 45.7% stated no.
When asked whom students told about the incident, they reported the following:
18.6% of students reported filing a formal complaint with the university, and 81.4% stated that they did not file a formal complaint.
When asked why students did not report, they gave the following reasons:
Students were asked whether, in the past year, anyone repeatedly followed them, watched them, or texted, called, written, emailed, or communicated with them in ways that seemed obsessive and made them afraid or concerned for their safety. 43 respondents (6.7%) reported experiencing this conduct. When asked about their relationship to the person at the time of the incident, students reported the following:
55.4% of people who experienced this reported telling someone about the incident, as follows:
19.4 of individuals who experienced stalking stated that they reported this to the university.
Students who experienced sexual violence indicated that it impacted their plans as follows:
The majority of students expressed trust in UB’s investigatory process and ability to provide supportive measures.
The majority of students felt that their fellow students would assist in the event of an incident.
UB has been administering the SUNY Sexual Violence Prevalence Campus Climate Survey since 2019. This survey is one of several instruments that the university employs to assess the prevalence of sexual violence on campus and students’ views of their safety, attitudes and likely behaviors of their peers, and trust in the university’s processes for supporting students and fairly adjudicating sexual violence reports. The largest concern with this administration is the low response rate from students. There are always concerns that offering incentives may not align with the seriousness of the survey topic. At the same time, students have competing demands on their time, and providing an incentive to complete the survey may give the university a wider range of student perspectives. In the meantime, the university will continue to assess data obtained through Vector solutions and the Campus Prevention Network, which administer surveys as part of mandated sexual assault prevention training.
The employee response rate was significant and provided helpful information. Over 90 percent of UB employees complete sexual harassment prevention training annually, and that training includes information about how to respond when they become aware of a sexual harassment or sexual violence report against a student. While most employees reported knowing that UB has policies addressing sexual violence, employee training should emphasize relationship violence and stalking, so employees understand how they can also seek support and assistance for students and for themselves. While the majority of faculty and staff reported that they did not experience sexual harassment or sexual violence, it is important to continue to encourage people to report and to ensure they know how they can seek support from UB.