Right To Be (formerly Hollaback!) partnered with an outside consultancy firm to take our understanding of public harassment beyond the street and onto the college campus. We collected data from 282 undergraduate, graduate and part-time college students and 44 college administrators on campuses from the urban, suburban and rural U.S. to find out how harassment exists in spaces of higher education.

We took the data collected and formed three conclusions (backed with helpful statistics) about on-campus harassment. Here are the conclusions Right To Be  drew from our College Harassment Survey:

STUDENTS ARE BEING HARASSED ON THEIR COLLEGE CAMPUSES.

• 67% of students experienced harassment on campus
• 61% witnessed another student being harassed on college campus
• Only 18% of students had not experienced or witnessed harassment on campus

HARASSMENT LIMITS STUDENTS’ ABILITY TO LEARN.

• 46% of students said harassment caused disappointment with college experience
• 20% said harassment caused inability to concentrate in class
• 23% said harassment prevented attendance in class/social activities

CURRENT CAMPUS SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES FALL SHORT.

• 55% of college administrators said that current systems to report and address harassment are not sufficient
• Only 17% of students said that they reported harassment to a person of authority

Here are some things you can do to stand up to street harassment on college campuses:

1. Get in touch with us at hello@righttobe.org and share your school admin email. 
2. Read through and distribute our bystander intervention guide.
3. Bring Right To Be speakers to your campus

Have any great ideas for taking on street harassment on college campuses? Send us an email at [email protected] and let’s talk! With your support, Right To Be can continue to do the research and work necessary to change public attitudes around street harassment and make sure that everyone has equal access to public space.

For more information on sexual harassment on college campuses, see Know Your Rights: Sexual Harassment and Assault on Campus by the American Association of University Women.