In progress
Any project, supported or not by a committee, that is currently being worked on or is considered active, and will have an end date.
Topics
The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education brings together academic and research institutions and key stakeholders to work toward targeted, collective action on addressing and preventing sexual harassment across all disciplines and among all people in higher education.The Action Collaborative includes four Working Groups (Prevention, Response, Remediation, and Evaluation) that compile and gather information, and publish resources for the higher education community. The Prevention Working Group focuses on efforts that can limit the damage caused by experiencing sexual harassment and support those who experience it.
Featured publication
2023
To address the persistent problem of sexual harassment within higher education, research suggests that environments need to convey that sexual harassment is not a norm and actively discourage it when it does occur. One approach that researchers have identified as helping to create such environments...
View details
Description
What is the Prevention Working Group?
The Prevention Working Group is composed of a subset of Members of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education that are working to develop, implement, evaluate, and compile approaches for creating environments and organizational climates that prevent sexual harassment from occurring. The Group is taking on this task by identifying promising practices within and beyond their institutions; engaging and learning from those doing work and developing new approaches; and working to address any on-the-ground barriers, unintended consequences, and challenges that arise in working to implement promising strategies and best practices. Topics and approaches examined by this Working Group include strategies aimed at preventing sexual harassment by way of: improving institutional structures and policies, modifying community and institutional behaviors, and building skills within the community.
What is the Prevention Working Group currently working on?
The Prevention Working Group is organized into project groups that work on specific topics of interest to the Action Collaborative Members. Each project group gathers information and produces a publication that provide information on research and practices to help inform efforts to prevent and address sexual harassment in higher education. The Prevention Working Group's current projects are:
Working Group projects generally meet virtually once a month to:
- Identify promising practices within and beyond their institutions, and across different types of academic institutions
- Engage and learn from research experts and practitioners
- Identify on-the-ground barriers, unintended consequences, and challenges that arise with changes to practices
- Call out areas in need of research
As they do this work and gather information about research and practices, they take into account: applicable federal and state level laws and regulations; the role of power dynamics between individuals and stakeholder groups within higher education; how different groups of people experience more sexual harassment or multiple forms of harassment (NASEM 2018); and the differences across types of academic institutions (e.g. community colleges, technical colleges, large public and private universities, research universities, and liberal arts colleges).
Collaborators
Staff
Terri Frasca
Lead
Frazier F Benya
Lead
Kait Spear
Abigail Harless
Andrea Dalagan
