More than 40 colleges and universities across the country have come together to launch an action collaborative to prevent incidents of sexual harassment and misconduct.
Initiated by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education will bring together colleges, universities, research, and training organizations to conduct research and develop practices to address all forms of sexual harassment.
The collaborative was formed in response to the National Academies’ 2018 report, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Specifically, the report found that more than 50 percent of female faculty and staff experienced sexually harassing behavior while in academia.
“It’s exciting to see academic institutions come together to address sexual harassment in a collective, structural approach to ending long-standing patterns of discrimination,” Elizabeth Hillman, president of Mills College, a member of the action collaborative’s leadership group, said.
The collaborative’s four main goals are to raise awareness about sexual harassment, to contribute to setting the research agenda, to elevate evidence-based institutional policies and strategies to bring down the number of sexual harassment incidents, and to develop a standard for measuring progress toward reducing and preventing sexual harassment in higher ed.
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