Sexual harassment is on the rise across college campuses according to a new survey, but at Penn, experts say a fuzzy definition of harassment means fewer incidents get reported.
According to a report released last week by the American Association of University Women, 62 percent of college students say that they have been harassed on campus.
The survey is the first national poll taken on the issue of sexual harassment, according to the Director of Penn Women's Center Ellie Di Lapi.
The online survey -- which received responses from about 2,000 male and female students between the ages of 18 and 24 -- asked students to define sexual harassment and indicate whether they have experienced it.
The results of the survey indicated that sexual harassment may be significantly more common than is reported at Penn. Some experts attribute this discrepancy to Penn students not documenting all sexual harassment cases.
Forty-one percent of respondents to the survey admitted to having sexually harassed someone while thinking that "it was funny," the "other person liked it" or it was "just part of school life."
The survey also indicated that of the two-thirds of students nationwide who have experienced sexual harassment, only about 10 percent reported it to an authority.
But at Penn, the data appear to be less clear.
According to Counseling and Psychological Services Director Ilene Rosenstein, many students report being depressed or anxious -- sometimes a result of sexual harassment -- without specifically saying so.
"Many times, students are sexually harassed but because we go by their perceptions we do not term it sexual harassment unless they do," Rosenstein said.
Ultimately, this policy prevents CAPS from actually documenting cases of sexual harassment on campus.
Some students do not understand what to classify as harassment, preventing them from coming forward to University officials, Di Lapi said.
According to Jeanne Arnold, Penn's director of affirmative action, her office and the Penn Women's Center do not keep tabs on the number of sexual harassment cases.
She added, however, that she was not aware of any particular concerns about a rise in sexual harassment on Penn's campus.
The lack of statistics can perhaps shed light on what seems to be the crux of the debate: what exactly is sexual harassment, and why do so few people report it?
"We used a broad definition of sexual harassment in our survey on purpose," Association of University Women researcher Catherine Hill said. "We wanted to cover everything from the obvious persistent behavior and the less obvious behavior some think to be joking, like catcalling."
While Di Lapi quoted the federal law that defines sexual harassment, she acknowledged that interpretations of this law are sometimes confusing -- and lack national campuswide consensus. This lack of definition may contribute to a comparatively small number of sexual harassment that Penn students have reported.
The two genres of sexual harassment are "quid pro quo" -- literally, "this for that" -- and hostile environment. In the "quid pro quo" case, offenders make a bargain, such as exchanging a higher grade for sex. In the second, victims are subjected to unwanted sexual attention.
Yet students at Penn may find it difficult to distinguish between flirting and unwanted attention, Di Lapi said.
"People think they can get away with certain things," College freshman Dorna Mohaghegh said. "They'll try to do more than just flirt because the issue is so obscure."
