In August 2021, the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act was amended. The amendment required all Illinois higher education institutions to conduct an anonymous sexual misconduct climate survey.
The survey, created by the Task Force on Campus Sexual Misconduct Climate Surveys, is given to students every two years.
The most recent Spring 2025 data from 62 institutions are publicly available on the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s website. This article will visualize a few of the 90 total survey questions and the responses from the 10 four-year institutions with the highest number of respondents.
Only answers with over 20 responses are reported. General guidance provided alongside the survey stated the 20-response minimum exists to “protect student privacy and anonymity.” This resulted in some smaller universities having little to no reported data for many questions.
Sexual orientation
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The graphic to the left shows results from the sixth question, “What is your sexual orientation?” and compares the results to data gathered separately for the entire state of Illinois.
Results were calculated by extracting the number of straight participants and those who preferred not to answer from the total number of participants for the question. Because this was a multiselect question, the listed percentages may be inaccurate if students selected both straight and another category in their response.
Loyola University Chicago saw the highest percentage of non-straight students at 38.54% of respondents, while the Illinois Institute of Technology saw the lowest percentage of nonstraight students at 14.54% of respondents.
Safety from harassment on campus
Question 15a of the survey reads, “On or around this campus, I feel safe from sexual harassment.”
Due to the 20-response rule, not all data was available to add to the graphic. Because of this, not all institutions had a combined total of 100% responses.
The University saw the highest percentage of students who selected “disagree” or “strongly disagree” of the 10 listed universities at 10.49% of respondents.
Alternatively, only 3.73% of respondents at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville expressed disagreement with the statement, and roughly 82% of students at both SIUE and IIT answered the statement positively.
Where to get help on campus
Survey question 17a reads, “If a friend or I experienced sexual misconduct, I know where to go to get help on campus.”
Most students answered the survey question positively, including over 50% of respondents choosing “agree” or “strongly agree” at all 10 universities. Specifically, The University of Chicago and Loyola each saw over 70% of students choosing one of the two options.
Universities in Illinois offer many ways for students to receive help on campus, as required in the Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act. At the University, some examples of available resources include advisers, a counseling center and the Title IX Office, among many others.
The next campus sexual misconduct climate survey will be administered in Spring 2027.
