My problem is that such studies are used to legitimize the increase of state power over people. Why don't we hear more about domestic abuse in Rock County? We've had a number of really high-profile murder-suicides and we have lots of domestic abuse. We'll hear about it whenever it can be used to serve the state's aim. Why do we now hear about sexual assault on campus? It will be used to justify the increase of state power on our private lives, most immediately through an augmentation of the already increasingly powerful campus police. Our society always moves toward a proliferation of state agencies and bureaucracy and intrusion into our private lives. This is why some people here are skeptical, I think, of sexual assault. It's not so much that they don't believe sexual assault happens, but they mistrust the way that such statistics and such acts are used to legitimize state intrusion into our private lives. They want us to take more responsibility over our choices and for the most part to deal with our problems in a more human, face-to-face way. I propose we encourage much more safety training for women and girls, including self-defense classes. This old-style feminism, so out of favor now, encourage more self-assertion and self-empowerment. The new style feminism, because it is taken up by the state, encourages the state to do everything to protect me, the implicit female victim.

You are correct that plenty of drunken sex occurs on campus, and maybe there are a limited number of people who afterwards define drunken sex as sexual assault. But there are far more instances where a sexual assault IS ACTUALLY a sexual assault.
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A few I recall from my college days: A female who was sleeping and sober who awakes to find her roomate's male friend in bed fondling her after he spent the night out drinking, the warped game by a group of frat boys to burst in on a brother having sex with an unsuspecting girl to see her reaction (I believe they called it rodeo or some sick thing), the guy who has "sex" with a girl passed out after drinking too much, or the guy who talks a girl into coming back to his place and then blocking the door so she can't leave.
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In each case, the girl didn't report the incident because she felt people would blame her for being stupid, or (in the case of the sleeping girl molested by her roommate's friend) she didn't want to destroy her friendship with the roommate.

Drinking and drugs (which are popular in college, go figure?) leads to sex and other poor choices simple as that. The guilt felt after wards of a poor decision is not rape when you don't say no, nor is it sexual assault, it is drunken sex.

I don't general align myself with feminist dogma, but in this case, they may have a valid point.
Freshmen come to campus as sheep to the slaughter in that they are not at all prepared for the tactics of older students, some in their late 20's, who have had years of experience seducing essentially innocent youngsters with alcohol, drugs or maybe just smooth well practised deceitful lines. On the surface, it seems the youngsters are willing participants, but in fact, many do not fully comprehend their seducer's purpose.
That kind of seduction, while not legally definable as rape, is most certainly not a consensual act between 2 equals.

I found these results on the UW-La Crosse portion of the survey in which 2,576 surveys were returned from undergrads, graduate students, faculty, academic staff and classified staff. Couldn't find questions, but the results seem to indicate touching:
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12 percent believed that they had been touched in a sexual manner that made them feel uncomfortable or fearful while at UW-La Crosse.
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96 respondents believed that they had been sexually assaulted during their time at UW-La Crosse.
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Most of the respondents who believed that they had been sexually assaulted were students (86 people), female (91 people), heterosexual (84 people), and White (86 people).

Her resume might mean she is highly qualified to conduct such research and her results are valid, or it might mean she has latched on to this subject to futher her career and obtain grant monies. I would definitely like to read the questions before deciding if she uncovered a major problem or if she is grubbing for money through slanted questions.
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Some of her questions might be worded incorrectly: "Have you stopped beating your wife?" (as an extreme example - either a yes or a no are bad answers, but if the a questionaire only has Yes/No checkboxes, it skews the results) or she might be tabulating positive responses to: "Has anyone ever said 'Nice butt!' to you?" and counting those as assault incidents. While that is an inappropriate comment and would definitely be verbal harrassment (setting aside very limited circumstances where personal comments of that nature might be consensually solicited and given), it is not a sexual assault.
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It would also be nice to know the context in which the surveys were taken. Were people contacted cold by researchers, from the general population of all students and employees, or did she conduct surveys of attendees after the end of a lecture or presentation on sexual assault or abuse?
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"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." - attributed to Benjamin Disraeli (former PM of Great Britain).

I just did a report on this subject for a psychology class (not in a UW college) and the studies I read varied, but studies found that sexual assault is rampant in our society, not just in colleges, and usually is not reported.

I don't know what is causing people to dismiss this study. If you think it's unrealistic (280 out of 13,000 is 2%), try the US Department of Justice study.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/topics/crim...
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The figures there are actually somewhat higher although they used a broader time scale and did not specify where the assaults occurred. Almost 5% of women in that study reported having been forcibly assaulted since entering college. Over 11% experienced a sexual assault while incapacitated. If anything, the UW results are somewhat low.
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In any event there is an emerging finding that a majority of these assaults take place in the first six weeks of freshman year, while students are still adjusting to campus life, perhaps having access to alcohol (illicit as it may be), or to other drugs, for the first time. This is also a period when young women may be uncertain whom to trust as almost everyone they meet is a stranger. It points to the need for more upfront information about protecting oneself and also to greater awareness about the need for reporting assaults. Many women blame themselves. Student orientation should probably include more (or blunter) information about this problem.

Google Sue Rankin and read about who she is and what she speaks for and writes about. Perhaps this was not the right person for a liberal college system to hire for this survey. Here is her resume:
http://www.ed.psu.edu/educ/eps/csa/facst...

Go ahead and cuss me out, but she has an agenda she works towards.

I do agree that people taking these surveys take questions differently. But I wouldn't be surprised if these number were right. Sometimes I think people don't realize exactly how many sexual assualts go on daily, even right here in Janesville. Most do go unreported because the victim does not know how to come forward. And many times by the time they are ready to come forward the statue of limitations has run out. Don't tell me it doesn't exist either because I was told I could not press charges because of it. Sexual assault could be something as simple as saying "Nice butt" to actually physically harming someone. There needs to be more awareness out there and people need to learn how to protect themselves.

This article is horrible. It is very misleading! Starts out with 13k and then gets to ther real number of students that took the survey, 280. Nice "Buzz" headline!

Spicy, I agree. The way many liberal universities define assault can teeter on the absurd.

For example: I remember seeing a TV news show (I cant remember which one) in which the guest stated that ANY consumption of alcohol rendered the drinker completely unable to give consent for the purposes of sexual contact. Therefore, if a couple of college kids had even 1 beer and then had sex, then an assault took place even if the sex was consensual.

Let's see the questions. How questions like this are phrased can result in misleading results. To begin, let's hear their definition of sexual assault.