Academic Year Annual Report, 2008-2009 and Academic Year Biennial Survey Report, 2009-2010 on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault at the United States Merchant Marine Academy

摘要

The Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 (P.L. 110-417), requires the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) to prescribe a policy and conduct an assessment at USMMA during each Academic Year 1 to determine the effectiveness of the policies, training, and procedures of USMMA with respect to sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention. The USMMA conducted a self assessment for the 2008-2009 Academic Year. The self assessment identified two incidents of sexual harassment and no incidents of sexual assault that were reported through the formal procedures. The two incidents occurred on commercial ships during the midshipmens at-sea training. The low number of reported incidents may mean that midshipmen were reluctant to file formal reports of incidents of sexual harassment and/or assault, a concern that has been borne out by the survey conducted the following year. In the 2009-2010 Academic Year, the Academy administered a confidential sexual assault/sexual harassment survey covering the previous 12 months to determine the extent of unreported incidents. The report and survey results were forwarded to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation for review in March 2011. The survey was given separately to midshipmen and to staff in April 2010 and June 2010, respectively. During that Academic Year, there were 103 female midshipmen enrolled, of whom 74 were on campus. Of those, 72 participated in the survey. There were 812 male midshipmen enrolled, of whom 620 were on campus. Of those, 587 participated in the survey. Most of the midshipmen, both male and female, who were not on campus were participating in their sea year training. There were 325 faculty and staff on campus, of whom 242 participated in the survey.