Think About It

Recently, some students have expressed

concern over some questions we ask in Think

About It and the privacy of their answers.

This report explains why we ask these

questions, how we preserve the privacy of

students’ data, and how CampusClarity is

responding to these concerns.

Personal Questions & Privacy

Division ofStudent life

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The University of San Francisco partnered with CampusClarity to develop an online program to train students regarding alcohol, drugs, and sexual violence with the goal of improving campus climate in these critical areas. Behavior questions regarding student sexual activity and drug and alcohol use were included in the online program to provide colleges and universities with behavioral insights to help them create ongoing programming tailored to the unique needs of their campus.

All collected answer data is de-identified from individual users, and neither schools nor CampusClarity can link individual students

to their responses. Some institutions have requested that CampusClarity remove these behavioral questions, or have included an informed consent form before students begin the program. CampusClarity will do this for any client institutions free of charge.

Going forward, we will continue to offer the option of removing the behavior questions from the program. Additionally, we will include a “decline to state” option for each of the behavior questions. We will continue to work with schools to develop further options as well.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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WHY WE ASK PERSONAL QUESTIONS

Think About It is an online harm-reduction program aimed at helping schools reduce sexual violence and substance abuse on their campuses. Colleges and universities are required under Title IX and the Campus SaVE Act to train incoming students on how to prevent sexual violence. Our program addresses these compliance issues and goes beyond them, helping schools promote a safer, healthier campus culture.

As a small part of our program, we ask students about their behaviors, attitudes, and experiences regarding sex and substance

use. We developed these questions in close consultation with staff and faculty at the University of San Francisco. These questions are similar to questions in other online trainings, behavior intervention programs, and national surveys conducted on college campuses.

The universities and colleges we worked with requested that we include these kinds of questions in the course because aggregated student responses provided the schools with a valuable tool to further develop their harm-prevention programs. This data gives administrators insight into the unique

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HOW THE DATA IS ANONYMOUS

CampusClarity protects student privacy by removing identifying user information from the responses they provide, and then storing responses in a separate database from information relating to each users’ course activity. User responses are stored along with their demographic information and a unique token that has been processed by a one-way hashing algorithm. By hashing user tokens in

this way, it is impossible when looking at the stored response data to identify the user who submitted any response.

Only de-identified answer data is made available to university administrators or CampusClarity. CampusClarity also takes industry standard protection measures to prevent the disclosure of this de-identified data.

WHY WE ASK PERSONAL QUESTIONS (CONT.)

challenges and risks facing their student population, helping them tailor programs that fit their campus needs. For instance, a university could utilize answer data to the questions “What percentage of your peers do you think has sex (including oral) at least once a month?” and “How many times have you had sex (including oral) in the last 3 months?“ in a social norming campaign to illustrate a gap between the perceived and actual sexual activity of students on their campus.

Administrators can also use this information in social norming campaigns to promote more accurate perceptions of student behavior. Students often hold exaggerated views of their peers’ alcohol and drug use and sexual activity.

These exaggerated views can be harmful, causing students to engage in more high-risk behaviors in an effort to conform to perceived social norms. Data from our courses can help schools dispel these misperceptions by comparing students’ self-reported behavior to students’ perceptions of that behavior, thereby allowing students to make healthier, better informed choices.

Within the course, many of the questions are designed to encourage self-reflection and introspection. By fostering self-awareness, these questions allow students to gain perspective on their own behaviors and attitudes, leading to more informed and thoughtful choices. In short, these questions help schools improve campus culture, and they empower students to make safer, healthier decisions about their lives.

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HOW THE ANSWER DATA IS USED

Responses to questions posed in Think About It are available to university administrators via our secure, online toolbox at campusclarity.com. Administrators who have been granted access by the university can log into the toolbox to view the aggregate data on student responses, which can be broken down by student demographic.

For some questions, administrators can compare their data to aggregate data from other campuses using the program. This comparison helps administrators contextualize behaviors and attitudes at their school within a larger set of schools. Data from follow-up courses allow administrators to discover developing trends in students’ attitudes and behaviors.

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GOING FORWARD

We have always worked with our clients to provide them with the training products that best fits their needs. In the past, this process has included measures like removing all the behavior questions from their course and requiring students to provide informed consent before starting the course.

Going forward, we will continue to offer schools the option of removing all the behavior questions from their courses. For the 2015-16 training year, we will also include a “decline to

state” option for each of the behavior questions. Any college or university that wishes to revise the behavior question in their existing course should contact us, and we will work with them to make these changes free of charge.

We are also developing a more comprehensive response to this issue in consultation with colleges and universities. We want to craft a solution that maintains the integrity of the course and best serves the needs of schools and their students. We welcome your input.