This report addresses the features and activities of a Research-to-Practice Fellowship Project that addressed the prevention of and response to sexual violence against urban commuter campus students enrolled in The City College of New York (CCNY).
There is a need to focus response and prevention research on commuter students, many of whom are living in urban areas. Commuter students need focused attention, because many are sexual and gender minority students, who often enter higher education in urban settings where gay enclaves are more likely to be present. In addition, urban commuter-campus students are more likely to be racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, sexual-orientation minorities, and/or gender non-conforming. The researcher-practitioner partnership described in this report was established to discuss ways of systematically characterizing the needs of CCNY’s urban commuter campus students. The goals were to focus on producing accurate data on the experiences of and perspectives on sexual violence prevention among urban commuter campus students. The goal was to inform the design of prevention and response programming that would reduce the incidence of sexual violence and mitigate adverse effects if it occurs. To achieve these goals, the researcher-practitioner partnership team conducted both original research, cross-learning, and communication. This report provides information on data sources, findings, and implications for policy and practice. The project identified several strategies for better communication about resources and reporting both on and off campus; however, the report notes that sample sizes were small and further research is needed to achieve the goals of the research-practice team. Information is provided on sustaining the partnership. 35 references