Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

[Steven Pearlman <>]

Dr. Foubert,

Thank you for expressing your concerns about our survey.  I am certain that
members of the list will appreciate your willingness to warn them of
potential danger, and I have no doubt about your passion for this cause.

In response, and as Claire Kaplan pointed out in response to your initial
post regarding the survey, I cannot imagine an IRB board finding that the
survey puts subjects at risk given its purely anonymous nature and
low-stakes subject matter.  I also would like to note that we do not make
the assumptions you assume--we are only asking administrators and counselors
to report their personal experience with survivors--and as the data has not
yet been compiled, we really cannot know what conclusions, if any, we can
draw from the information.  We also will release the data so that everyone
can draw their own conclusions.

More importantly, while corporatism certainly has reared its ugly head
lately, e.g. AIG, I hope we can proceed with caution when it comes to
assessing the motivations of organizations attempting to address sexual
assault.  I believe you list yourself as an "LLC"--Limited Liability
Company--on your signature and it would be egregiously unfair of me to
suggest that your motivations are therefore inherently ignoble.

Ultimately, I believe deeply that everyone on this list is committed to
ending the problem of sexual assault.  I hope we can all work together
towards that end.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Steven

*Steven J. Pearlman, PhD*
*Content Director, nformd.net and StudentSuccess.org*
**
*845.901.6077*




Message: 4
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2009 14:57:16 -0500
From: "Foubert, John" 
<>
Subject: FW: withdrawals after sexual assault
To: 
""
 
<>
Message-ID:
       
<>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Colleagues,

Regarding the most recent survey posted to the list, there are a few
important questions to consider.

1.  Is this research approved by a human subjects committee, which in part
will help make sure that procedures of ethical principles will be followed?
2.  The study of costs of sexual assault to institutions is a worthwhile
topic to study.  The survey that we were just presented with presumes that
participants can know the percentage of survivors who withdraw or make other
types of decisions based on their survivor status.  In order to answer these
questions, the person filling out the survey would need to know every
survivor on their campus.  It is not stated that these are estimates.
3.   In what way does the company collecting this data plan to use it?  Do
they hope to benefit financially from collecting this data?
4.   Will data be presented in a way that can be interpreted by consumers of
the data that, for example, 75% of survivors leave their institutions after
experiencing sexual assault.  If you read the questions, this cannot
possibly be determined from the questions asked.

I advise extreme caution before answering surveys where there is no
indication that the research has been approved by a human subjects
committee.  I also advise caution regarding answering the sort of questions
being raised and providing impressions to a company that may seek to use the
information for their financial advantage -- this I do not know, however,
the purpose has not been explained and it remains a fair and open question.
 In addition, the questions lack scientific rigor and in my point of view as
a researcher, the study lacks merit and is not deserving of our involvement.

John Foubert

**************************************
John D. Foubert, Ph.D., LLC
Associate Professor and Program Coordinator
College Student Development Master's Degree Program
Oklahoma State University
School of Educational Studies
314 Willard Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
(405) 744-1480
(405) 744-7758 fax