WASHINGTON, D.C. – UC Riverside is among 43 colleges, universities, and research institutions to join the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine launch of an Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education. 

The collaborative facilitates efforts to move beyond basic legal compliance to enacting policies that prevent all forms of sexual harassment. 

Twenty-eight of the institutions, UCR among them, joined the National Academies in founding the collaborative in early 2019. Additional colleges, universities, and research institutions have since become members. 

The four main goals of the action collaborative are to:

• raise awareness about sexual harassment and how it occurs, the consequences of sexual harassment, and the organizational characteristics and recommended approaches that can prevent it
• share and elevate institutional policies and strategies to reduce and prevent sexual harassment
• contribute to setting the research agenda, and gather and apply research results across institutions
• develop a standard for measuring progress toward reducing and preventing sexual harassment in higher education

The collaborative builds on the National Academies’ 2018 report, “Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.” The report found between 20%-50% of female students and more than 50% of female faculty and staff experienced sexually harassing behavior while in academia. The report suggests preventive measures including bystander intervention, producing annual sexual harassment reports, and promoting programs to promote civility and respect. 

"It's exciting to see academic institutions come together to address sexual harassment in a collective, structural approach to ending long-standing patterns of systematic discrimination,” said Mariam Lam, who serves as UCR’s Action Collaborative representative, along with Kathryn Uhrich, dean of the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

The institutions’ statement on founding the action collaborative can be found at www.nationalacademies.org/sexualharassmentcollaborative. For more information, visit www.nationalacademies.org.