College campuses in the Ithaca area are buzzing with the return of students for the 2026-27 school year. Excitement is in the air as they reconnect with classmates and meet new friends.
Unfortunately, for many students collegiate life comes with the threat of sexual and relationship violence. Each year, between the months of August through November, instances of sexual violence at universities in the United States increase drastically.
This season is known as the “red zone,” beginning at the start of the fall semester and lasting through Thanksgiving break. More than 50 percent of college sexual assaults happen during this time, when new students are especially vulnerable as they adjust to their new environment and social circles, according to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN).
Sexual violence does not cease as the “red zone” ends in December, so continued awareness is crucial. RAINN reports that more than a quarter of college undergraduate women “experience rape or sexual assault involving physical force, violence, or incapacitation.”
The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County and The Sophie Fund partner each year to create Be Safe at College, a simple flyer highlighting key resources to cultivate safer campuses, support sexual violence survivors, and hold perpetrators accountable. Upload it to your phone, pin a copy to your bulletin board, or hang up the flyeracross campus.
Information about how to find resources can feel daunting, especially if you or someone you know has experienced the immense trauma of sexual violence.
The Advocacy Center’s Campus Resource Hub (linked through the QR codes) is updated to reflect current contact information, support resources, data, and more—unique to Ithaca College, Cornell University, and Tompkins Cortland Community College.
“My hope is that students can feel empowered by both the knowledge they gain from these tools as well as confidence in the skills they already possess,” said Alex Kabat, the Campus Educator at the Advocacy Center.
“For many college students, coming to campus can be the first time they are living on their own. You deserve to have fun, enjoy new experiences, and immerse yourself into who you want to become. You also deserve safety, respect, and care. Remember: sexual violence is never a victim or survivor’s fault and support is available.”
In her role as Campus Educator, Kabat provides trauma-informed education, connection to resources, and dedication to support at each local college campus. She also provides programs, print materials, interactive tabling opportunities, and more. For any inquiries, email Alex directly: akabat@actompkins.org.
As the school year begins, college students across Tompkins County have arrived on campus equipped with a variety of unique personal experiences. Many students will live away from home for the first time. Others might be met with academic and social challenges they have never encountered before. All students deserve safety, respect, and care.
New Cornell University students pose in front of the student union
Unfortunately, this time of transformation and growth can also coincide with sexual and relationship violence. Each year, between the months of August through November, instances of sexual violence at universities in the United States increase drastically.
This period of time is known as the “red zone,” beginning at the start of the fall semester and lasting through Thanksgiving break when many students go home. More than 50 percent of college sexual assaults happen during this time, according to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN). Sexual violence does not cease as the “red zone” ends in December, so continuing these conversations is crucial.
The Advocacy Center of Tompkins County and The Sophie Fund partnered to create Be Safe at College, a simple flyer highlighting key resources to cultivate safer campuses, support sexual assault survivors, and hold perpetrators accountable. Pin a copy to your bulletin board, or upload it to your phone.
“I hope that the Be Safe at College flyer will be a resource for students to keep in their self-care toolkits, whether they think they will need it or not. It’s always helpful to know about support options for you and your friends because you deserve safety and compassion,” said Alex Kabat, Campus Educator at the Advocacy Center.
After graduating from Ithaca College in 2024, Kabat knew she wanted to provide support to the greater Ithaca community. Utilizing her own lived experiences as a college student, she provides trauma-informed education, connection to resources, and dedication to support at each local college campus: Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Tompkins Cortland Community College. She also provides programs, print materials, interactive tabling opportunities, and more. For any inquiries, email Kabat directly: akabat@actompkins.org.
“Trust your gut—you know what feels best for yourself, so lean into that innate knowledge,” said Kabat. “No matter what happens, violence is never your fault and perpetrators are the ones who should be held accountable.”
Free, confidential, local support and advocacy for survivors, friends, and families around domestic or dating violence, sexual assault, and child sexual abuse.
RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline and provides programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.
The Cornell University student organization RISEUP and The Sophie Fund on April 1 launched a social media campaign to promote Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
Throughout April, the organizations are posting infographics on their social media platforms about resources to contact for help, behaviors to recognize, plans of action, general statistics about sexual assault, and more.
“Sexual assault is not only very prevalent, but extremely underreported,” said Harmony Guan ’28, head of RISEUP’S mental health committee. “By spreading awareness of the long-lasting impacts of sexual assault, we aim to reduce the widespread stigma and encourage victims to report assaults and feel comfortable enough to share their stories.”
The campaign highlights that sexual violence affects hundreds of thousands of Americans each year. According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), an American is sexually assaulted every 68 seconds, and every nine minutes if that victim is a child.
One out of every six American women and one out of every 33 American men have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime, RAINN reports.
Sexual violence on college campuses is pervasive, with female students at three times greater risk of assault than women in the general population. According to RAINN, 13 percent of all college students experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation. Among undergraduate women alone, the figure is 26.4 percent.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that sexual violence impacts health in many ways and can lead to short and long-term physical and mental health problems.
Guan said that RISEUP, an acronym for Realizing Integration, Support, and Education for Underserved Populations, believes that it is important to discuss how the barriers of accessing help for sexual assault survivors disproportionately affects certain communities.
She said the campaign highlights communities that face difficulties in receiving the help they need, advancing a clearer understanding of the aspects of the healthcare system that need improvement.
Click here to follow the campaign on RISEUP’s Instagram, or here to follow on The Sophie Fund’s Instagram or Facebook page.
Check out the Sophie Fund’s Sexual Assault page: National, state, and local resources to learn about sexual assault and how to deal with it.
Tompkins Cortland Community College students report being victims of sexual assault and harassment, according to the school’s Campus Climate Survey 2021.
In an initial report on results published on the college’s website, 4 percent of female students, 7 percent of gender non-binary students, and no male or transgender students said that they were subjected to sexual assault in the prior year.
Tompkins Cortland Community College campus (Photo credit: TC3web)
The college reported that 18 percent of female students, 6 percent of male students, 40 percent of gender non-binary students, and no transgender students reported that they were subjected to sexual harassment in the prior year.
Another in an occasional series of articles about campus sexual violence. For more information, go to The Sophie Fund’s Sexual Assault Page.
The sparse initial report provided no breakdowns by types of sexual assault and harassment, by sexual orientation, by race and ethnicity, or by victims’ class years. The report did not provide information about the locations of assaults, characteristics of perpetrators, percentages of assaults reported to authorities, or physical, psychological, and academic impacts on victims.
According to the initial report, 66 percent of students indicated that they knew how to report sexual assault and harassment, and 45 percent could identify the school’s Title IX coordinator who is responsible for receiving and responding to assault and harassment complaints.
LEARN MORE: April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
The college said that 397 students completed the survey and that the response rate was 27 percent. The college says that 4,698 students are enrolled at Tompkins Cortland, meaning that 8.4 percent of all students took part in the survey.
“Tompkins Cortland Community college, working with SUNY and community colleagues (including students, faculty, and staff), will use this data to improve response to violence, develop prevention programs, and will continue to study the issue,” said a statement on the Tompkins Cortland website.
The Tompkins Cortland survey is part of a system-wide assessment conducted every other year by the State University of New York. SUNY has not yet published full reports for Tompkins Cortland or other schools in its system. When the full Tompkins Cortland report is released, it will be available on SUNY website.
The surveys are done in compliance with New York State’s “Enough is Enough” Education Law Article 129-B to combat collegiate sexual violence. Adopted in 2015, it requires colleges to submit and publish data reports no less than every other year on incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault.
Separately, in compliance with the “Enough is Enough” law, Tompkins Cortland’s Title IX office reported 4 incidents of sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking in 2020.
Also, Tompkins Cortland’s 2022 Annual Security & Fire Safety Report said no instances of rape occurred in its jurisdiction in 2021, down from one instance in 2020 and one in 2019 both of which were reported in residential housing.
In the 2019 Campus Climate Survey for Tompkins Cortland, 2 percent of survey respondents reported being raped through sexual penetration and 2 percent sexually assaulted through forced oral sex. Two percent reported attempted rape and 2 percent sexually assaulted through forced oral sex. Nine percent of those surveyed said they had experienced forced sexual touching, and another 9 percent reported attempted sexual touching. The full 2019 report is on the SUNY website.
A survey of Ithaca College students in 2022 showed that 29 percent of respondents have experienced “unwanted sexual behavior” while attending the school.
The prevalence of such conduct is nearly double what respondents reported in a campus community survey six years earlier that included all Ithaca College faculty and staff as well as students.
Ithaca College campus
Since former President Shirley M. Collado took office in 2017, Ithaca College has demonstrated indifference to mandated campus climate surveys, and appears to have violated New York State’s “Enough is Enough” law during her four-year tenure.
According to the “Sexual Misconduct Climate Assessment Summary,” a report on the 2022 survey results by Ithaca College’s Title IX Office, almost half of the students reporting unwanted sexual behavior were victims of rape, sexual assault, or sexual touching.
Another in an occasional series of articles about campus sexual violence. For more information, go to The Sophie Fund’s Sexual Assault Page.
Twenty-six percent of the students who experienced unwanted sexual behavior said it included stalking, and 7 percent said it included relationship violence.
Almost half of the offenders were Ithaca College students, and about a quarter were described as friends or acquaintances. Between 25 percent and 30 percent indicated that the unwanted sexual behavior had occurred during their first year at Ithaca College, whereas less than 5 percent reported the behavior happening in their senior year.
More than 20 percent reported that alcohol was involved in the unwanted sexual behavior. More than 40 percent said the incidents occurred on campus, while 20 percent pointed to off campus locations.
A total of 83 percent of the victims of sexual misconduct did not report the incidents to college officials.
Altogether, 46 survey respondents reported unwanted sexual behavior and cited 71 instances. Twelve incidents were formally reported to college officials. The students reported being dissatisfied with the way their cases were handled in 11 instances, and only one student reported satisfaction with the outcome of their complaint.
LEARN MORE: April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month
The Title IX Office said that all Ithaca College students were invited to participate in the survey during the summer of 2022. It said that 160 students completed the survey. Given the school’s total enrollment of 5,000 students, the survey response rate was poor at just 3 percent.
“The results serve to help our community identify opportunities for growth and improvement,” the Title IX Office report said.
The nine-page summary of the survey, conducted during the tenure of current President La Jerne Terry Cornish, glosses over many pertinent details, exact numbers and percentages, and breakdowns of results that are normally part of college surveys on sexual misconduct.
For example, in the section on unwanted sexual behavior, the summary does not provide a break down of victims by sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, or class level; nor does it provide a break down by types of unwanted sexual contact (penetration, assault, or sexual touching).
Although more than four out of five students said that they did not report sexual misconduct to Ithaca College officials, the survey summary did not indicate their reasons for not doing so. Nor did the summary provide feedback on the physical, psychological, or academic impacts that the sexual misconduct had on the student victims.
The full report of Ithaca College’s 2022 climate assessment does not appear on the institution’s website; the college did not respond to The Sophie Fund’s requests to provide a copy.
On April 26, 2017, the college posted the full report of its 2016 campus climate survey on its website, but the link went dead by 2021. The survey was conducted during the tenure of former President Thomas R. Rochon.
Those results showed that 15 percent of all respondents—students, faculty, and staff—had experienced unwanted sexual conduct, and 3 percent reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact (rape, sexual assault, or sexual touching), according to an IC News announcement.
The announcement said that 3,823 people, or 46 percent of the campus community, took part in the 2016 survey; 74 percent were students, 12 percent faculty, and 14 percent staff. College officials also arranged for two public forums in May 2017 for the campus community to discuss “possible action items as a result of the survey.”
“Taking the results of this study and translating the findings into positive action is critical,” said then-Associate Provost Roger Richardson. “The college must take this opportunity to make important changes, offer different resources, and continue the conversation to make this a place where everyone feels like they can belong and thrive.”
Under the “Enough is Enough” law, further Ithaca College campus climate assessments were required in 2018 and 2020. In a March 22, 2023 editorial, The Ithacan student newspaper reported that no surveys were conducted during Collado’s time as Ithaca College’s president. “Not continuously conducting the survey does not allow for progress to be noticed, thus disallowing for change to be made,” said the Ithacan.
In 2021, The Sophie Fund made seven requests to Ithaca College’s Title IX Office, Office of General Counsel, and to Collado directly requesting copies of all Ithaca College campus climate survey reports; The Sophie Fund received no response from those Ithaca College offices. Another more recent request to the General Counsel, on March 6, 2023, went unanswered as well.
Ithaca College must conduct the climate assessment surveys to be in compliance with New York State Education Law Article 129-B to combat collegiate sexual violence. Adopted in 2015, the “Enough is Enough” law requires colleges to submit and publish data reports no less than every other year on incidents of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault.
Separately, in compliance with the “Enough is Enough” law, Ithaca College’s Title IX office reported 49 incidents of sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking in 2020.
Also, Ithaca College’s Annual Security & Fire Report 2022 said that eight instances of rape, including seven in student housing, occurred in its jurisdiction in 2021. The figure represented a decline from 10 in 2020 and 14 in 2019.
According to a 2019 survey by the Association of American Universities (AAU), 25.9 percent of undergraduate women reported being the victim of rape, attempted rape, or sexual battery through force or incapacitation since entering college; 12.8 percent reported the same experiences for that current academic year.
Among undergraduates nationwide, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), 26.4 percent of females, 6.8 percent of males, and 23.1 percent of transgender, genderqueer, and nonconforming (TGQN) students have been sexually assaulted.
Ways for Ithaca College students to report sexual assault:
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