“Sticky Wording” and Administrative Obstacles
Beyond the lack of funding, the survey’s failure to launch may be rooted in the way the legislation was drafted and passed. According to higher education policy experts, the bill did not pass through the traditional House or Senate education committees. Instead, it was included in a broader budget package, meaning the lawmakers and staff who wrote the mandate may not have fully grasped the logistical nightmare of standardized data collection across thousands of diverse institutions.
One policy expert, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted that “sticky wording” in the bill has created significant administrative headaches. For example, while the law calls for a standardized tool to allow for national comparisons, many universities want to include their own campus-specific questions. If institutions are allowed to modify the survey, the data becomes statistically incomparable, defeating the purpose of a national baseline.
There are also concerns regarding the burden on smaller, less-resourced institutions. Implementing a survey that ensures a statistically representative sample while maintaining strict anonymity requires technical infrastructure that many small colleges lack. It remains unclear whether the Department of Education would provide the technical portal for the entire process or if the onus would fall on the schools themselves to build and maintain the systems.
“The department, during both the Biden and Trump eras, has seemed to throw their hands up and say it would be very difficult and perhaps impossible,” another policy expert said.
The Cost of Inaction
For advocates like Vitchers, these bureaucratic and financial explanations ring hollow when weighed against the safety of students. The recent allegations at Cornell have served as a grim reminder that sexual violence remains a daily reality on American campuses, and the lack of data is not just an administrative failure but a barrier to justice and prevention.
“Frankly, without campus climate data, it’s really difficult to develop responsive prevention and education strategies in a strategic way,” Vitchers said. She argued that the government and institutions must find a way to overcome the logistical hurdles, rather than using them as a shield against accountability.
“When we hear explanations from institutions that this is a burden or too much of a challenge, I find that excuse unacceptable, because there should be no excuse to having the best data available to ensure a campus that is free from sexual violence.”
As the 2024 deadline fades into the past, the future of the federal campus climate survey remains in limbo. Without a significant infusion of capital and a clear administrative roadmap, the "standardized online survey tool" promised by the 2022 law may remain a theoretical solution to a very real and pressing crisis. For now, the most comprehensive data on campus sexual violence continues to exist in fragments—scattered across individual university reports and state-mandated studies—leaving the national picture as dark as the silhouettes of students walking across a campus at night.
