Bernie Reeves isn’t the only one to object to the Washington Post’s ranking of colleges by the number of reported rapes, although for different reasons.

On June 7, the Post listed colleges by the number of on-campus rapes reported to the Department of Education, and many elite colleges made the list. The University of Connecticut and Brown University were at the top with 43 reported rapes each. When ranked by rapes per 1000 students, the “top-ranked” colleges were Reed and Wesleyan.

InsideHigherEd criticized the rankings yesterday in a story by Jake New called “Dubious Data.” The criticisms fall into three categories.

1) The high numbers may actually reflect a better campus environment because women feel freer to report rapes, knowing that they will be treated well. (This might be considered a feminist critique.)
2) Under the Clery Act (the law that requires the reports), only on-campus assaults are reported, not those in the surrounding area. Thus, schools in urban areas where many students live off-campus might have more rapes than isolated rural schools, but many would not be reported.
3) The numbers are probably low, anyway. (This might also be called a feminist critique.) The American Association of Universities has developed a detailed campus “climate survey,” which asks students anonymously to share their experiences as well as their perception of their campus’s response to charges of rape. Survey summaries from Brown and the University of Oregon showed that far more many women claim “completed or unwanted nonconsensual penetration” on the survey than are reported under the Clery Act. A recent figure from the University of Oregon was 5.6 percent of female undergraduates, or 506 cases. the university reported six cases to the Education Department. The percentage at Brown was 2.2 percent or 70 students. Brown reported 43 rapes.