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The purpose of this research was to examine the campus experiences of undergraduate and graduate women students at a research university. Although it has been more than 20 years since the term "chilly campus climate" was described in Hall and Sandler's (1984) seminal work, this study found such a climate, in terms of campus safety, still exists for women students. Across race, university classification, and level of involvement, the women students in this study reported a chilly campus climate that served to further perpetuate a culture of fear women students felt for their campus safety.
Over the past several decades colleges and universities have focused efforts on making campuses more equitable for men and women, yet the college experience remains impacted by gender inequities (Janz & Pyke, 2000; Smith, Morrison, & Wolf, 1994). With the struggles for gender equity have come some positive changes along the way. One improvement has been women's participation in colleges and universities. The number of undergraduate and graduate women students grew from five million in 1975 to eight million in 1997 (King, 2000). Although some of the increased enrollment came from White women who held a slight majority over White men at four-year institutions, much of the increase came from African American, Latino, and Native American women who held large majorities over men in higher education (King). Thus, women of all races are participating more in higher education. In addition, women earned the majority of associate, bachelors, and masters degrees (King), and they were more likely than men to earn better grades and graduate with honors (Astin, 1993). Yet, the picture of women college students is not completely positive.
A closer look also reveals the documented change of women college students' emotional health, self-confidence, and self-esteem (Aleman & Renn, 2002; Hall & Sandier, 1984; Smith et al., 1994). Researchers have noted that "women's self-esteem apparently continues to decline during their time in college" (Pascarella et al., 1997, p. 109). Something has been occurring at colleges and universities that is impinging on women's wellbeing, despite academic gains. In order to understand what is occurring for women college students, this study examines their perceptions of and experiences with campus climate at a research university.
"Chilly campus climate" was originally coined by...