The changes also would include having colleges adopt the FBI's more inclusive definition of rape and including gender identity and national origin in categories of bias for hate crimes.

"Not only are these [changes] a good thing, but we're really pleased to see the process marching along as it should," says Lisa Maatz, vice president of government relations for the American Association of University Women.

On the whole, students appear to be less concerned about issues of sexual assault and gun violence and more concerned about another campus safety issue: having their bikes or laptops stolen at school, according to a new survey from Chegg.

The California-based academic company surveyed a panel of more than 15,000 high school and college students in June – 1,765 of whom responded to the poll – and found that 55 percent listed property crimes as their top concern. Another 34 percent said nonlethal assaults – including sexual assault – were most concerning, and 10 percent said gun violence was their top concern.

[ALSO: White House Task Force Seeks to Tackle College Sexual Assault]

The responses varied greatly by gender. Women were far more concerned than men about incidents of assault on campus and were more likely to say their school was not doing well enough in preventing sexual assaults. Overall, 41 percent of female students ranked nonlethal assaults as their top concern, compared with 25 percent of men. Likewise, 43 percent of female students said their school wasn't doing enough to prevent assaults, compared with 32 percent of men.

"What really did get to me is just the level of uncomfortableness that young women feel on college campuses, where you’re supposed to feel secure," says Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Chegg. "There is an uncomfortable culture for women … on college campuses and this survey really does suggest schools need to step up and do more around communication and education – the things schools are great at."



Rosensweig says that while the Education Department's proposed changes are a step in the right direction, it might push some universities to discourage students from reporting incidents because they will be held more accountable.

"We live in a world of wherever there’s greater transparency, there’s a better dialogue and better decisions get made," Rosensweig says. "I do think that greater transparency will absolutely lead to better decisions by families and students and greater action and accountability by schools. But the risk, of course, is bad actors will discourage people from communicating it so they don’t have to publish it." "This alone doesn't solve the problem, but I do think it's a responsible thing … that will force greater action and greater awareness," Rosensweig adds. Underreporting is already an issue at colleges, Maatz says, because students often don't feel respected during the process. [MORE: Ways Parents, Students Can Research Campus Safety] "Universities, instead of treating this as a serious campus climate issue that should be proactively addressed, often treat this as a public relations issue that needs to be suppressed later," Maatz says. "It needs to be addressed – it shouldn't be swept under the rug." She says the results of the Chegg survey are yet another piece of evidence that sexual assault is "a much bigger campus climate issue" that universities need to be addressing. "T "T

his is very much a part of the landscape for women who are in college," Maatz says. "If universities still needed persuading … this study shows them

that their own students see the issue and also quite frankly see their school is not doing enough. In many respects this is a bit of a clarion call, saying, 'We want some help. You're not providing it.'"