Yet another reason why Ivy League educations are overratedSpirits may be low over at the UW, what with a looming tuition increase and impending cuts in, well, nearly everything. But here comes news from something called the Campus Toleration Foundation, who in a recently completed study(PDF) ranks University of Washington students as some of the least handsy in the nation. The foundation surveyed students at the University of Washington and ten other institutes of higher ed. to get a sense for, among other things, how safe women actually are on the nation’s college campuses. Asked if they or anyone they know had experienced some form of sexual assault or harassment (defined as attempts to force kissing, fondling or intercourse without consent, and actual forced sex.), only 23 percent of the responding female students replied in the affirmative. So, according to the results of the survey, the UW is the safest college campus on a list that includes such august institutions as George Washington University, Barnard and Harvard. The latest crime stats from the University of Washington Police Department bear those numbers out. In 2008, there were only two reported on-campus sexual assaults, which is itself a reflection of a nationwide drop in reported rapes.

But before this news inspire too much self-congratulation, let’s remember that the operative word there is “reported.”