“We will share with the world what we learn with the survey,” he said. “I’ve spoken to no one who is against that.”

Laibson added that he expects all schools to take a similar course of action, and that the AAU will conduct national analysis with the compiled data.

According to Laibson, Harvard’s decision to help develop and use the AAU’s survey was made after extensive conversations with Harvard administrators, the AAU, and the “Ivy Plus” consortium—an informal body of elite colleges.

“We feel very strongly that there’s great benefit in having data that’s harmonized across schools,” Laibson said. “Every school could have its own survey, but there would be no way to compare data and leverage knowledge from one campus to another.”

Similar sexual assault surveys are already underway in several universities. MIT, for example, formulated and conducted a survey last spring delving into the campus culture surrounding sexual assault. Unlike the proposed national survey, it was designed by members of the MIT community.

The MIT study found that at least 17 percent of female MIT undergraduates indicated that they had been sexually assaulted. It also reported that 67 percent of MIT undergraduates said they think that “rape and sexual assault can happen unintentionally, especially if alcohol is involved.”

According to Laibson, Harvard plans to deploy the survey in spring 2014 at Harvard. He expects Harvard to release the results in early fall 2015. Flounlacker said the AAU will announce later this week which research firm it has contracted to conduct its survey.

The survey will be available in its first year to the 62 American and Canadian research universities that make up the AUU, along with the members of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, an umbrella organization composed of private universities.

—Staff writer Quynh-Nhu Le can be reached at quynhnhu.le@thecrimson.com.