CAMPUS

The study

CAMPUS—the Collaborative Model-building Project to Understand Sexual Violence—examines how alcohol use, peer relationships, social norms, and campus policies interact to shape sexual violence on college campuses. Led by Christina Mair at the University of Pittsburgh, the project brings students and campus practitioners into the development of models intended to support prevention decisions.

From shared understanding to prevention decisions

Students and practitioners map causes, consequences, and feedback loops, identify prevention opportunities, and refine the models with the research team. These models make connections among drinking culture, peer norms, consent communication, reporting, peer support, and bystander action explicit. A related pilot with sexual and gender minority students contributes to the broader project’s work with college students.

The collaborative modeling provides a foundation for agent-based simulation development. The aim is to explore how combinations of policies, programs, and behavioral or community interventions might work under different campus conditions, supporting decisions that fit a campus’s context.

Travis’s contribution

As a Co-Investigator, Travis contributes community-based system dynamics and collaborative model development. His work includes refining and integrating causal models and developing a stock-and-flow theory of change that clarifies prevention mechanisms and informs subsequent simulation work.

Methods and contributions

Collaborative model building · Community-based system dynamics · Causal loop and stock-and-flow modeling · Agent-based simulation development