May 13, 2014 11:58 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

A prominent higher education lobbying group is trying to get in the way of a survey meant to gather data on how schools across the nation respond to sexual assault on campus.

According to the Huffington Post, the office of Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said the American Council for Education (ACE) is trying to coach recipients of her survey on how to fill it out. ACE has reportedly hired a law firm to reach out to the 450 colleges and universities McCaskill sent her extensive survey to and provide webinars on whether or not they should partake or refuse it altogether.

"I have now received reports from several representatives of educational institutions that the webinar cautioned institutions regarding whether and how they would respond to the survey," McCaskill wrote in a letter to ACE President Molly Corbett Broad. "I have also heard reports that this webinar has had a chilling effect on institutions' participation in the survey.

"Given these efforts, I am extremely troubled by the fact that the American Council on Education provided counsel to its member institutions which may have had the opposite effect."

ACE has 1,800 member institutions, including private and public institutions as well as accreditors and it is one of the more prominent lobbying groups in higher education. The group calls itself "the most influential" of its peers.

Ada Meloy, general counsel for the ACE, said McCaskill's assertion is off-base and the webinars are strictly "educational" and should be considered coaching. Meloy also responded to McCaskill's office in a letter of their own.

"No one was discouraged from responding to the survey," Meloy told the HP. "No specific advice was given on how to answer the questions.

"The concept [that] they're asking for these things is contrary to the idea that we're a membership organization and that we provide services to the members."

The White House recently released its report, "Not Alone," on recommendations for colleges to handle sexual assault on campus appropriately. The University of New Hampshire, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas - Austin are also helping craft the recommendations. The Obama Administration has said it hopes to mandate surveys like the one McCaskill sent out within the next two years.

"There's so much information out there," Meloy said. "I don't think there's hesitation about a little bit more coming out."

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