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I think that you should scrutinize this article a bit more closely. This article clearly states that "The researchers defined unwanted sexual contact as situations in which individuals tried to rebuff a sexual advance by saying words like "no" or by physically struggling or crying, or situations in which sexual contact occurred under threat of violence or with the victim being drugged or passed out."
Although this sort of thing has been misrepresented as rape in the past, and no doubt will be again in the future, I don't see from this article that she is trying to do that. Just because something isn't rape doesn't mean that it isn't worth measuring or studying.
Further down we get a clearer picture of where the rape comes in. "while 6.4% [of the women interviewed] said the unwanted contact had included intercourse." So it would seem from this study that she didn't work with the assumption that "ANY unwanted sexual contact constitutes rape".
This study certainly can't be taken at face value though, particularly considering that her rate of 6.4% covers one semester! That very roughly works out to over 12% per year (not counting summer) which puts the "1 in 4" figure (which is over a college carreer and includes both completed and attempted rapes) to shame.(The US NIJ has a lifetime rate of rape around 7-8%)
Her methodology certainly needs some looking into, furthermore Reuters deserves a slap on the wrist for not mentioning that all her numbers are well out of the norm even for a feminist study.
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