Report 2022-109 Recommendation 15 Responses

Report 2022-109: California State University: It Did Not Adequately or Consistently Address Some Allegations of Sexual Harassment (Release Date: July 2023)

Recommendation #15 To: University, California State

To encourage systemwide adoption of best practices, the Chancellor's Office should, by January 2025, make revisions to its systemwide prevention policy or otherwise provide written guidance to campuses reflecting comprehensive best practices for preventing, detecting, and addressing sexual harassment. To develop these best practices, it should consult sources such as the U.S. Department of Justice's 2021 resolution agreement with San José State. The best practices should cover at least the following:

- How campuses should maintain accessible options for reporting sexual harassment.

- How campuses can widely disseminate information about their sexual harassment reporting options and related processes through methods such as campus-wide emails, social media platforms, on-campus postings, and student handbooks.

- How campuses can develop and distribute streamlined informational materials that explain key aspects of their processes related to sexual harassment.

- How campuses can monitor whether students and employees have completed required training.

- How campuses can most effectively make use of climate surveys through steps such as surveying both students and employees, designing surveys to assess the effectiveness of their sexual harassment prevention and education efforts, and establishing a documented process for taking action in response to survey findings.

6-Month Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office Prevention Policy focus group is continuing to meet and use the insights and recommendations from the California State Auditor Sexual Harassment/Title IX audit report as well as the Cozen O'Connor assessment to inform revisions to the systemwide prevention policy.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

The Chancellor's Office has established a Prevention Policy focus group that includes the Director of Systemwide Clery and Campus Safety Compliance, several campus Clery coordinators, as well as prevention specialists. The focus group met in July and August to discuss the California State Auditor Sexual Harassment/Title IX report recommendations as well as the Cozen O'Connor Title IX and Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation (DHR) Assessment Systemwide Report recommendations. The focus group will use feedback from the two reports to inform revisions to the systemwide prevention policy. The focus group plans to meet twice a month.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2022-109

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.