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KANSAN.COM/NEWS | THURSDAY, DEC. 1, 2016
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How universities do, and don't, inform the public about sexual misconduct cases
▶ CONNER MITCHELL
@connermitchellO
Photo illustration by Missy Minear
The University's Office Of Institutional Opportunity and Access received 273 reports of sexual harassment and sexual violence between May 2012 and Aug. 18, 2016, according to records obtained by the Kansan under the Kansas Open Records Act.
The data provide the first complete number of incidents reported to the campus agency since it was established four years ago to investigate such cases. The University has refused to release on a routine basis information about incidents reported to IOA, preventing students from knowing how many assaults may have been committed, where and when.
University officials say they would be violating federal student privacy laws by releasing the information. Several universities, however, including Connecticut and Yale, routinely provide that information to the public. Federal officials say there are no restrictions against providing such information, as long as it does not disclose personally identifiable information.
The data provided to the Kansan list the reports related to the conduct of faculty, staff, student, visitor, non-KU and unknown respondents from both the Lawrence and Edwards campuses, as well as the length of each IOA investigation. There are no details on time, location, age or other details of the University's investigation efforts.
Various complaints against the University contend that the lack of detail and timely disclosure of the number of reports received prevents students from knowing where sexual assaults take place on campus when they aren't reported to the police, creating potential safety hazards.
Sexual assault at the University was pushed into the national spotlight in 2014, after a Huffington Post article detailed a particularly lenient punishment for a male student who was found to have had "nonconsensual sex" with a female student.
Transparency at the University
Since the task force recommendations went into effect, the University has been sued under Title IX, the federal guideline for responding to reports of sexual violence, twice, and under the Kansas Consumer Act in a separate lawsuit saying the University misrepresents its on-campus housing as safe.
One week after the article was published, the University announced the creation of a Sexual Assault Task Force to examine the University's response to sexual assault on campus. In September of 2015, it announced the planned implementation of 22 changes recommended by the task force.
email that there are a number of factors at play in releasing information detailing the magnitude of sexual harassment and sexual violence reports.
"KU balances providing an accurate and clear picture of campus safety while also protecting those individuals involved by not disclosing identifiable information," her statement said. "Beyond victims and those accused, privacy must also be considered for students and others who are witnesses or otherwise involved in the investigation."
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, said in an
Barcomb-Peterson said the University cannot present a data set or ongoing count of the reports the IOA receives, as it would be out of line with the Family and Educational Right to Privacy Act, which prohibits the disclosure of personally identifiable information.
The Kansan asked Wednesday for the number of reports the IOA has received related to sexual assault and sexual harassment since the beginning of the school year, but the data were not readily available at press time. The story will be updated online if and when the data are provided to the Kansan.
The University does detail sanctions for students who are found to have violated the Sexual Harassment Policy on the Student Affairs website, but does not provide dates or any context as to the violation committed. The sanctions detailed were ajudicated between May 2012 and Sept. 15, 2015 and do not include the current academic year. Barcomb-Peterson said the webpage would likely be updated before the end of the current semester.
Every year, Richardson said universities meet with the Regents Governance Committee to conduct a security audit of various aspects of campus safety, including sexual assault reports. She said the topic of the audit can be tailored to the most pressing business, such as preparing campus buildings for the impending changes to Kansas concealed carry laws.
Breeze Richardson, communications director for the Board of Regents, said there is no policy for Kansas institutions that speaks to the safety information which must be made available for public consumption.
Richardson said the topics discussed are not made public due to security concerns.
"Because of the holistic nature of what is discussed, the information is simply too sensitive to release [to the public]," she said. "[Releasing information] gives too much information to potential wrongdoers."
The Jeanne Clery Act is the only stipulation that Regents universities are required to abide by in terms of releasing information specifically on sexual assault, Richardson said. Enacted in 1990, the federal law calls for universities to release blanket numbers each year in different categories such as criminal offenses, hate crimes, arrests and incidents of sexual violence.
Federal guidelines on reporting sexual assault
All colleges and universities that participate in federal student aid programs are required to release statistics yearly which detail campus crime rates and give context to campus safety.
However, what is reported in the Clery Act does not account for all reported instances of crime that take place on campuses.
According to the Department of Education's Handbook for Campus Safety and Security Reporting, institutions are only required to count and report crimes that fit the federal definitions outlined in the Clery Act, which does not include every report a campus office receives about a particular crime.
In a statement to the Kansan, the Office for Civil Rights - the federal office tasked with promoting equal access to education through the enforcement of civil rights - said there is nothing within federal law requiring universities to detail the number of reports they receive in relation to sexual violence.
"Title IX does not require schools to 'file' internal investigation reports directly with OCR, nor does OCR require a school to release statistics about its Title IX complaints or investigations, although OCR may request this information as part of an investigation as to whether a school responded appropriately to reports of sexual harassment or violence," the statement said.
In its 2016 Clery Report, detailing crimes from 2015, the University reported 11 rapes and 4 fondlings that happened on campus. Data provided to the Kansan suggest a much higher level of reporting sexual harassment and sexual violence. According to that information, in 2015 alone, the IOA received 65 reports of sexual misconduct.
How other universities report sexual assault
The University of Connecticut, a public institution with an enrollment of around 31,000 people, releases a yearly report in addition to its required Clery report. The report details the number of sexual assaults, stalking incidents and intimate partner violence crimes reported to the university in addition to any subsequent disciplinary action.
University of Connecticut Title IX coordinator Elizabeth Conklin said the Connecticut General Assembly enacted a law in 2014 requiring universities in the state to release a yearly report detailing specific reports of sexual assault reports. Conklin said Clery reporting consists of narrowly defined crimes, and a report detailing the number of reports a campus receives can give a clearer picture of a campus climate.
"At UConn, we've been really in favor of transparency in terms of these numbers. We're seeing dramatically increasing numbers of disclosures since we've started releasing the report, and I think that's a good thing," Conklin said.
Yale University, a private institution, releases a report similar to Connecticut's every six months, but without a legal mandate to do so. Yale's Title IX coordinator could not be
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reached for comment; however, according to the Yale provost's website, the report is released to promote transparency.
"Through these reports, the University Title IX Coordinator hopes to inform the community about issues of sexual misconduct, raise awareness about the procedures used to investigate and address them, and engage the community in the University's efforts to prevent sexual misconduct," the website says.
In her experience, Conklin said, the more universities can talk about sexual violence and confront what is happening on campuses,the more prepared they can be to prevent incidents from happening.
"Transparency to the university community about what you're seeing is a good idea," she said. "There's no magic way or single way to do it. I think what we hear from our students, faculty and employees is they want to have a sense of what's happening. I think that's a good thing. If putting out information about the topic [of sexual violence] helps that, then I'm in favor."
- Edited by Chandler Boese
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