A report from the California State Auditor found the California State University did not adequately address issues of sexual harassment following its release on Tuesday.

The State audit report follows an independent report made by law firm Cozen O’Connor looking into the same matters that was released Monday. Both reports have found significant problems with CSU’s handling of investigations and made similar recommendations to implement.

The report reviewed 40 cases of alleged sexual harassment between 2016 and 2022 from the Chancellor’s Office, Sonoma State, Fresno State and San José State. The audit found numerous issues across the system.

• Campuses did not appropriately investigate some allegations of sexual harassment.

• • More than half of the cases filed were missing important documentation, while nearly two thirds of those reviewed were untimely in their resolution. 
  • There were 11 cases found to warrant a formal investigation that closed without one. Seven cases were found to have discrepancies which led to questions regarding their conclusions.

• Campuses have not provided adequate corrective actions.

• • CSU lacks a consistent method for dealing with inappropriate conduct that does not fall into sexual harassment. 
  • CSU recommendation policy allows positive references for employees found to have engaged in sexual harassment.

• The Chancellor’s Office needs to take a more active role in campus oversight.

• • The office needs to apply uniform data collection standards and best practice guidelines. Additionally, the Chancellor’s Office has stopped doing regular compliance reviews of campuses.

In one particular case, a male professor who was found to have harassed a female student did not receive any disciplinary action for five years.

Ultimately, the campus only issued a letter reprimanding the individual for his conduct after the university determined that they missed the statute of limitation for imposing suspension, according to the report.  

The issues found within the report would require system wide changes at CSU. Specifically, the report said the Office of the Chancellor needs to take a more active role in overseeing CSU campus policies.

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The O’Connor report also uncovered issues when it came to data collection, noting there was no uniform system among the 23 different campuses and the Chancellor’s Office. The O’Conner report also found no consistent set of guidelines to deal with cases that did not fall under sexual harassment but still warranted corrective action.

Sacramento State’s Office of Equal Opportunity will implement the recommendations in the O’Connor report within two to three years, according to a statement from the office on Monday.

The State audit was requested and approved by the Joint Legislative Audit Committee following several high profile incidents of CSU campus’ mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations in recent years. One notorious incident was the resignation of CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro in February 2022 following his mishandling of sexual harassment allegations while serving as president of Fresno State.

 The report also included a response from the CSU’s Interim Chancellor Jolene Koester, sent June 16.

“We agree with and will implement the recommendations provided in the audit report,” Koester said. “As well as those identified in the Cozen assessment.”

The new Chancellor of CSU, Mildred García, was announced July 12. She is scheduled to start in the position Oct. 1.