A report on the California State University’s Title IX and Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation programs released on Monday following a year-long assessment by law firm Cozen O’Connor.

The assessment, which began in March 2022, covers the 23 campuses and the Office of the Chancellor, reviewing how it implemented its Title IX and DHR programs. According to the report, its goal is to provide insights and recommendations for the CSU system to improve these programs.

At Sacramento State, O’Connor assessed the Office of Equal Opportunity, which administers the campus’ Title lX and DHR programs. In addition to the OEO, O’Connor looked at the University Police Department, University Housing and Athletics, among others.

RELATED: TIMELINE: Sexual assault at Sac State

The report details five areas of concern supplied with evidence and recommendations.

• Insufficient Infrastructure

• • The assessment “observed challenges with respect to resourcing,” and says administrators and campus partners reported that, “OEO was under-resourced to serve the needs of the university.”

• Awareness and Visibility of OEO

• • Campus officials have a generally positive impression of OEO while students have a “lack of fundamental understanding of what OEO is, what it does, the services and resources it offers and where it is located on campus,” according to the assessment.

• Internal OEO Processes and Coordination with Campus Partners

• • O’Connor observed that “OEO does not always formally separate its intake/outreach functions from its investigative function,” which caused some confusion amongst campus partners regarding how OEO evaluates what is and what is not a policy violation.

• Prevention and Education

• • Because of insufficient infrastructure, O’Connor reports that Sac State’s approach to prevention and education is to do it when necessary instead of strategically and says “prevention and education programming is minimal.”

• Documentation and Recordkeeping

• • The report’s final concern is the university’s “inconsistent documentation and recordkeeping practices,” and the inconsistency means information is not always available to departments such as OEO. “The inefficiency has resulted in an overreliance on individual and institutional memories.”

For additional context, O’Connor details developments that have improved OEO’s function since the firm visited campus in fall 2022. This includes the Sexual Violence Prevention, Safety and Support Action Plan, the hiring of a second campus Confidential Advocate and additional hires in OEO.

The findings in the Sac State report are similar to the summary of the systemwide report. The most pressing issues found within the latter are the following:

• The current infrastructure for Title IX and DHR implementation is not sufficient in its current state. There is a lack of consistency in oversight, digital organization and policy guidelines, especially in regard to “other conduct of concern” which doesn’t necessarily fall into Title IX or DHR.
• Programs are chronically understaffed, with a high turnover rate and issues regarding proper training.
• There is a severe lack of trust from the members of the CSU community, including faculty, staff and students. According to the report, much of this distrust stems from public mishandling of incidents from CSU.

As part of the assessment, O’Conner requested and received samples of the reports OEO handled, and found investigations to be concluded within an average of four to five months. The firm also requested a timeline of the office’s cases over the last two years but did not receive it.

Following the release of the report, a campus-wide email was sent from President Luke Wood, during his first day as Sac State’s president. According to the announcement, an “implementation team” has been assembled to pursue the recommendations provided in the report.

“This work will be challenging, but I know that we are up to the challenge,” Wood said. “Our full support and appreciation go to the implementation team members who will invest their time, energy and expertise in this vital effort.”

The systemwide report and the individual reports for each campus can be found on CSU’s website.

Alongside the O’Connor report, a state audit report looking into CSU’s handling of sexual harassment at the chancellor’s office and multiple campuses is expected to be released on Tuesday. The audit started in June 2022 and looked at complaints involving staff, faculty and executives throughout CSU.

Editor’s note: The California state audit released on Tuesday, read our coverage of the audit here.