A first-of-its-kind annual report from Michigan State University details the number of relationship violence and sexual misconduct complaints the university received during the 2015-2016 academic year and highlights efforts to increase staffing, resources and awareness around prevention and response.
The report, created by MSU’s Office for Institutional Equity and Title IX Office, includes information on complaints, findings, the length of investigations and training efforts across campus as the university continued the evolution of its Title IX program with the creation of the OIE in April 2015. The office now handles all discrimination and sexual assault investigations.
That move was vital in helping MSU better address relationship violence and sexual misconduct, President Lou Anna K. Simon said.
“The annual report underlines our efforts to be better tomorrow than we are today and is a part of our ongoing work to ensure there is no place on our campus for sexual assault or relationship violence,” she said. “At Michigan State University, we acknowledge sexual assault is a societal issue that we must confront with urgency, and the entire Spartan community must remain vigilant and steadfast in our commitment to build a culture of respect and caring.”
For the 2015-2016 academic year (Aug. 16, 2015 to Aug. 15, 2016), there were 461 incidents reported to OIE under MSU’s Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct Policy, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, relationship violence, stalking and retaliation. For the previous academic year, there were 201 estimated incidents reported (number of complaints for previous years are estimated due to changing federal guidelines and different systems MSU uses to compile data).
Of the 461 reports, 66 were formally investigated and 17 are still open, resulting in 38 violation findings. Sanctions for those incidents range from dismissals to probation. Of the 378 reports not formally investigated by OIE, 289 were because the complainant either did not wish to move forward or would not follow-up with investigators; 50 were cases where MSU did not have jurisdiction; 27 cases did not meet the standard set in the RVSM policy; and 12 were resolved through administrative processes outside of OIE.
A full copy of the report can be found at http://titleix.msu.edu/information-reports/index.html.
Efforts around awareness are one of the reasons for an increase in reports, said Jessica Norris, MSU’s Title IX coordinator. Last year, 97 percent of students took part in online training on relationship violence and sexual misconduct; 92 percent of employees did so.
“We believe the increase in reports is a result of efforts at MSU to raise awareness, rather than an increase in incidents,” she said. “This is consistent with data from the National College Health Assessment that shows MSU students have the highest level of awareness regarding sexual assault and relationship violence among all participating universities.
“The improvements highlighted in the report are evidence of MSU’s ongoing commitment to creating and maintaining a campus community that reflects our Spartan values.”
Some of those improvements included more than doubling the number of OIE investigators, facilitating nearly 40 in-person campus training programs and dramatically cutting the length of time of OIE investigations. Norris said while MSU has made substantial progress, there is more work to be done to improve the timeliness of processes while also assuring fairness.
The report comes as MSU’s OIE and Title IX offices implemented new mandatory online training for all students, launched a new website and increased training for both student and faculty groups. Additionally, the student conduct process continues to evolve as MSU launches new internal systems to better manage investigation timelines and improve reporting. Later this year, MSU will be launching a new It’s On Us prevention campaign as well as introducing new mandatory online employee training in early 2017.
For more information on MSU’s OIE and Title IX offices, policies and procedures, including information on resources and how to report misconduct, please visit http://oie.msu.edu/ or http://titleix.msu.edu/.