California State Auditor to Review Sexual Misconduct Polices at Chico and San Diego State Universities
ByChico State University and San Diego State University will join UCLA and UC-Berkeley in undergoing state audits for their policies on sexual misconduct.
According to the Huffington Post, Chico and San Diego were announced Wednesday as the remaining California State University campus to undergo the review. The state audits follow federal complaints against UC-Berkeley for Clery Act violations. The state review is expected to be completed and released by April 2014.
The state auditor will examine how all four schools comply with federal laws like Title IX, the Clery Act and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (SaVE), which was singed under the Violence Against Women Act. Title IX ensures equal treatment to women, Clery requires schools to release all campus crimes in an annual transparency report and SaVE requires schools to properly investigate and adjudicate sexual misconduct on campus.
The review will look at the schools' policies for how to follow through on reports of sexual misconduct and how often the school does so. In other words, the auditor's office will determine "how many formal investigations were conducted in comparison with issues addressed through an informal resolution process."
UC-Berkley, Occidental College and the University of Southern California (USC) have all seen complaints lodged against them with the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). It is unclear why UCLA, Chico and San Diego were selected for the review, as they have not been subject to those types of complaints or investigations.
The Huffington Post pointed out Chico and San Diego's growing reputation as party schools. Occidental and USC will not be subject to state audit because they are not public and state funded, said Assemblyman Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood), author of the audit draft.
Earlier this week, UCLA said it was confident the audit would uphold the school's policies for investigating and adjudicating sexual misconduct.
"Preventing sexual violence and harassment require total vigilance, and UCLA takes seriously its responsibility to educate students, care for victims and properly adjudicate cases involving sexual conduct and crimes," said campus spokesman Phil Hampton.