Sexual harassment has generally been the most common allegation reported to OPHD since Annual Report tracking began in 2017-2018. As the accompanying figure shows, reports of sexual harassment dropped dramatically during the 18 months during which campus instruction and work was largely remote and individuals were not in proximity to one another. By comparison, reports of relationship violence spiked in 2020-21, when individuals were sheltering from the pandemic and had less freedom to leave unsafe living situations. An emergent trend in the 2021-22 data, compared to all three previous years, is the increase in reports of sexual assault and stalking, which points to the need for renewed social norms campaigns and education for the community. It may be that a period of nearly two years without the kind of in-person social interactions that had, pre-pandemic, been the norm, led to a decrease in understanding of respectful interactions, consent, and boundaries.
Note: In the 2018 SVSH Annual Report, which covered July 1, 2017 - June 30, 2018, “SVSH unspecified” and “retaliation” were included as their own categories. For the purposes of comparison across years, these two categories were added to the “Other Prohibited Conduct” category.