Of the 45 investigations completed by OPHD in the 2022-23 fiscal year, just over half (25, or 56%) were investigations into SVSH reports. The other 44.4% of cases were investigations of protected category discrimination and harassment reports (Figure 31).
Figure 32: Investigations completed by OPHD (July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023)
Figure 33 illustrates the (preliminary) determinations of the investigations into (non-SVSH) discrimination and harassment complaints completed by OPHD between July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023. (For various reasons, certain investigation outcomes, including all investigations with student respondents, are considered to be preliminary pending a possible subsequent hearing process; for simplicity, all OPHD determinations in this section are referred to as preliminary.) The one completed investigation involving a student respondent resulted in a preliminary determination of a policy violation. Of the 13 completed staff and non-faculty academic personnel investigations, four resulted in a preliminary determination of a policy violation. Of six completed investigations involving faculty respondents, only one resulted in a preliminary determination of a policy violation.
Figure 33: Investigation preliminary determinations of closed protected category discrimination/harassment complaints (not SVSH) (July 1, 2022 - June 20, 2023).
Figure 34 depicts the preliminary determinations of the investigations of SVSH complaints that were completed by OPHD between July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023. Of the nine investigations involving student respondents, six resulted in a preliminary determination of a policy violation. Of the eight completed SVSH investigations involving staff or faculty respondents, half resulted in preliminary determinations of policy violations.
Figure 34: Preliminary determinations of SVSH investigations
One of the concerns shared by both parties in a complaint, and the campus community, is the length of time it takes overall to investigate and adjudicate discrimination and harassment cases. The UC SVSH Policy offers the most detail about timelines, stating that “the Title IX office will typically complete its investigation within 60 to 90 business days from the date of the notice of charges.” In reality, the length of an investigation varies according to a number of factors, including the complexity of the case. Extensions for a good cause are allowed.
Figure 35 shows the median length of investigations into allegations of discrimination and harassment complaints (Investigation durations are calculated as the number of business days from the Notice of Investigation by OPHD to the issuance of a completed investigation report.) For protected category discrimination/harassment investigations involving student respondents, the median duration was 90 days. Discrimination/harassment investigations involving employees took slightly longer, with a median of 110 business days for cases with staff and non-faculty academic personnel respondents and a median of 100 days for cases with faculty respondents.
SVSH investigations exhibited roughly similar median durations, with a 93.5 day median duration for cases involving faculty respondents, a 120.5 day median duration for cases involving student respondents, and a median duration of 106 days for cases in which the respondents were staff or non-faculty academic personnel (Figure 35). The median durations of SVSH investigations for all respondent affiliations were slightly shorter than the medians in 2021-22.
Figure 35: Median length of investigations