Complainants (impacted parties) themselves directly submitted 31% of the discrimination and harassment allegations reported to OPHD (Figure 17). In comparison, 17% of SVSH reports were reported by the complainant (Figure 11). One likely cause of this discrepancy is the stigma and debelief survivors of SVSH commonly report feeling in surveys such as the 2018 MyVoice Survey, which can be a deterrent to reporting.
While the majority of SVSH reports came from Responsible Employees (Figure 11), only 26% of non-SVSH Protected Category discrimination and harassment reports came from University employees. This is likely due in part to a historical difference in reporting obligations of University employees.
For years, all University employees (with the exception of Confidential Resources) have had an obligation under the UC SVSH Policy to notify the Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) when, in the course of their employment, they learned of conduct prohibited by the UC SVSH Policy. This is called a Responsible Employee obligation. The UC Anti-Discrimination Policy, which went into effect February 2024, introduced new Responsible Employee obligations for certain University employees, including all managers and supervisors (including Deans, Department Chairs, and Directors of Organized Research Units) and faculty members. As awareness of this obligation grows, the share of reports from Responsible Employees is likley to increase.