One of the concerns often shared by parties in a complaint, and by 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 21 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 to the issuance of a completed investigation report.)
For protected category discrimination/harassment investigations involving student respondents, the median duration was 127 business days. Discrimination/harassment investigations involving employees took longer, with a median of 153 business days for cases with staff and non-faculty academic personnel respondents and a median of 150 days for cases with faculty respondents.
SVSH investigations exhibited slightly lower median durations, with a 95 day median duration for cases involving student respondents, a 120 day median duration for cases involving employee respondents.