Takeaways

• Release of the Annual Title IX/Sexual Harassment Report containing how the university responded to reports of sexual assault and harassment during academic year 2022-23
• Number of reports decreased from the previous academic year from 214 to 175
• New Title IX regulations coming from the U.S. Department of Education this summer may change university procedures

Dear Stanford community,

Today, we are releasing the Annual Title IX/Sexual Harassment Report, which contains information on how Stanford educated our community on preventing sexual harassment, sexual assault, and gender discrimination, and how the university responded to reported incidents involving students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and staff during the period from Sept. 1, 2022, to Aug. 31, 2023.

This year’s report is being released later than in previous years. Last year, the SHARE/Title IX Office transitioned to a new case management system, one that is used by many other campus partners, such as Residential Education and the Dean of Students Office. Using a common system allows us to be able to receive reports more directly and quickly. However, converting previous data to the new system took much longer than we anticipated.

You can view the entire report here.

Why we share this report

The university began sharing the annual Title IX/Sexual Harassment reports in the 2016-17 academic year. We believe it’s important for the Stanford community to be aware of our prevention educational efforts and of the reports we receive and how they are handled, both in the spirit of transparency and to engage the community in helping to improve the campus climate around sexual misconduct.

We acknowledge that many instances of gender discrimination and sexual misconduct are not reported to the university. We hope that reading this report will encourage individuals to bring forward a concern that they may have experienced or witnessed. The SHARE Title IX Office provides a variety of supportive measures for those impacted by these issues. Information about support and resources can be found at https://equity.stanford.edu/sexual-violence-support.

Information Reported

The Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access, and Community prepared the report from data collected by Stanford’s SHARE Title IX Office and Human Resources/Employee and Labor Relations. To respect the privacy of affected individuals, the data are presented without revealing details about cases.

The number of reported incidents of prohibited conduct in 2022-23 was 175, a decrease from the previous year with 214 reported incidents. Among the outcomes of cases during this reporting period were six employee terminations.

Prevention Education

Stanford’s Title IX/Sexual Harassment Report also provides information about prevention education programs. Efforts include mandatory training on sexual harassment prevention for all four undergraduate classes, as well as the required comprehensive bi-annual training for all faculty and staff. In addition, the SHARE Title IX Office offers customized training upon request to departments and units.

In the past year, SHARE Title IX’s prevention efforts increased substantially by investing in the partnership with the Office of Substance Use Programs Education & Resources (SUPER). We expanded the PEERs (Prevent, Educate, Empower, and Refer) program, co-sponsored with SUPER, which resulted in facilitation of 30 in-person trainings and outreach events on topics at the intersection of sexual citizenship, substance use, and mental health. During this period, we were able to connect with over 1,200 campus community members through the efforts of the PEERs program.

Looking ahead

This summer, we anticipate changes to the Federal Title IX regulations, which will likely necessitate changes in Stanford’s procedures to comply with the new regulations. We also plan to perform a holistic review of our existing Title IX policies and procedures. This review is part of our ongoing commitment to evaluate and improve our efforts to ensure a respectful environment for all that is free from sexual harassment and sexual assault. Additionally, the SHARE Title IX Office added two new investigative staff last year, and we plan to add a third investigator to expand our capacity in this area.

We hope you will take some time to review the report. We welcome your feedback at titleix@stanford.edu.

Sincerely,

Patrick Dunkley
Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access, and Community

Stephen Chen
Title IX Coordinator and Director of SHARE Title IX