The California State University system is under fire for not adequately or consistently addressing certain allegations of sexual harassment. The California State Auditor’s office assessed 40 cases of alleged sexual harassment complaints against employees at the Chancellor’s Office, Fresno, San Jose, Sacramento State, and Sonoma State universities.
There were more than 1,200 reports of sexual harassment by employees overall at California State University campuses between 2018 and 2022, the report shows. Of those, 254 were investigated.
The audit found that CSU’s sexual harassment policies lack detailed guidelines about how to make and document such allegations. In other instances, campuses investigated the claims but did not implement corrective or disciplinary action, including one case where officials took no action in the five years after a faculty member was found guilty of sexual harassment, sexual violence and stalking.
The state auditor is calling on CSU to dedicate more resources to clarify and close gaps in its sexual harassment policies.