USU Office of Equity Releases First Annual Report

Utah State University’s Office of Equity has released its first annual report, outlining its sexual misconduct and discrimination prevention and response efforts from August 2020 to July 2021.

The Office of Equity provides education, reporting options, supportive measures, and a neutral administrative grievance process to address and respond to sexual misconduct and discrimination incidents at the university. The office also has a strong focus on training, with most USU students and employees now required to complete at least one educational session annually.

“Information reported to the Office of Equity is private, and the office does not share information on how it responds to specific cases,” said Hilary Renshaw, USU’s Title IX coordinator. “This annual report is important because it provides aggregate data about how the office prevents and responds to reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination.”

The annual report outlines the Office of Equity’s sexual misconduct and discrimination prevention and response efforts. The report includes information about student and employee training, incident reports to the Office of Equity and case coordination related to those reports, claimant and respondent demographics, and investigations and the grievance process.

There were 597 incident reports concerning allegations of sexual misconduct or discrimination submitted to the Office of Equity from August 2020 to July 2021. After accounting for multiple reports on some incidents, there were 394 unique cases created. This included:

• 128 Title IX cases (incidents that occurred in an employment or education program or activity, including incidents occurring on campus)
• 144 non-Title IX sexual misconduct cases
• 81 discrimination cases
• 41 other cases

The report breaks down reported allegations by type and demographic information about claimants and respondents.

“We share this information so our community knows the types of behaviors reported to the university and how the Office of Equity responds to those reports,” Renshaw said.

The Office of Equity’s new executive director, Matthew Pinner, started at USU on Feb. 23. “As a new addition to the team, I have been overwhelmed by the kindness and welcoming nature of the USU family,” he said. “I look forward to working with staff, faculty, students and community members to build upon the important work reflected in this report.”

A one-page summary and the complete 2020-21 annual report are available online.