Sexual Assault Policy

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Monday requiring California State University to implement a series of recommendations made last year as part of a state audit that found the university system had failed in its responsibility to prevent and investigate sexual assault.

“This bill will ensure that survivors are heard, perpetrators are held accountable, and our educational institutions maintain the highest standards of justice and support,” said the bill’s author, Rep. Damon Connolly.

The law, AB-1790, comes two years after news reports that administration at three California State University campuses had failed to follow sexual assault and harassment policies. The consequences led to the Resignation of the newly appointed CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro in 2022 and calls for investigations that led to the results of the state audit in 2023 and the current law.

What the test revealed

The exam found that the CSU chancellery had deficits in several areas:

• The university had failed to ensure that allegations of sexual harassment on its campuses were adequately and consistently investigated.
• The problem of sexual harassment was not addressed through disciplinary and remedial measures.
• A more active approach to preventing and combating sexual harassment must be taken.

The audit recommended 16 reforms to the way the university tracks sexual assault and harassment. The auditor ordered CSU to implement all but four of those recommendations by this month. The new law gives CSU until July 2026.

“The CSU shares legislators’ interest in ensuring that all students and staff at our 23 universities are protected from discrimination and harassment,” CSU spokeswoman Amy Bentley-Smith said in an email.

She said the CSU aims to “take a national leadership role in building a culture of caring and trust through better training and consistent and compassionate approaches to handling and resolving complaints.”

Bentley-Smith said the CSU had implemented 12 recommendations that the auditors said should be implemented by the end of July.

What the law requires

So why was the law necessary if the CSU accepted the recommendations?

“The California State Auditor’s recommendations are often ignored, not fully implemented, or not enforced,” the bill’s author, Assemblyman Damon Connolly, said by email.

California Rep. Damon Connolly has authored legislation that would force California State University to reform its sexual assault policies.

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Courtesy of MP Damon Connolly

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“AB 1790 ensures that these important changes are made in a timely manner in the interest of campus safety and well-being by enshrining them in law,” Connolly said.

The law states that on or before July 1, 2026, the CSU must:

• Develop standardized policies for all formal investigations into allegations of sexual harassment.
• Set key dates for the examinations to ensure that they are carried out on time.
• Establish system-wide requirements for each California State University campus and the Chancellor’s Office to address conduct that is unprofessional but does not rise to the threshold of sexual harassment.
• Prevent current and former employees who have been found to have committed sexual harassment from receiving an official positive employment reference.
• Each CSU campus and the Chancellor’s Office use the same case management system and consistently track data in their files. Issue comprehensive best practices, including how campuses should survey their communities and raise awareness of ways to report sexual harassment at each California State University campus.

What is still to be done?

Observers of sexual assault and harassment on college campuses welcomed the new California law.

“I think this is a very promising step,” said Elizabeth Tang, senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center.

She said California stands out because more than two dozen states have sued the Biden administration to prevent the expansion of sexual assault policies to LGBTQ+ students and to give campuses more flexibility in investigations.

It is important to address the universities’ failures in investigating the allegations and to hold perpetrators accountable, Tang said. But it is also crucial that universities do everything in their power to prevent attacks from happening in the first place.

The new law requires the CSU Chancellor’s Office to inform campuses how they can consult their communities on the issue of sexual assault.

“This is so important because so many people experience sexual harassment and don’t report it to school,” Tang said.

An anonymous survey can get to the bottom of why people don’t report, she said. It would ask questions like: “Did you know you could report it?”, “Were you afraid of retaliation?” or “Do you know anyone who had a negative experience after reporting an assault?”