Lawmakers order Cal State to fix how schools investigate sexual assault and harassment

Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law on Monday that compels the California State University to adopt a set of recommendations made last year in a state audit that found the university system had fallen short in its responsibility to prevent and investigate sexual assault.

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

The law, AB-1790, comes two years after news reports revealed that administrators at three California State University campuses had not followed sexual assault and harassment policies. The fallout led to the resignation of newly appointed CSU Chancellor Joseph Castro in 2022 and calls for investigations that led to the state audit results in 2023 and the current law.

What the audit found

The audit found the CSU Chancellor’s office had fallen short in several areas:

• It had not ensured its campuses adequately and consistently investigate allegations of sexual harassment.
• It had not addressed sexual harassment through discipline and corrective actions.
• It needed to take a more active approach to prevent and address sexual harassment.

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

“The CSU shares the legislators' interest in ensuring all students and employees across our 23 universities are protected from discrimination and harassment,” said CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith in an email.

CSU, she said, wants to be “a national leader in building a culture of care and trust through greater training and consistent and compassionate practices for handling and resolving complaints.”

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

What the law requires

So, why was the law needed if CSU’s adopting the recommendations?

“California State Auditor recommendations are often ignored, not fully implemented, or unenforced,” said Assemblymember Damon Connolly, the law’s author, via email.

California Assemblymember Damon Connolly authored a law to force California State University to reform its sexual assault policies.

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Courtesy of Assemblymember Damon Connolly

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“AB 1790 ensures that these important changes in the interest of campus safety and wellness will happen in a timely manner by codifying them into law,” Connolly said.

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

• Develop standardized guidelines for all formal investigations into allegations of sexual harassment.
• Develop key dates for investigations in order to ensure a timely process.
• Establish systemwide requirements for each California State University campus and the chancellor’s office to address conduct that is unprofessional but does not meet the threshold of sexual harassment.
• Prevent current and former employees found to have engaged in sexual harassment from getting official positive references for employment.
• Each CSU campus and the chancellor’s office use the same case management system and track data consistently in their files· Issue comprehensive best practices, including how campuses should survey their communities and increase awareness of options for reporting sexual harassment for each California State University campus.

What else has 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 with the National Women’s Law Center.

She said California stands out because more than two dozen states have sued the Biden Administration to stop a widening of sexual assault policies regarding LGBTQ+ students and giving campuses more flexibility in investigations.

Addressing university shortcomings in the investigation and holding perpetrators accountable is important, Tang said, but it’s also key for campuses to do what they can to prevent assaults from happening in the first place.

The new law requires the CSU Chancellor’s office to inform campuses how to survey their communities on sexual assault issues.

“That is so important because there are so many people who experience sexual harassment who are not reporting it to their schools,” Tang said.

An anonymous survey, she said, can get to the heart of why people don’t file a complaint by asking questions such as, “Did you know you could report it?,” “Were you afraid of retaliation?,” or “Do you know someone who had a negative experience after reporting an assault?”