New University of Oregon Alters Faculty Mandatory Reporting Status

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported today about the University of Oregon's notable decision to amend the responsibilities of faculty member who learn about sexual misconduct in the university's jurisdiction. Currently, faculty members like most university employees at Oregon and elsewhere are required to report to the Title IX Coordinator when a student discloses (or they otherwise learn) that he or she has been sexually assaulted. The trend toward assigning faculty members responsibility as mandatory reporters resulted from the Department of Education's policy statements clarifying universities' obligations under Title IX to respond appropriately to Title IX. Universities had in the past defended some of their failures to respond to instances of sexual assault by claiming that appropriate officials were not aware of what had occurred. So to minimize the possibility that communication gaps could undermine universities' prompt and equitable response, it made statements broadly defining mandatory reporters.  In particular, the Department's 2014 Q&A document requires universities to mandate reporting from anyone who has the "authority to take action to redress sexual violence," or anyone who a student could "reasonably believe" has such authority. Universities have generally interpreted this requirement broadly to include faculty.

But many have criticized the mandating of faculty members' reporting as undermining its intended objective of helping to protect sexual assault victims. Some believe that students expect faculty members to honor requests for confidentiality and feel betrayed when a faculty member is not able to do so because of policies that require reporting. It is possible that the fear of such betrayal deters victims from reporting. On the other hand, the fear that the university will not respond is also believed to deter victims from reporting. So universities must address this issue with care.

The University of Oregon believes its new approach, will takes effect this fall, will do a better job encouraging students to disclose without undermining the communication required to initiate an institutional response. Faculty members will neither be mandatory reporters nor fully exempt from reporting, but will have the ability to use discretion to decide the reporting question. As the Chronicle summarized, "If a student says she was raped but isn’t ready to a report it, her professor can generally honor that request." But the faculty member must also provide the student with information about reporting, as well as other resources, and they must even consult a campus health counselor to make sure they have done everything they can to help the student.

Even with those other responsibilities in place, what still worries me about this policy is that when information is not channeled to a centralized office, fewer people are in a position to notice the kinds of patterns that could reveal a genuine threat. What if three different students confidentially report to three different professors that they have been sexually assaulted by the same student? If the reporting students do not know about each other, then neither will the professors. The professors will therefore underestimate the risk of not reporting and decide to honor the student's request for confidence. This possible downside of Oregon's new policy is only worth it, in my opinion, if it truly serves to increase reporting overall. I wonder -- and hope -- there is some way to measure the impact of this policy change in order to help accurately weigh the tradeoffs involved.