STORRS — A new annual report required by state lawmakers shows there were 85 sexual assault complaints from members of the UConn community in 2014, and seven students expelled for committing sexual assault.
The report, posted online Thursday morning, is more comprehensive then the federal data the school released last week that showed 43 reported rapes on campus in 2014, up from 18 the previous year.
The state report includes reports of sexual assaults committed both on and off campus and sexual assaults that were reported in 2014, but occurred in previous years.
Similar reports are expected to be made public in the coming days from every college and university in the state.
According to the report, 59 of the UConn sexual assaults occurred during 2014 and 46 allegedly were committed by members of the university community. Twenty-four victims chose not to participate in the university disciplinary process.
There were 13 university disciplinary proceedings for alleged sexual assaults. Seven students were expelled as a result, five found not responsible and one student cancelled his enrollment before going through the process.
“We have a history of expelling for the most severe acts and I think our report demonstrates that for this year,” said Elizabeth Conklin, the school’s Title IX coordinator, and author of the report.
The report also showed there were 18 reports of stalking at UConn during that calendar year, 17 involving a member of the school community, and 28 reports of “intimate partner violence.”
Four of the stalking reports resulted in disciplinary cases by the school. One student was suspended, two students were placed on probation and one student was cleared of the charges.
The report does not indicate how many of the sexual assault or other cases resulted in criminal prosecutions.
Yale, which puts out a report every six months, reported 42 sexual assaults in 2014, 29 during the first six months of and 13 during the second. The school had 15 stalking incidents reported, 10 in the second half of 2014.
The reports were mandated by the legislature in 2014 after a series of high-profile incidents, including a Title IX lawsuit that eventually was settled with a group of women who alleged UConn responded to their claims of campus sexual assaults with deliberate indifference or worse.
Title IX is the federal law that guarantees equal educational opportunities to students regardless of sex at schools that receive federal funds.
The idea was to give students and lawmakers an apples-to-apples view of the sexual assault problem at campuses across Connecticut and data that could help them better form state policy, lawmakers said at the time.
The report also provides details of how the university investigates sexual assault complaints and the resources available to victims and the university community, including the school’s new Title IX website on which the report was posted.
According to the report there were 251 separate programs on campus last year designed to raise awareness and reduce the risk of sexual assault, stalking, and intimate partner violence prevention, at UConn in 2014.
“We know reports are up significantly,” said Conklin. “This report is a great mechanism for raising awareness, and we do believe the higher reports are correlating with greater awareness.”
