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December 21, 2022

Dear Members of the CSU Community,

Chancellor Koester’s message to the community dated December 21 describes opportunities for the CSU community to provide additional feedback to the Cozen O’Connor Institutional Response Group that is currently conducting a systemwide assessment of California State University’s implementation of Title IX, and Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation (DHR) programs. The Chancellor’s message also describes how Cozen will report to each campus about its campus visit. This message provides more details about each of these topics.

How to Share Feedback with the Cozen Assessment Team Cozen’s Survey

In January, you will receive an email from your campus with a link to your campus’s unique survey. The survey will remain open until February 15, 2023. This survey is anonymous and confidential, and only Cozen will receive the survey responses.

Surveys designed to assess an institution’s programs and services regarding discrimination and harassment (including sexual misconduct, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, sexual exploitation, stalking and retaliation) cover difficult and highly personal subjects that may be triggering. With this in mind, you may wish to complete the survey after the winter break so that, if needed, you may access on-campus support and resources.

If you would like to complete the survey before you receive the email from your campus, it is available now by clicking on the link below that corresponds to the campus where you study or work.

Email Cozen

Any member of the CSU community may also share confidential feedback with the Cozen assessment team by sending an email to CalStateReview@Cozen.com.

Cozen’s Findings and Recommendations

Campus Reports
In February and March, the Cozen team will prepare written reports for each campus describing the campus visit; aggregate themes shared by university community members; strengths the university should continue to support; areas that call for improvement; and recommendations, including steps the university can take promptly (even in the absence of significant additional funding) to address issues such as staffing and campus climate.

Each campus president will form a campus team that will be charged with implementing the recommendations in the campus report. This working group will likely include the president’s chief of staff or a member of president’s cabinet, the Title IX Coordinator, the DHR Administrator, a staff member, a representative of the faculty senate, and a member of student leadership.

The campus president and working group will meet with members of the Cozen team to discuss the report. The president will then promptly share the campus report with the campus community, and will identify the members of the working group, as well as their charge. The president and campus senior leadership will secure resources and extend authority and approval to facilitate the implementation of the recommendations.

Report to the Board
Representatives of the Cozen team are scheduled to report to the board in an open session of a Board of Trustees meeting in mid-2023.

Confidentiality and Privacy
The information that the Cozen team is gathering throughout its assessment often concerns matters of a private and highly personal nature. The identities of individuals who participate in the assessment will be kept confidential and any information they provide will be de-identified and shared without personal attribution. Likewise, any oral or written reports that the Cozen team shares with the board of trustees or the public will protect student and employee confidentiality and privacy.

Concerns about specific employees’ performance related to the university’s implementation of Title IX and DHR programs and services that are disclosed to the Cozen team during its assessment will not be specifically discussed in any written or oral reports that are shared publicly including with the CSU community. Instead, any such issues brought to the attention of the Cozen team during its assessment will be (and in some cases, have already been) raised in privileged communications exclusively with individuals who have a need to know so that these concerns can be appropriately and directly addressed or investigated while protecting employee and student privacy. Please also note that concerns, reports or questions regarding specific cases should be directed to your university’s Title IX Coordinator or DHR Administrator, depending on the nature of your concern/complaint.

To complete the survey now, click on the link that is associated with the campus where you study or work.

For more information about the CSU’s Systemwide Title IX and DHR Assessment, please click here.

Sincerely,
Leora D. Freedman
Acting Vice Chancellor for Human Resources
The California State University