Nearly 80 incidents of sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and domestic violence were reported to Syracuse University’s Title IX officer last year, according to data published by New York state’s Department of Education on Thursday. 

The deidentified statistics provide a rare look into the apparent number of SU students who report sexual misconduct or sexual violence to the Department of Public Safety, local police and the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services. 

SU had to give state education officials the data under New York’s “Enough is Enough” law, which went into effect in 2015 after Gov. Andrew Cuomo pledged to better combat campus sexual assault. 

This is the first-ever Enough is Enough data release to cover a full calendar year. 

Among other things, the data shows that in 2018: 

• Thirty-four of the 79 total sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and domestic violence incidents reported to SU’s Title IX officer occurred on campus. Thirty-two other incidents occurred off campus and 13 incidents occurred at an “unknown location.” 

• As far as SU is aware, only 16 of the incidents were reported to area law enforcement. Sixty incidents, though, were reported to DPS.

• In just 16 cases, “reporting individuals” or SU itself sought some form of resolution through the university’s internal adjudication process.

• Twenty-nine reporting individuals sought a no-contact order, which prohibits contact between the alleged perpetrator and victim. Thirty of those orders were ultimately issued.

“This information is not the same as the Clery Act data,” an SU spokesperson said in an email Friday.

SU noted a total of 32 sex offenses and violence against women offenses on Main Campus in 2018 on its 2019 Clery Act-mandated campus security report.

The Enough is Enough data has also provided a detailed breakdown of Code of Student Conduct cases that were centered around allegations of sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and domestic violence last year. 

According to the data, 14 of these disciplinary cases were “processed.” But just six individuals were eventually found responsible for conduct violations. 

Three people were dismissed or expelled from SU, two were suspended and three were subject to other sanctions, the statistics show.

“There were eight people found responsible for conduct violations when this information was initially pulled,” the spokesperson said.

The data released by the state is similar to a list of sexual misconduct complaints that SU recently produced as part of an ongoing Title IX lawsuit.

According to that document, there were 76 formal student conduct complaints alleging sexual misconduct filed at SU from the start of the 2013-14 academic year to the end of the 2016-17 academic year. The Daily Orange factored 71 of the complaints into an analysis it published in October.

At least 40 students were expelled or suspended from SU over that four-year span for alleged sexual misconduct, according to the list. 

The list contains information about alleged sexual harassment, among other offenses not specifically included by name in the Enough is Enough data. 

Chancellor Kent Syverud was the first private college president in New York to endorse Enough is Enough, according to the university. 

Compared to its peer institutions in the state — Cornell University, New York University and the University of Rochester — SU had the second-lowest number of sexual assault, stalking, dating violence and domestic violence incidents reported to a Title IX officer in 2018. 

Cornell had the highest, with 282 incidents. Rochester had the lowest, with 62 incidents.  

Moving forward, colleges will have to release the Enough is Enough data every fall.

Published on December 20, 2019 at 9:08 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek