The administration at the University of Nevada, Reno this week said it took a step toward increased transparency for its Title IX and Equal Opportunity investigations by launching a new online reporting dashboard.
The dashboard provides a monthly snapshot of the number of open cases, reports received and formal investigations, along with details on the types of cases and the genders and campus roles of both the person who filed the report and the person accused of the misbehavior.
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in education settings that receive federal financial support. UNR has faced angry public criticism for allegedly burying complaints filed with the Title IX office and refusing to release non-confidential public records. Lawsuits against the university cite what complainants call a useless Title IX process.
In October, the office reported 43 open cases and four formal investigations. It also received 23 new reports. The bulk of the reports were filed by students, most of them female. The majority of the complaints—61%—also allege a female was the person accused. Just over half of the complaints have been filed against faculty, but students and staff are also among the accused.
None of the office’s investigations were completed in October, so there’s no data on the number of violations found.
Public access to a reporting dashboard was one of several promises made by UNR President Brian Sandoval to improve operations and transparency in the Title IX office during his Oct. 18 State of the University address. Other pledges included increasing staffing, removing barriers to reporting incidents and issuing an annual report on Title IX investigations.
A week before Sandoval’s speech, students protested against the university during a groundbreaking ceremony accusing Sandoval, university leadership and the Title IX office of failing to be transparent about rape, assault and discrimination complaints.
UNR’s Title IX office has four investigators in addition to its executive director. University spokesperson Scott Walquist said UNR is hiring an additional investigator in the office.
“After the fifth investigator is hired, we will evaluate if additional investigators are needed given the case load, and explore hiring more investigators,” Walquist said.
More changes were made to the Title IX pages on UNR’s website in recent weeks, including the removal of the staff page. Instead, Director Zeva Edmonson’s is the only contact listed with a general office email and phone number posted to the office’s main page. A link to file a report is listed directly below that. 
Sandoval’s pledge and the numerous changes to Title IX operations at UNR come after numerous lawsuits have been filed alleging sexual abuse and harassment, discrimination and retaliation.
