The University of Oregon should create a senior leadership position with the responsibility, resources and authority to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to prevent and respond to sexual misconduct.

That’s one of more than 50 recommendations made Tuesday in a report by the President’s Review Panel after a five-month review and analysis of the university’s practices for preventing and responding to sexual misconduct.

“Sexual misconduct and sexual assault have been a long-standing problem that will not go away quickly or on its own,” the panel said in its report. “Yet, with a committed, well-developed, and united effort by the entire campus community, the university’s prevention and response policies and practices can be substantially improved.”

While the university has made significant improvements in recent years in its practices and policies, the UO, like many universities, finds itself without a sufficient and satisfactory program of prevention and response, the panel said.

"The university must now match its increased awareness and understanding of this issue with concrete actions to reduce and prevent sexual misconduct and to improve the institutional response when such incidents do occur,” said panel chairwoman Mary Deits, a former Oregon Court of Appeals judge.

Some of the panel’s major findings include recommendations to:

• Develop a comprehensive, multi-faceted on-going program overseen by a senior executive with authority and resources to direct the university’s efforts to address sexual assault.
• Commit significant resource, policy action and leadership attention to implementing changes and assessing the effectiveness of the university’s programs.
• Engage all segments of campus, including administration, faculty, staff and students, as well as coaches, student-athletes, fraternity and sorority leaders and others.
• Involve students and student leaders to help design and implement programs that will communicate effectively and reach their peers.
• Increase opportunities for confidential and anonymous reporting.
• Increase individualized support for survivors.
• Create a separate section in the student conduct code for handling sexual misconduct to ensure consistency, protections for the accuser, due process for the accused and additional rights for both.
• Require fraternities, sororities and head coaches to provide annual reports to the president detailing the measures each has taken to prevent sexual misconduct and an evaluation of the success of those measures.

The panel shared the report with interim President Scott Coltrane on Tuesday and met with him to discuss the recommendations. The president then made the report public.

Coltrane thanked the panel for their many hours of work.

“Their report is sobering. It recognizes the work we’ve done and the way our community has come together to tackle this problem. It also makes clear that this university has much work ahead,” Coltrane said. ”There are many recommendations here, and some very innovative ideas. I look forward to reviewing these ideas in depth.”

Coltrane says he’ll use the report along with others such as the Senate Task Force report as the university creates a comprehensive plan. 

“This is going to cost money. We need to invest in addressing sexual assault because the human cost of not doing so is too great. And we also need to focus our resources to ensure our efforts will address this serious problem,” said Coltrane.

The eight-member panel, appointed by the president in June 2014, talked with hundreds of students, staff, faculty, administrators, law enforcement officials and others. Panel members visited campus a half-dozen times, conducted individual interviews, met with small groups and held four public forums. The panel also received more than 100 written comments.

In addition to Diets, members of the panel include:

• Jackie Balzer, associate dean of Campus Life at Willamette University
• Bob Berdahl, retired AAU president and interim UO president in 2012
• Lyndsey Goforth, a 2014 UO graduate and founding member of the student group Organization Against Sexual Assault (OASA)
• David Schuman, a retired Oregon Court of Appeals judge and member of the UO Law School faculty from 1987–1996
• Theodore Spencer, outgoing associate vice provost and executive director of the Office of Undergraduate Admission at the University of Michigan
• Kevin Weiberg, retired COO and deputy commissioner of the Pac-12 Conference
• Mary Wilcox, a member of the UO Board of Trustees and vice president and director for Capital Realty Corp.

Panelists were each offered $10,000 honorariums for their service, but not all accepted.

—By Tim Christie, Public Affairs Communications