Chief Executive Officer Annual Report 2019-2020

TO: Texas Tech System Board of Regents

CC: Dr. Lawrence Schovanec, President

FROM: Dr. Kimberly Simón, Title IX Coordinator

SUBJECT: Chief Executive Officer Reporting Under Texas Education Code § 51.253(c)

DATE: September 29, 2020

Under the Texas Education Code (TEC), Section 51.253(a), the Title IX Coordinator must submit a written report no less than every three months to the Institution’s Chief Executive Officer regarding reports received from employees who are required to report under the Texas Education Code1 and the type of incident described in the employee’s report that constitutes “sexual harassment,” “sexual assault,” “dating violence,” or “stalking.”²

This report includes the investigation status of these reports; the disposition, if any, of any disciplinary processes arising from these reports; and the reports for which the institution determined not to initiate a disciplinary process.³ It should be noted the reports received from Confidential Resources along with Employee’s Failure to report are called out in Appendix A.

Under the Texas Education Code, Section 51.253(c), the Chief Executive Officer of the institution shall submit an annual report of the data gathered via the Title IX Coordinator’s quarterly report to the institution’s governing body and post on the institution’s website. For the purposes of complying with the reporting requirements under Section 51.253(c), the attached written report (Appendix A, Table 1) includes all of the required reporting information for Texas Tech University, for the 2019-2020 academic year which includes statistics from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2020.

An attached summary data report (Appendix B) with the aggregate data, based on the written report (Appendix A), has also been included. The summary data in Appendix B is categorized based on the reporting requirements under TEC, Section 51.253(c). The reports received may be applicable in multiple reporting categories, and therefore, the summary data in the categories may not add up to the totals of other categories.

Note: Any additional reports received by the Title IX Coordinator that do not meet the required reporting criteria in the Texas Education Code have been omitted for the compliance purposes of this specific report.⁴

¹Texas Education Code, Section 51.252
² Texas Education Code, Section 51.251.
³ Texas Education Code, Section 51.253(a)
⁴ For example, reports made by students and all other non-employees (including incidents under TEC, Section 51.252(d)) are excluded from Appendices A and B. Additionally, if the Title IX Administrator determines that the type of incident described in a report, as alleged, does not constitute “sexual harassment,” “sexual assault,” “dating violence,” or “stalking” as defined in the TEC, Section 51.251, the report is excluded from Appendices A and B. It is the responsibility of Title IX Administrator to assess each report received and determine whether it is properly included in this report, and if so, to correctly identify the type of incident.

Terminology:

Alleged Conduct:

Dating Violence: Physical, sexual, or verbal abuse or violence, or threat of abuse or violence, committed by an individual who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the Complaining Party. The existence of such a relationship will be determined based on the type and length of the relationship and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship. A casual acquaintanceship or ordinary socializing between two individuals does not constitute a romantic or intimate relationship. This definition does not include acts covered under Domestic or Family Violence.

Domestic Violence: Physical, sexual, or verbal abuse or violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the Complaining Party, by an individual with whom the Complaining Party shares a child in common, by an individual with whom the Complaining Party is cohabiting (or has cohabited) with a spouse or intimate partner, by an individual similarly situated to a spouse of the Complaining Party under the Domestic or Family Violence laws of the state of Texas, or by any other individual against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that individual’s acts under the Domestic or Family Violence laws of the state of Texas.

Sexual Assault: Sexual contact or intercourse with an individual without the individual’s consent, including sexual contact or intercourse against the individual’s will or in a circumstance in which the individual is incapable of consenting to the contact or intercourse. Sexual assault includes:

(1) Non-Consensual Sexual Contact – Intentional sexual touching, however slight, with any object or part of one’s body of another’s private areas without consent. Sexual Contact includes: (1) intentional contact with the breast, buttock, groin, or genitals; (2) touching another with any of these body parts; (3) making another touch you or themselves with or on any of these body parts; or (4) any other intentional bodily contact in a sexual manner.

(2) Non-Consensual Sexual Intercourse – Sexual penetration or intercourse, however slight, with a penis, tongue, finger, or any object, and without consent. Penetration can be oral, anal, or vaginal.

Sexual Harassment: Unwelcome sex-based verbal or physical conduct that:

(1) In the employment context, unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. To constitute an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment, the complained of conduct must be either severe, persistent, or pervasive; or

(2) In the education context, is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that the conduct unreasonably interferes with a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from educational programs or activities.

Stalking: A course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable individual to fear for the individual’s safety or the safety of others or would cause that individual to suffer substantial emotional distress. A “course of conduct” means two or more acts in which an individual directly, indirectly or through third parties, by any action, method, device or means, follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about a person or interferes with an individual’s property. “Substantial emotional distress” means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling.

Investigation Status:

Report Review/Intake: The Complaining Party and investigating office are working in conjunction to determine next steps.

Insufficient Information to Investigate: The report lacks information to investigate formally.

No Indication of Policy Violation: The report does not rise to the level of a policy violation.

Complainant Requested Not to Investigate: The Complaining Party requested that the institution not investigate the report. Upon initial inquiry, the institution determined that there was not a risk to the University Community.

No Jurisdiction to Investigate: The institution lacks jurisdiction, i.e. an alleged student of another institution or a family member not affiliated with the institution, etc.

Formal Investigation Ongoing: Formal Investigation is taking place.

Formal Investigation Completed: Formal Investigation is complete and the resolution process (i.e. pre-hearing, hearing, voluntary or informal resolution is occurring).

Voluntary Resolution Pending: The report is being resolved utilizing the voluntary resolution process.

Outcome:

Informal Resolution: The report is being or has been resolved informally.

Voluntary Resolution: The report has been resolved utilizing the voluntary resolution process.

Responsible: The student has been found responsible for violating Texas Tech’s Title IX and Sexual Misconduct policy.

Not Responsible: The student has been found not responsible for violating Texas Tech’s Title IX Policy and Sexual Misconduct.

Policy Violation: The employee has violated Texas Tech’s Title IX and Sexual Misconduct policy.

No Policy Violation: The employee did not violate Texas Tech’s Title IX and Sexual Misconduct policy.

No 40.03 Violation: The employee did not violate Texas Tech’s Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault, Sexual Misconduct and Title IX Policy.

Other Policy Violation: The employee did not violate Texas Tech’s Title IX and Sexual Misconduct policy.

Appendix A
CEO Annual Report
2020

Reports Received by Employees under TEC, Section 51.252: