By Over the summer the CSU passed AB1790, a bill that expands Title IX to mediate the lack of reporting on sexual assault cases which came to light last academic year.
The bill has seven major points that deal with the issue of sexual assault on campuses and how they will be reported to the state. One of the most important aspects is SECTION 1. (a) (2) which requires “Developing a policy for each California State University campus and the chancellors office that ensures they are able to maintain a process for tracking key dates related to the timeliness of all sexual harassment cases and conducting investigations in a timely manner.”
One of the main solutions supporters advocated for, is the increase of investigators for sexual assault cases. The University Police Department (UPD) has every officer trained in sexual assault awareness and how to handle cases involving sexual assault.
Lieutenant Carol Almaguer said around 80% of current and onboarding officers have completed the six month long training.
Long Beach State University has one sergeant and two detectives who work on cases of sexual assault on campus. At the initial instance of the report, a patrolling officer takes the information.
“From there we take it to the district attorney’s office,” Almaguer said. “Once the investigation is done, the detectives collect evidence, do additional interviews, write a report and then they take that to the district attorney’s office. The district attorney’s office determines whether or not there’s charges that are going to be filed.”
CSULB does offer processing advisors who specialize in Title IX training, and there are three listed on-campus faculty; Jacqueline Urtez, Rocio Telumbre and Linda Peña. It does not list how many advisors are available per student or faculty on their website.
The official CSU sexual assault statistics that are available are from the years 2017-2021.
Assistant Vice President of Equity and Compliance Larisa Hamada said CSULB has the most Title IX trained employees available to help with sexual assault resources out of all the other universities in the CSU.
The bill went into action on July 15, 2024 after seven months within the Senate’s circuit. On June 27, its vote on the senate floor passed unanimously. The vote included Long Beach’s representative Lena Gonzalez.
The California State Student Association, California Faculty Association, California State University Employees Union and CSU Employees Union all supported the bill.
The catalyst to the exposure of underreported and under investigated cases of sexual assault was the resignation of former California State Fresno President Joseph Castro due to his mishandling of said cases in Febuary of 2022.
Since then, the California Senate passed SB 808, which calls for a complete report of all sexual harassment cases, the time when reported, how long the investigation took and the final report before December 1 of each year.
By July 1, 2026, the CSU is required to implement all recommendations outlined in the bill.
