Part 55: Sexual Violence and Retaliation at USC – Seeking Accountability for Victims Rights
Published December 21, 2023
Photo of skyscrapers in Downtown Los Angeles by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).
By Zachary Ellison
The summer afternoon was beautiful on campus at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, it was a perfect July day and we were having a special lunch just because quite often my work at USC was satisfying. There’s a misperception that I was a total malcontent, that day I was asked to tell a story of the mountains, and so a story I told, of hearing woodpeckers in the San Gabriel mountains deep in the Devil’s Canyon that were in fact Native American drums banging up above at Chilao.
Well investigative journalism can be a lot like hearing woodpeckers, but rest assured readers it’s not woodpeckers that I am hearing. Instead I am reporting an additional suspected case of Title IX Retaliation at USC, intentional abuse of the process in order to intimidate a witness in an ongoing sexual harassment investigation. Like woodpeckers in my head, I am sure that we will hear more such stories from USC, and most especially because I write about it hear which gives people a trusted voice that they can come to share their stories.
Rest assured, at this hour, I am taking additional steps to secure the rights of victims in this new case and to ensure that justice is delivered in the arena that is Title IX Investigations at USC. One fortunate byproduct of my own legal search is an excellent understanding of this legal field in the Los Angeles area, so when someone comes to me I have some idea what they can expect. More interestingly, I have every reason in the whole wild world to believe that USC not only read Part 49 on Sexual Violence in this series but is indeed changing course.
While I am not at liberty to disclose further details, USC is responding to the pressure being applied on it by these stories and so tonight I am issuing a clear warning that Title IX Retaliation at USC will not be tolerated. The processes defined in the most fundamental American law we have assuring that gender equity is not up for subterfuge or dilution as convenient. I have informed the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights San Francisco Office of this reporting, which covers the western United States. While I have no response from them, I am sure that they are reading their inboxes and starting to wonder!
Journalism can change the world, and so I need more stories about the Title IX office both at USC prior to 2010 in relation to the Office of Equity and Diversity as well as its current iteration as the USC Equity, Equal Opportunity and Title IX Office, EEO-TIX is the acronym. This office since August 2020 has been led by Catherine Spear, a veteran of OCR as it is known. Catherine is equally well known in the Title IX world as the woman who directed Stanford’s response to the infamous Brock Turner rape case that captivated the world.
Student journalist Alexis Timko wrote in USC Annenberg Media in January 2022 in her story “Privacy, secrecy and scandal: Inside USC’s handling of Title IX cases” that “Over the course of seven months reporting the story, Annenberg Media shared questions and anecdotes and the university only shared general statements referencing student privacy, not directly addressing long delays in the process.”
More recently, student journalist Corinne Smith wrote in the same publication in her story “‘You’re not alone’: Student-led group supports survivors of sexual assault with space for healing and community” that “The office of USC President Carol Folt declined an interview for this story but provided statements emphasizing the need for students to report incidents of sexual assault, and providing support and resources to do so.” We can only hope that the support and resources are in fact there.
USC’s stonewalling in this area with its own student journalists is just as problematic as its failure to recognize the lack of timeliness in its investigations or the integrity of its investigative process in protecting those who make good faith reports. Smith writes further that “While women are disproportionately harmed by sexual violence, there are men and vastly underrepresented populations of the LGBTQ+ community who are assault survivors as well.” USC’s unwillingness to discuss this topic in response to inquiries including from myself betrays its purpose.
As Smith capably notes in her story that, “It’s the time period between orientation and Thanksgiving break, when an estimated 50 percent of sexual assaults occur, when students are acclimating to campus life.” I’m not sure what the numbers are going to be for this year, but as Smith notes in her diligent story that the most recent external survey from 2019 by the Association of American Universities that USC sees an estimated “one in three undergraduate women experience sexual violence.”
Let me be clear, USC will address this problem, it will do it publicly, and it will do it in full compliance with its obligations under its Resolution Agreement in response to the victims of George Tyndall, including most importantly its responsibility to “On an annual basis while this Agreement is in effect, the Title IX coordinator will provide a written report to the President, Provost, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees regarding the status of the implementation of the plan, including the actions taken and an assessment of their effectiveness as well as proposals for the next academic year.” Additionally, “The University will provide similar information to the University community in an annual letter to the community.” Seems like pretty clear direction.
USC’s apparent failure to address sexual violence on campus as detailed in the continuing alarming equally required Clery Act statistics that both Smith and I have highlighted presents a failure of leadership. That OCR has seemingly failed to enforce the law at USC, even so many of its senior officials dodge my pointed questions is absolutely disgraceful. For every victim of sexual violence and subsequent retaliation that I identify I’m just about certain that I will find at least 2 more with further investigation. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s happened at USC!
As described in both Timko’s and Smith’s reports in Annenberg Media, the problems with Title IX are persistent and they span now more than a decade’s worth of complaints and concerns considering the two Resolution Agreements imposed on USC in January 2018 and February 2020 by OCR. The problems with student investigations highlighted in 2018 RA are most troubling, I’m not sure if there’s another George Tyndall on campus, but I’m pretty sure we aren’t going to see the numbers going down absent further leadership changes that are willing to address the lack of “safety and transparency” at USC which Rick Caruso vowed to restore.
If anyone should have been willing to tackle this problem most directly, it should have been Caruso. The man who put his name on the USC Caruso Catholic Center is still a Trustee at USC, and so I wonder did Rick along with his fellow Trustees even read Smith’s report in a student news publication at least? The Los Angeles Times has not addressed these issues at USC directly in years now even as they capably probe the California State University system in an ongoing exposé that gives us Trojans hopes like the Angels had for Shohei Otani before he signed with the Dodgers. Shucks.
USC is a Trojan Family, and when people like Catherine Spear mess with my Family members well I start to report, and when my reporting forces them to respond, well that’s how I know that the civil rights mission my journalism seeks to uphold is effective. We aren’t putting this all on Catherine, but the smoking gun worthy document that I have secured showing not only extreme delays but similar attempts to intimidate a victim with silence, well I do one thing.I look for more people to help!
Earlier this year after USC moved to remove former Athletic Director Mike Bohn for sexual harassment against subordinates, USC President Carol Folt snapped at Los Angeles Times journalist Dylan Hernandez for asking her about the scandal, “I’m not talking anymore about that.” The more we talk about these issues at USC, the more one thing is going to happen, I’m going to find more people with stories about the happenings behind Closed Doors on the red-bricked campus, the home of the Cardinal and Gold. The secrets of USC can’t always be the end of its stories.
Now I understand the frustration of President Folt at the Bohn situation and her reluctance to talk with Hernandez who is a sportswriter, but her refusal to talk with Corrine Smith is puzzling. Here’s an opportunity to reiterate her commitment to addressing these issues in the most public way, the press, and from Smith’s piece I detect absolutely not intention to run a hitjob story on President Folt. Nor is it mine, I know President Folt, and while I respect that she believes her vision of change at USC is meaningful, for so many it seems it sadly hasn’t been. This must be addressed.
Can she hear the clicking of our keyboards like woodpeckers? I’m not sure what drums President Folt is hearing, but it’s clearly time to make some changes in this area at USC, and I can say with confidence that the extremely problematic to say the least approach to these issues is not producing results. It’s one thing to be discrete, but’s a completely other issue to be avoidant, must less manipulative in regards to these issues whether it’s Folt, Spear, or Senior Vice President for Human Resources Felicia Washington. They know what they are doing. It’s a pretty obvious strategy.
USC has a lot of cases, and they don’t like to payout or create any more problems than they have to in managing this issue. When I was in the Provost’s Office, the list of faculty cases alone was substantive, and the accountability mechanisms can move only so fast. But is this really it just a case volume issue? And why on God’s green earth would we believe that USC is committed to this issue when it so regularly fails to communicate. There’s an entire section of the Resolution Agreement committed to repairing the environment on campus, but can anyone say it’s been repaired since May 2018? To change, USC must start to listen to critics, and be more transparent.
So yes, we are going to put the heat on USC! Whether it’s the student press or my own radical civil rights mission in Los Angeles of whistleblower journalism. We are going to protect complainants of sexual violence at USC in the year 2024 than ever before, and new Provost Andrew Guzman who previously served as Dean of the Gould School of Law is going to be just as responsible for addressing this crisis as USC’s Associate Senior Vice President of Safety and Risk Assurance Erroll Southers who also serves as President of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners.
When is USC going to learn, you can’t cover-up sexual violence, and I have news for them, we aren’t giving up, even if I have to go bankrupt trying operating a Substack that so many are both afraid of in power, and in silence, because they too have a USC EEO-TIX/Title IX story. So please if you are reading this, know that there is help, and there are people who care! I can be reached via email at zachary.b.ellison@gmail.com or via cellphone at 310-415-4253 including using Signal or Whatsapp. All stories are kept private and confidential to the utmost degree possible. Justice is possible.
Link: Activism ‘You’re not alone’: Student-led group supports survivors of sexual assault with space for healing and community by Corinne Smith, December 6, 2023.
Link: Privacy, secrecy and scandal: Inside USC’s handling of Title IX cases by Alexis Timko, January 22, 2022.
Zachary Ellison is an Independent Journalist and Whistleblower in the Los Angeles area. Zach was most recently employed by the University of Southern California, Office of the Provost from October 2015 to August 2022 as an Executive Secretary and Administrative Assistant supporting the Vice Provost for Academic Operations and the Vice Provost and Senior Advisor to the Provost among others. Zach holds a Master’s in Public Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Policy and Planning from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. While a student at USC, he worked for the USC Good Neighbors Campaign including on their newsletter distributed university-wide. Zach completed his B.A. in History at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon and was a writer, editor, and photographer for the Pasadena High School Chronicle. He was Barack Obama’s one-millionth online campaign contributor in 2008. Zach is a former AmeriCorps intern for Hawaii State Parks and worked for the City of Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation. He is a trained civil process server, and enjoys weekends in the great outdoors.
