Under refining the protocol, the firm that led the investigation, Quinn Emanuel, recommended the implementation of a 72-hour deadline to report incidents, clarification of whether individuals have to report incidents that have already been reported or that they heard from an indirect source and a requirement for reporters to contact Office of Institutional Equity, or OIE, for guidance if they feel confused.

Is the current policy confusing?

Comparative culture and politics and environmental studies junior Truman Forbes said these changes would be helpful for mandated reporters.

Forbes is a mandatory reporter through his position as a resident assistant, which he began in the fall of 2021. He said, in the beginning, knowing exactly what he had or didn’t have to report was confusing.

“In the beginning, I thought that being a mandatory reporter, if anybody told you anything when it comes to sexual violence or things along that nature, you have to report it,” Forbes said. “ It's just for when we're in our capacity as RAs.” 

For Forbes, understanding the intricacies of how and when to report came from asking questions to his advisors and going through the process in real time. He said while his mandatory reporting training made sense, applying it to real life incidents was difficult to do without support from a supervisor.

“I think that the training was adequate, but at the same time, I wouldn't have been able to handle that by myself,” Forbes said. “I would have needed and I think I still need, my advisors and supervisors to be able to advise and make sure I'm doing it correctly.” 

Anthropology professor and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies director Laurie Medina said the mandated reporter training is clear and helpful and that she appreciates the information being easily accessible on the MSU website in case a reporter does have questions.

“I thought the training was quite complete,” Medina said. “And the follow-up with having information available on the website and contact people who you could talk something through with if you had a very complicated situation. I think it is important because these things tend to be very complicated.” 

Medina said the firm's recommendations make sense to add to the policy, particularly clarification on reporting when someone else has already reported the incident.

The only time she has felt confused about the policy was when she was contacted by the Center for Survivors about a student who had filed a report, she said.

“It seemed logical that it was already known because the Center for Survivors was reaching out to me, but if I'm required to report anything I hear about, I was hearing about something,” Medina said. “I actually had to reach out to the Center for Survivors administrators to make certain that this was an exception to the mandatory reporting because otherwise it could just go in a circle and continually make life very difficult for survivors if they had to continually be stuck in this spiral.” 

While Quinn Emanuel recommended requiring mandatory reporters to reach out to OIE in any cases of confusion, Center for Gender in Global Context co-director Stephanie Nawyn said this expectation is already strongly communicated. Particularly after the ex-MSU doctor Larry Nassar sexual abuse case, Nawyn said she was told the goal is to create a “culture of reporting.”

“I feel like we've been given a message that you just always report things,” Nawyn said. “The minute I get something, I report it, and then I let the person know who told me that I reported, so they can choose whether or not to do it.” 

Nawyn said the main reporter training didn’t have anything particularly difficult to understand but that, as an administrator, she has had multiple faculty call her to clarify whether or not something they heard from a student needs to be reported.

She said while she finds the training straightforward, there is always a difference between training and application to real-life incidents.

“It's really easy just to find out from OIE, should I report this, should I not report this?” Nawyn said. “There's always going to be some gap between what you're told you need to do and then the real life situations that you find yourself in that make you feel uncertain.” 

The mandatory reporting policy, explained

The mandatory reporting policy defines two categories of mandatory reporters: responsible employees and volunteers. According to the university’s reporting protocol, responsible employees include anyone employed by the university as executive management, faculty, academic staff, support staff, post-doctoral fellows, graduate student employees, leased employees and contract employees.

Undergraduate students are exempt from the responsible employee definition unless they are employed in a support staff position. Volunteers include anyone completing unpaid services for the university as faculty or academic staff, a University Extension Gold Volunteer, a student advisor and a volunteer for a university youth program.

The official reporting protocol states that all mandatory reporters must “promptly report” relationship violence, sexual misconduct, stalking and retaliation incidents that they learn of or observe in their professional capacity that either involves a member of the university community, occurred at a university-sponsored event or occurred on university property.

The protocol does not define what time period constitutes "prompt reporting," which is one of Quinn Emanuel’s recommended changes.

Responsible employees and volunteers must report all incidents to both the OIE, and the MSU Police Department. Undergraduate student employees are supposed to report incidents to their supervisor who will then report to OIE and MSUPD.

The reporting protocol also tells mandatory reporters not to investigate the incident or try to find out if the alleged conduct occurred. If informed of immediate safety concerns, crimes or medical emergencies, the reporter should call 911 before completing the protocol.

The university protocol outlines 15 programs in which employees and volunteers are exempt from mandatory reporting of incidents disclosed to them through the program’s service. These employees and volunteers are not exempt from reporting incidents they witness or learn of within the workplace, only for incidents they are told of while providing the exempt services. They are also required to inform individuals of their options to report, the fact that the university prohibits retaliation and supportive resources.

A violation of the policy may result in “corrective or disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal,” the protocol states. Potential violations are investigated by the OIE.