In Yale Report, 52 Complaints of Sexual Misconduct The report, released Tuesday evening and covering the period from July 1 to the end of 2011, lists 52 allegations of misconduct by students or employees, ranging from harassing remarks to rape. None of the people involved were identified, following the university's policy of keeping the cases confidential. The new transparency is part of an overhaul of Yale's system for dealing with such complaints, adopted last year in the face of criticism of the way it had dealt with some cases, particularly those involving members and pledges of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. The new system centralized what had been scattered authority for those cases in a single University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct, increased efforts to make students aware of the problem and of their options, and committed to making more information public. Separately, Yale imposed a five-year suspension from the use of campus facilities on the fraternity, which had been involved in highly publicized instances of harassment. Also last year, the federal Education Department's Office for Civil Rights began an investigation of the university's sexual harassment and abuse practices, but Yale's reform of its system was already under way by then. Studies have shown that the great majority of people sexually assaulted or harassed on college campuses never report it to the schools or to law enforcement authorities. Yale's report reflects a parallel reality: of those who do complain, most choose not to go through a formal investigation and adjudication that can result in penalties for the accused. In most of the cases documented by Yale, the person making the complaint went to one of the university employees designated to coordinate its response to the federal antidiscrimination law known as Title IX. Those officers can talk to the people involved, but have no disciplinary power. Seven complainants sought an informal resolution by the University-Wide Committee, which means no investigation, no finding of innocence or guilt, and no punishment. Instead, one or more members of the committee works with the accuser and the accused to find a reasonable solution, perhaps an agreement to stay away from each other or to move out of a shared dormitory. Five of the 52 accusers filed formal complaints with the committee, which generally result in investigations and conclusions about what took place, and can lead to disciplinary action. Two of those cases are pending, one was dropped for insufficient evidence, one resulted in the reprimand of a faculty member, and one resulted in the suspension of a student for a semester. Four complainants went to the Yale Police Department, but none ended up pressing charges. Of the 52 complaints, 14 involved sexual assault, which the report defines as "unwanted sexual contact, unwanted touching, nonconsensual sex/rape." Three explicitly state that the charge was "nonconsensual sex." But even the most serious allegations usually went through the least formal channels. None of those 14 went to the police. And the cases that went through the committee's formal process included one involving unwanted touching (the case that was dropped) and one of nonconsensual sex (one of those pending).