Ohio State University says students found responsible for violent sexual assault will be dismissed. But the university says it has no aggregate report showing how often students found responsible for sexual assault have been suspended, dismissed or given lesser sanctions.
Across nine Ohio universities, The Dispatch review found that annual federal Clery security reports describe potential punishments without showing how often schools impose them.
The review, which comes as a former Cornell University student sues the university over how it handled her sexual assault report, covered Ohio State, Ohio University, the University of Cincinnati, Miami University, the University of Akron, Columbus State Community College, Case Western Reserve University, Capital
University and Otterbein University.
The Dispatch examined the schools’ 2026 reports, which contain crime statistics for 2023 through 2025, focusing on sexual assault offenses reported in 2025 and the disciplinary policies. None of the reports included aggregate counts of the number of students found responsible for sexual assault or the sanctions they received.
Federal Clery regulations require schools to disclose reported crimes, explain disciplinary procedures and list possible sanctions. They do not require annual security reports to include aggregate sexual-assault responsibility findings or sanction totals.
Responses to follow-up inquiries described investigations, prevention programs and survivor resources but supplied no requested outcome counts. Ohio State said aggregate outcome reports do not exist. Otterbein declined to disclose aggregate outcomes, citing the risk of identifying students.
Miami directed The Dispatch to submit a public records request. The Dispatch submitted requests to Miami and Cincinnati for disciplinary outcome information but had received no records in response to those requests as of Oct. 20.
The missing information leaves students with little to no way to evaluate how schools apply their policies, said Sara Wilf, an assistant professor of social work at George Mason University who studies sexual violence and survivor support on college campuses.
“If there's no transparency, there's no accountability,” Wilf said.
The Dispatch's findings do not establish that students went unpunished. Campus crime reports count allegations, including those involving nonstudents or incidents from earlier years. They do not follow a group of disciplinary cases from complaint through resolution.
But without separate outcome records, the reports cannot answer how often the penalties outlined in university policies become actual consequences.
Ohio State describes sanctions but says outcome reports don’t exist
Ohio State’s main campus in Columbus reported 35 on-campus rapes in 2025, including 28 in residence halls, and four in its noncampus category.
The classification covers certain properties owned or controlled by a university or its recognized student organizations outside the main campus area. It does not encompass every off-campus location or identify which police agency, if any, took a report.
The university also reported 88 fondling offenses in 2025 across its listed geographic categories.
Ohio State spokesperson Ben Johnson cautioned that Clery figures can include allegations against nonstudents and reflect the year an incident was reported, not necessarily when it happened.
One of those 39 total offenses in 2025 was a historical allegation involving former university physician Dr. Richard Strauss. A 2019 independent investigation found that Strauss sexually abused at least 177 former students during his employment at Ohio State from 1978 to 1998.
“As a result, there’s no report that directly links student case outcomes to Clery report data,” Johnson said in an emailed statement.
The Dispatch separately sought counts of students found responsible in cases resolved in 2025 and the sanctions they received. Ohio State supplied no figures.
“Students found to have committed the most serious offenses, including violent sexual assault, would be dismissed from the university,” Johnson said.
Other sanctions depend on factors that include severity, circumstances, community impact and disciplinary history. Its annual report lists permanent dismissal, suspension, probation, reprimands and educational sanctions.
In responding to a request for existing aggregate outcome reports, Johnson cited federal student privacy protections and said “there are no such reports.”
Otterbein cites privacy, other schools outline their responses
In a written statement attributed to the university, Otterbein said its small number of cases makes releasing disciplinary outcomes a privacy concern.
“Given the small number of cases, disclosing disciplinary outcomes, even in aggregate, could allow individual students to be identified and compromise the privacy of complainants and respondents,” the statement said.
The statement said sanctions depend on each case’s circumstances. It also described a Coordinated Community Response Team that brings together campus and community partners for prevention efforts and survivor support.
Ohio University spokesperson Daniel Pittman said sanctions under its sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct policy range from reprimand or probation to suspension or expulsion. The university's main campus in Athens had nine on-campus rapes reported in 2025 and five in the noncampus category.
Ohio University's response emphasized the university's prevention programs and its Survivor Advocacy Program but supplied no outcome counts.
Miami’s Oxford campus had 19 rapes reported in 2025, including 17 on campus. Its report lists dismissal, suspension and other potential sanctions, depending on severity and conduct history.
Miami’s response described prevention education, bystander intervention training and peer education programs.
In a written statement attributed to the university, Case Western Reserve described investigations through its Office of Equity and Title IX coordinator, annual training and support services, including a confidential advocate. The statement supplied no disciplinary outcome figures.
'Clery Act counts are a vast understatement.' Reporting an assault does not always lead to an investigation
At the University of Cincinnati, the Uptown campus had 33 rapes reported in 2025, including 25 on campus. Of those on-campus reports, 21 were in residence halls.
Cincinnati's Clery report classifies 29 of the 33 as disclosures to campus security authorities, describing them as victim disclosures made without wishing to report to law enforcement.
That designation does not show whether a disclosure led to a university investigation. Cincinnati’s report says a formal complaint is required to initiate its grievance process under the policies identified in the report.
Wilf’s research with college survivors outside Ohio helps explain why students may seek support without pursuing an investigation. Survivors described distrust of police, fears of not being believed and concerns about losing control over who learns their story.
Wilf cautioned that campus crime statistics capture only part of the problem.
"Our research shows that those Clery Act counts are a vast understatement about how many students are actually experiencing sexual violence on their campus," she said.
For some survivors in her research, the campus process became another reason to leave school. They described lengthy investigations, additional trauma and continued contact with the person they reported.
"We have heard many, many, many cases of survivors dropping out of their institution," Wilf said.
She called for universities to look beyond crime counts and track investigation timelines, disciplinary outcomes and survivors’ experiences with the process.
"What kind of accountability measures are being put in place? How many student survivors report feeling retraumatized through this process?" she said.
Survivors need support beyond an investigation, researcher says
After an assault, a student may need medical care, counseling, a forensic examination, a housing change or an accommodation for an upcoming exam.
Wilf said those demands place a heavy burden on students who may be navigating college away from home for the first time.
Universities are “systematically placing the burden of healing on survivors themselves,” she said.
Wilf recommended funding confidential advocates who can explain options, coordinate services and provide emotional support. That role serves a different purpose from an investigator’s responsibility to gather evidence and remain neutral.
Wilf’s push for better data began with student advocacy. As a UCLA graduate student, she co-founded Survivors and Allies. The group’s struggle to demonstrate that students’ experiences reflected broader problems helped motivate its research, she said.
Universities should collect anonymous feedback from students who go through their processes and explain how they use that information, Wilf said. Useful measures include investigation timelines, responsibility findings, sanctions and whether survivors felt the process caused further trauma.
“The university needs to provide a way for students to give their feedback in an anonymous format,” she said.
Publishing numbers should be the beginning of a conversation with survivors about what needs to change, Wilf said.
“Data without conversation is just data,” she said. “It's just a number.”
What the nine schools' reports show
Trending reporter Amani Bayo can be reached at abayo@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: ‘A vast understatement’: What Ohio college sex assault reports miss
