Comprehensive Investigation Oversight Committee

Introduction

In May 2021, the Board of Trustees initiated a Comprehensive Investigation into Faculty Sexual Misconduct. The investigation followed public reports in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years of sexual misconduct involving two College employees. In response to those reports, the College examined and took steps to address the culture, structures and procedures that may have allowed misconduct to occur. However, some members of the community believed it was important to conduct a more comprehensive investigation. The Board of Trustees charged a Comprehensive Investigation Oversight Committee (CIOC), consisting of representatives of the Board of Trustees, faculty and administration, with overseeing the independent investigation. The investigation’s aim was to recommend evidence-based actions to improve culture, restore trust, acknowledge accountability and decrease student vulnerability as related to faculty sexual misconduct.

The Report

The Comprehensive Investigation into Faculty Sexual Misconduct is now complete, and the final report of the investigators has been shared in its entirety with the Holy Cross community. It is available here, both in a full, detailed form and in a summary report of findings and conclusions.

Investigation and Report

Recommendation Implementation Committee

In December 2022, President Rougeau announced the membership of a committee tasked with advancing the recommendations found in the Cozen O'Connor report. The committee of faculty and staff members released an update on their work in Fall 2023.

Fall 2023 Update

Investigative Team

The investigation was conducted by Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie Gomez of Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia. Ms. Smith and Ms. Gomez serve as the chair and vice-chair, respectively, of Cozen O’Connor’s Institutional Response Group, the nation’s first practice dedicated to improving institutional responses to sexual and gender-based harassment and violence, child abuse, other forms of discrimination and harassment, workplace misconduct and criminal conduct.

Frequently Asked Questions

Following reports in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years by Holy Cross students and alumni of sexual misconduct involving two College employees, the College examined and took steps to address the culture, structures and procedures that may have allowed misconduct to occur. However, some members of the community believed it was important to conduct a more comprehensive investigation that examined culture and structure and also included a review of historical accounts of faculty sexual misconduct. In May 2021, the Board of Trustees initiated a Comprehensive Investigation into Faculty Sexual Misconduct. The goal was to provide information to support “meaningful and significant evidence-based actions to improve culture, restore trust, acknowledge accountability and decrease student vulnerability as related to faculty sexual misconduct.”

Yes. The investigation was conducted by Gina Maisto Smith and Leslie Gomez of Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia.

Cozen was given full autonomy and independence to determine how to conduct the investigation, what materials to review, and whom to interview. The observations, findings and recommendations included in their report are their own. Cozen’s report has been shared in its entirety with the community.

In initiating the investigation, the Board also authorized a Comprehensive Investigation Oversight Committee (CIOC), comprising two trustees selected by the Board Chair, two tenured faculty members selected by the Academic Governance Council and two administrators selected by then-President Philip L. Boroughs, S.J. 

Understanding the need for an independent committee to oversee the investigation, the board created the CIOC and gave it oversight authority of the investigative process in accordance with the authorized scope.

Committee Members:

  • Nancy Andrews Ph.D, Associate Professor, Classics; Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
  • Nancy Baldiga Ph.D, Professor, Economics and Accounting
  • Christopher Collins, Esq. ’80, Member of the Board of Trustees; Of Counsel, Mirick O’Connell
  • Michele Murray Ph.D, Senior Vice President for Student Development and Mission, Dean of Students
  • Donna Murphy O’Brien ’77, Member of the Board of Trustees; President, Strategic Visions in Healthcare
  • Daniel Ricciardi ’06, Associate Vice President, Investments and Institutional Resources, Assistant Treasurer

The CIOC was advised by attorney Michael E. Baughman of Troutman Pepper.

The scope of the investigation was three-fold: (1) a confidential review of facts, materials, surveys and documents related to prior investigations, committees and campus summits; (2) a review of the College’s current culture as it relates to faculty sexual misconduct, with particular focus on structural issues that might have discouraged the reporting of faculty sexual misconduct or the College from addressing predatory behavior; (3) information from survivors and individuals who were willing to provide additional context about prior incidents.

All members of the community were invited to participate in the review without restriction. Opportunities included directly contacting the investigators, attending campus or virtual group meetings with the investigators and completing the anonymous survey instrument provided to all community members.

Between January and August 2022, the investigators interviewed more than 75 students, staff, faculty and alumni on a confidential basis about issues related to faculty sexual misconduct. Twenty-one of those individuals reported experiencing sexual misconduct (including a range of conduct from verbal sexual harassment to physical sexual acts) while at the College between the 1950s and the 2010s.

The investigators were not charged with investigating whether specific acts of misconduct in fact occurred. Rather, they considered the historical accounts of abuse for the purpose of determining how those accounts might help to consider whether there were cultural, structural or organizational factors that might have contributed to faculty sexual misconduct, or more broadly, an environment where faculty sexual misconduct could occur.

The recommendations fall into five main categories: restorative approaches to address the harms of the past; preventive work to reduce the potential for sexual misconduct through enhanced educational programming; strengthening of institutional structures, policies, and practices to shift the conditions that may have allowed misconduct to occur; steps to foster increased reporting; and effective practices to enhance responses to reports when misconduct occurs. They also offered a sixth category of recommendations designed to ensure that the process for implementing the recommendations has the appropriate hallmarks of trust, accountability, visibility, and sustainability.