Over the past several years, the university has been working to make Johns Hopkins a more equitable place to learn, work, and live. October 2018 marked the release of the university’s first annual report providing a detailed look at the Office of Institutional Equity‘s efforts to ensure that Johns Hopkins is a community that is free from discrimination and harassment and sexual misconduct, and fully inclusive of the broadest possible range of people, backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

The report shows that there were 410 reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination in 2017. This is an increase over the 241 reports received the previous year, a trend that is consistent with the experience of Johns Hopkins’ peer institutions. The OIE team believes that the growth is the result of greater awareness of its work, as well as the university’s education and outreach efforts, and by the decreasing societal stigma around reporting sexual misconduct and discrimination.

In response, OIE expenditures increased by 60 percent and its staff increased to 16 full-time employees, up from seven in 2015. In 2017, the university also expanded its leadership capacity in this area with the creation of two new roles: vice provost for institutional equity and vice provost for diversity and inclusion, who also serves as chief diversity officer.

The average time to close a case in 2017 was 128 days, with a median time of 105 days. OIE said in the document, “Although more than half our cases are closed in four months or less, we recognize the need to streamline the process—including simplifying our reports and adding staff to address concerns about timeliness—while continuing our thorough and deliberate approach.”