Fewer than a quarter of the nearly 50 sexual assault complaints reported on the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus over the last five years was adjudicated by the university as called for by federal law, and only one case advanced to the justice system for prosecution, according to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser analysis of crime and student disciplinary data.

While UH-Manoa is under federal investigation for its response to sexual assault complaints, its culpability is unclear. It could be, for instance, that after an initial complaint victims chose not to pursue the matter.

But the disparity in the numbers above offers a hint at the extent of the problem.

The number of "forcible" sex offenses on campus — including rape and attempted rape — reported to authorities in each of the last five years exceeded the number of sexual assault cases the university investigated annually under the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination.

For example, in 2013, eight sex assaults were reported to campus authorities. That year, the university’s Office of Judicial Affairs heard one sex assault case, for which it determined there was no cause. The year before, the ratio was 11 reported assaults to five adjudicated cases.

The numbers raise questions about whether UH is doing enough to encourage students to come forward to report crimes and inform them of their rights to pursue complaints through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Under the civil rights law known as Title IX, sexual harassment, including sexual violence, is viewed as interfering with a student’s right to receive an education free from discrimination.

Some students complain that UH lacks a coordinated system to respond to sexual violence cases because services are spread across various offices and centers, leaving students unsure of where to turn for help.

"There are so many different entry points that it’s still not entirely clear to me what the process would be," said Michelle Tigchelaar, a UH-Manoa graduate student in oceanography. "I feel like that’s something I should know after being here for five years."

Addressing that concern is one of several steps school officials say the university has taken over the last few years to improve its compliance with Title IX.

"One of things that we’re doing is looking at having a consistent response team that’s coordinated," UH-Manoa’s gender equity specialist, Jennifer Rose, said in an interview. "And that goes hand in hand with making sure that we adopt a systemwide, standardized investigation model and policies."

The university says it’s been making changes, some before a federal probe started two summers ago, including the recent hiring of two Title IX coordinators; an updated sexual harassment and sexual assault policy that includes an affirmative consent standard; increased training for first responders, faculty, staff, administrators and students; and a new informational website that’s scheduled to launch this week.

Under Title IX, schools are required to adopt policies and procedures that ensure a "prompt and equitable" response to complaints of sexual violence.

UH-Manoa uses its student disciplinary procedures, as allowed under the law, to investigate Title IX complaints or grievances through its Office of Judicial Affairs. The office handles all violations of the student conduct code, determines whether a violation occurred and levies any punishment.

Schools are directed by the federal government to use the "preponderance of evidence" standard of proof, meaning a hearing must determine whether a complaint of sex discrimination is "more likely than not" to have occurred. That standard is easier to meet than proof "beyond a reasonable doubt," as applied in criminal trials.

In addition to sex assault, the disciplinary office handles Title IX cases involving student complaints against other students for sexual harassment, stalking, dating violence and domestic violence. The office investigated a total of 81 Title IX cases over the last five years, including 12 alleged sex assaults, 30 cases of sexual harassment and nine stalking cases, according to records obtained by the newspaper.

The office determined there was cause in seven of the sex assault complaints and imposed sanctions that included dismissals, suspensions and probations, coupled with essays and no-contact orders.

Nationally, the number of sex offenses reported last year at public and private colleges and universities with at least 1,000 students ranged from a high of 56 to just one at some schools. The numbers locally and nationally are likely only a fraction of actual crimes since statistics show some 80 percent of alleged sexual assaults against female college students go unreported to law enforcement officials, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.

About 1 in 4 students who did not report their alleged sex assault to police believed the incident was a personal matter, while 1 in 5 cited fear of reprisal, according to the agency’s annual National Crime Victimization Survey released in December.

"There needs to be a balance between an alarmist response and one that ignores the problem," said Nick Chagnon, a UH-Manoa doctoral student studying feminist criminology. "It becomes difficult to find some sort of direct evidence of wrongdoing in these types of cases, and then it becomes even more difficult to understand whether university officials or criminal justice officials simply can’t proceed because they don’t have evidence, or are they ignoring victims? Surely, both happen."

UH officials contend that student victims are getting services that can range from risk assessment and counseling to therapy, but don’t necessarily show up in the numbers because they’re either not aware of their rights or not willing to cooperate in any formal investigation. The university acknowledges the system would benefit from increased transparency in reporting how student victims are helped.

"Most victims just want to be safe. They could care less about pressing charges or filing anything formal," Rose said. Her office allows students to confidentially seek services and options for formal or informal resolutions through the university.

She said the university is focused on ensuring its responses meet students’ needs.

"I think that is so critical, because so much of what people tend to focus on is the outcome — how many cases were adjudicated, how many people were suspended," said Rose, a former attorney and advocate for domestic violence victims. "Title IX isn’t actually about the formal outcome. It’s about what did the university do to try to change the culture for that individual, but also for other students within that same environment."

Sex assault, a long-standing problem on college campuses, gained national attention in recent years as students have publicly decried their schools’ responses to allegations of rape, most notably at Columbia University, where an alleged rape victim began lugging a mattress around campus in protest of what she called her university’s failure to deter or adequately punish sex assaults.

The Obama administration responded to the issue by pressuring colleges to be more proactive to prevent sexual harassment and sexual violence and address its effects, and to take steps to end sex discrimination on campuses.

"We’ve seen the student activism on the East Coast around the institutional responsibilities, and to be frank, that’s what I’ve seen here too — that is, students who say that sometimes they feel traumatized by the lack of institutional response as much as the actual perpetrated offense," Rose said.

The U.S. DOE has warned that schools that fail to appropriately respond can suffer consequences including loss of federal funding, a noncompliance finding, a voluntary resolution agreement, or a lawsuit.

Last May, the department for the first time released a list of campuses nationwide with pending Title IX sexual violence investigations. UH-Manoa was one of 55 schools on the initial list, which the federal government said included investigations opened because of complaints received as well as investigations initiated as so-called compliance reviews to remedy possible violations of rights.

Amid increased national attention on the issue, the list as of last week has grown to 109 schools across the country.

The DOE’s Office for Civil Rights initiated its investigation at UH-Manoa in May 2013. A department spokes­man said it would not disclose case-specific facts or details until the investigation is complete. UH officials say the university’s probe is a compliance audit and they expect to negotiate a voluntary resolution agreement by the summer.

Rose and other school officials say the university is taking steps to improve under UH President David Lassner’s leadership.

"To the president’s credit, he’s made Title IX a priority," Rose said. "It’s not about compliance. It’s not about, ‘Let’s dot our I’s and cross our T’s.’ It’s about how do we make all of our UH campuses safer, a place where parents will want to send their children."

In one of its biggest changes so far, UH earlier this year implemented a revised sexual assault policy that includes an affirmative consent standard for investigating reports of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking.

The policy requires that any person accused of sex assault must prove the accuser gave "affirmative, conscious and voluntary" consent to engage in sexual activity.

More than 800 colleges and universities now use some type of affirmative consent definition in their sex assault policies, according to the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management.

UH’s policy, which is similar to ones at other mainland schools, also specifies:

» Past consent does not imply future consent.

» Silence or an absence of resistance does not imply consent.

» Consent must be ongoing throughout sexual activity and can be withdrawn at any time.

» A person is unable to consent if he or she cannot make a reasonable judgment because he or she is incapacitated due to intoxication, unconscious, unable to communicate, or if an agreement is the product of threat, coercion or fraud.

Star-Advertiser Data News Editor Dana Williams contributed to this report.