Penn State has begun building a new Office of Investigations to handle the intake and resolution of policy-violation allegations and discrimination and harassment complaints involving employees, according to a job posting.

The university is seeking a chief investigations officer to create and lead the new office. The Office of Investigations will have about eight full-time staff members and potentially several part-time employees.

The new unit will take on casework that was previously handled by the Office of Ethics and Compliance (OEC), the Office of Equal Opportunity and Access (OEOA), and Labor & Employee Relations, according to the listing.

The Office of Investigations will work hand in hand with the Office of Compliance and Civil Rights (OCCR) throughout the life cycle of a case.

“Penn State is committed to providing an inclusive, welcoming, and lawful educational and working environment for all members of its community,” the job listing reads. “The Chief Investigations Officer will be central to delivering on that commitment through a rigorous, well-documented, and efficient case resolution process across a large, multi-campus, decentralized institution.”

A Penn State spokesperson confirmed to Onward State that the university is in “the beginning stages of reorganizing its compliance and investigative functions” and said more information would be available “later this fall.”

Penn State Vice President and General Counsel Tabitha Oman also confirmed the new office in a LinkedIn post promoting the job listing.

In the post, Oman said the office will “bring a fresh approach to how the University addresses complex and sensitive matters.”

Oman did not respond to a request for comment prior to publishing.

Suzanne Adair will serve as the reorganization project’s special adviser, according to a news release, after announcing a three-year phased retirement from her role as associate vice president for OEOA.

“It has been a privilege to serve the Penn State community for the past 26 years,” Adair said in the release. “I am grateful for the opportunity to work alongside so many dedicated colleagues in support of a university community where every individual is treated with dignity, fairness, and respect. I look forward to continuing to contribute during this period of transition and ensuring a smooth implementation of the university’s new compliance and investigative structure.”

The reorganization coincides with Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi’s goal of a university-wide system for reporting wrongdoing and bias, which she discussed in a 2023 news release.

Penn State overhauled its internal accountability system after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal put the university under immense scrutiny in 2011.

While Penn State was praised in the years after the scandal for the changes it implemented, a Spotlight PA investigation found that “the internal accountability apparatus Penn State constructed has repeatedly failed those it was intended to protect.”

At the time of the investigations’ publication, Penn State responded that it did not believe it gave an “accurate account of the efforts made by the University to build our ethics and compliance program.”

“The Spotlight PA story leads readers by stringing together a narrative based on a number of individual and unrelated incidents and unsubstantiated accusations,” the university said in its statement.

It’s unclear whether the planned reorganization is related to the Spotlight PA investigations, or how long the change has been in the works.

Spotlight PA did follow up on the investigation in 2024, however, and found that Penn State had started making internal data on misconduct complaints publicly accessible.

According to Penn State’s now-public compliance reporting data, in the first three months of 2026, OEC closed 105 ethics hotline reports.