Seventy-four pages.

That’s the length of the report handed over to the Board of Regents last week following an investigation into the University of Iowa’s handling of sexual assault allegations against a pair of Hawkeye football players. The report cites several failures on the part of Iowa administrators, but ultimately concluded that there was no attempted cover-up and that the failure of some U of I officials to hand over pertinent documents was, in the words of one of the lead investigators, “a huge mistake.”

While many, notably Regent Michael Gartner, may be critical of this finding, the report also went on to criticize U of I’s confusing policies governing sexual assault complaints and contained four major recommendations, many of which ought to have seemed glaringly obvious: Most notably, eliminating the obvious conflict of interest wherein the same office — University of Iowa’s General Counsel — represented both the interests of the victim and the university. No kidding.

The fact that University of Iowa administrators didn’t follow their own policies — and the investigation’s finding that this was simply a mistake — quite understandably leads the average observer to two logical conclusions: Either the administrators whose job it is — for now, anyway — to enforce them were grossly incompetent and irresponsible, or the policies were far too complex to begin with. Perhaps some of both.

The question must be posed, however: If the regents believed — or still believe — that there was a cover-up, why not bring in Tom Miller and the Iowa Attorney General’s Office? Why, after 10 months of delay in handing over pertinent documents and other machinations in what can only be called a “shady” situation, is this still an internal issue? Although the two football players who committed this heinous and despicable crime will, finally, face a Johnson County Court at the beginning of November, the apparent negligence — at various levels — within the organization that exists to assist victims of just such acts could be said to approach the same level of injury, even if it was merely “a huge mistake.”

The message that this entire escapade has sent to possible victims of sexual assault — not only at the University of Iowa, but, perhaps, across the entire regents’ organization — is most troubling of all. What has transpired in Iowa City should not and cannot be allowed to recur, whether again in Iowa City, in Cedar Falls, or here in Ames. At the very least, assurances of a functional, fair and accessible system for reporting, investigating and dealing with cases of sexual assault is owed to all students — male and female — in the wake of these events.