Kansas University now has two cases on the list of U.S. Department of Education investigations into colleges’ sexual violence procedures, but the university says both cases were prompted by one individual complaint.

The USDE opened its new investigation of KU on July 20, according to the USDE Office for Civil Rights’ most recent list of colleges it is investigating for their handling of sexual violence cases. The newly opened investigation joins an earlier case opened in July 2014.

“We won’t discuss specifics of the OCR (Office for Civil Rights) investigation, but it is important to note that OCR has indicated that its investigation of the university is not a compliance review or systemic investigation; instead, it is an individual complaint,” KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said, adding that KU is cooperating closely with the office.

The mother of the female student who filed the complaint, who has spoken with some media outlets on her behalf, said the Office for Civil Rights recently notified her daughter that its earlier investigation had been bifurcated into two separate docket matters.

She said the first was investigating what the office called a “systemic” question of whether KU failed to properly respond to complaints of sexual violence including her daughter’s, and the second would investigate allegations specific to her daughter’s grievance process at KU.

A USDE spokesman declined to comment on the second KU investigation, or why it was initiated.

Speaking generally, USDE assistant press secretary Denise Horn said this in a recent Journal-World story: “Sexual violence investigations tend to be highly complex — involving not just an individual’s complaint, but sometimes reaching back years to study a university’s culture and response to other claims of sexual assaults.”

In most cases, the public has no knowledge of what triggered USDE investigations on the list, as neither the USDE nor schools comment on individual cases, citing confidentiality.

However, the USDE investigation opened in July 2014 stems from an October 2013 incident in which the female KU student — then a freshman — said she was raped in Lewis Hall by a man she went to a party with and drank heavily with earlier that night. She said KU failed to properly investigate and adjudicate her case, and she filed a complaint against KU with the USDE’s Office for Civil Rights.

The Journal-World reported on the woman’s case last year, and documents obtained by the newspaper support her statements that she filed the complaint triggering the USDE’s earlier investigation of KU.

KU did investigate two reports of rape by the same victim, she said last year. Several months into KU’s first investigation, she reported that she’d also been raped in September 2013 by the same man, also in his Lewis Hall dorm room while she was intoxicated.

The woman filed a police report after the October 2013 incident, though the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office ultimately decided not to file criminal charges against the man.

In the past month — since the Journal-World reported KU’s July 2014 federal investigation had been open a full year — the USDE has opened at least 16 new investigations nationwide.

This week, there were a total of 150 ongoing USDE investigations at 130 different schools, according to the USDE.

Though USDE guidelines call for investigations to be resolved in about six months, the cases on the list have been open an average of 13 months, according to the Journal-World’s analysis in July.

The female student’s mother, speaking for the family, said this week they have learned firsthand “the complexity of OCR matters is not always publicly apparent” and that they appreciate the office’s efforts to thoroughly analyze “the wide array of issues that may be present within the culture of a single university.”

“We are extremely proud of the stamina, grace and courage our daughter displayed as she pursued her concerns within the system,” she said. “We hope her choice to see the process through will encourage other survivors to come forward and report. That reporting is an integral component in assuring students their respective campuses implement Title IX compliant processes nationwide. We are grateful for all students who provide information to OCR and look forward to the resolution OCR considers most appropriate within the scope of its authority.”