Eisgruber authorizes external review of U. Title IX office

The University’s Title IX office is set to undergo an external review, according to a University statement released on Friday afternoon. Provost Deborah Prentice will oversee the review.

The statement comes after almost four days of the Title IX office sit-in outside of Nassau Hall in which students have demanded a list of eleven reforms. External review is the second demand in that list.

In light of this activism, Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter recently wrote to President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83 to request that he authorize an external review of the University’s Title IX office. Eisgruber has since granted her request.

“We appreciate, support, and join you in your efforts to make our campus safe for all who work or study on this campus, and to ensure that our procedures are fair and respectful to everyone,“ Eisgruber wrote. “We accordingly grant your request.”

“We also appreciate your desire to seek continued improvement of our Title IX processes and to facilitate constructive dialogue, through appropriate and inclusive processes, with our larger community,“ he added.

This announcement comes two days after an initial University statement on the sit-in. In that statement, the University wrote that it is “committed to ensuring that all of its community members can learn, work and thrive in a safe, supportive and fair environment, free from sexual misconduct and all forms of discrimination.”

The statement also noted that the University will refer the concerns raised by the student activists to the appropriate committees, such as the University Student Life Committee and the Faculty-Student Committee on Sexual Misconduct.

The Title IX office protesters, however, were largely dissatisfied with this initial statement.

According to a tweet that has accumulated 1,600 likes by the time of publication, Rebecca Sobel ’19, a participant in the protest, had edited the University statement as if it were an essay, giving the statement a failing grade.

“We are really disappointed in this subpar work,” she wrote.