The University is currently in the process of searching to hire a Title IX administrator following pressure from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights over the summer. A hire is expected to be announced by the middle of November.
The position will primarily revolve around managing the University’s compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Violence Against Women Act. According to the online job posting, the administrator will play the leading role in responding to any reported Title IX incidents and will also head whatever investigations into these incidents are deemed necessary. Title IX covers a variety of issues including gender discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter said that the job’s creation was completely tied to the controversies in which the University found itself embroiled this past summer. Because of the new sex discrimination policy and disciplinary procedures, student sexual misconduct cases can no longer be handled through the Faculty-Student Committee on Discipline. The new Title IX administrator will instead lead a team of three trained panelists who will handle the cases.
Minter said that the Title IX administrator will ideally have a very close connection with the student body, faculty and staff as an informational and educational resource.
“I hope in general that this will be someone who is very approachable for students ... someone who can answer questions, [someone] who they can come to,” she said.
The Title IX administrator will not, however, be an entirely confidential resource. If a student gives details of a specific incident, the administrator would have to put the University on notice and decide how the University would respond to that information.
Minter emphasized, however, that it will be made very clear to students immediately upon contacting the Title IX administrator that he or she is not a confidential source.
Minter explained that the University is open to adding further administrators and investigators if necessary in addition to the newly created Title IX administrator position. The University is already looking to hire a second external investigator on a case-by-case basis to assist with Title IX investigations as a neutral party. She noted, however, that the Title IX administrator position comes first because of how integral it is to coordinating the University’s entire Title IX compliance program.
Minter said that the University has also been ramping up its educational efforts on campus, including the implementation of a more substantial bystander intervention program designed to help students understand how to intervene and take care of each other. Other educational efforts in the works include increased programming regarding issues of consent and incapacitation that will combine with two new online programs released last year for incoming freshmen and juniors to form a new body of educational resources for campus.
The new Faculty-Student Advisory Committee on Sexual Misconduct is another medium through which the University is working to enhance its approach to dealing with sexual assault on campus, both inside and outside of the disciplinary system.
“Campus culture is really, really critical,” Minter said, noting that by the time an issue makes it to the Title IX administrator and the disciplinary system, the University has already failed in terms of preventing the initial incident in the first place.
Minter said the University is looking to move through the hiring process as quickly as possible, given the importance of the issue. Though the position was posted on Sept. 27, she noted that she felt there was already a strong, competitive pool of applicants.
University Provost David Lee GS '99 declined to comment for this story and deferred comment to Minter.
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