Residence Life Education and Housing implemented a new government mandate clarifying the Title IX act regarding sexual harassment and assault.
Title IX is a federal law, established in 1972, that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The Office of Civil Rights issued several documents which seek to clarify and elaborate on what the actual policy refers to. In April 2011, all institutions receiving federal financial assistance received a letter that established sexual harassment and assault as a form of sex-based discrimination in the education environment and lined out some policies that schools are required to comply with.
“If a student puts forth a sex assault allegation and then goes to class with that student, that’s not a good learning environment.” said Dr. John Delony, assistant dean for ResLife. “So the government came out and clarified it, and we walked through the processes of how to handle it.”
“The letter has lined out some policies that schools are required to comply with,” said Kaci St. John, director of judicial affairs. “One of those being that we have a clear policy on sex assault and harassment, so we have revamped our policy and made the reporting process a little cleaner and easier to find.”
The letter also requires a Title XV court leader to be assigned which, at ACU, is Director of Human Resources Wendy Jones. The document also recommends deputy coordinators to be appointed. St. John investigates and reports on violations of policy by students, and Robyn Smith, talent management specialist, oversees employees who have been accused.
“It’s going to make it a more streamlined process,” said St. John. “If something does come to our attention we have a more detailed process of how to approach this issue. I think that makes it a little bit easier and hopefully a more centralized person like the coordinators will make it easier to know where to take your concerns.”
The university has a new website with Title IV policies, resources and information of who to contact and how to report harassment or assault. Brochures were also made containing this information and given to each on-campus resident. Resident assistants also participated in training specific to Title IX.
“The Title IX portion of the RA training was new this year,” St. John said. “We have talked about assault and harassment before, but this year was really about how to educate the students about their options and let them know ACU has a duty to respond and to keep our campus safe.”
Staff were instructed that if any of them were to hear of someone who had suffered sexual abuse, they should report it to a resident hall director.
“It’s useful to know the proper way to handle that type of information should I ever be in that situation,” said Rebecca Horton, Sikes’ assistant director.
