OCU’s Title IX Resource Team sent out an email informing students, staff and faculty about the U.S. Department of Education’s updates to Title IX regulations.
On Aug. 17, Joey Croslin, Title IX coordinator, sent out an email to the campus announcing that Title IX updated its definition of sexual harassment and changed the processes for the initial intake meeting, live hearings and informal resolution process. These changes went into effect Aug. 14.
Kristi Pendleton, civil rights investigator, said there were a lot of changes in the Title IX updates, but the email highlighted the ones that pertained most to students. She said one of the biggest changes came from the updated definition for sexual harassment becoming more exclusive.
“That definition has changed in the sense that it is unwanted sexual conduct that is so severe, so pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the education program or activity that is happening on campus,” Pendleton said. “You may think, ‘well, I remember that wording before,’ but there is one little word that changed in that definition. It used to be severe, pervasive or objectively offensive, and that change to ‘and’ means that all three components have to be met in order to satisfy the definition of sexual harassment from the Title IX perspective.”
Pendleton said the process for the live hearings were updated to require the person filing the complaint to have an advisor, where previously the advisor was not required in the process.
“Before, if there was a hearing process, let’s say I was brought up on a Title IX charge, and I had a hearing. I would have to make the cross examination questions,” Pendleton said. “Now with the new regulations, what the Department of Education said is, ‘we’re not going to make the students do that now. Now it is the advisor’s responsibility.’”
Another change made by the Department of Education is the decision to have a board of impartial people to decide the responsibility of the alleged harasser instead of the civil rights investigator.
“As before, the Civil Rights Investigator will investigate complaints by conducting interviews to gather evidence and then will compile an investigative report. However, the investigator will not enter a finding of responsibility; that determination must now be made by impartial decision-makers after a live hearing,” the email read.
The final change made by the Department of Education was implementing an informal complaint process. Pendleton said OCU already had this kind of process before the update.
“If students say, ‘I don’t want to go through a formal hearing. That’s too much stress for me,’ or, ‘I just don’t feel like that’s what I want to do, but I’d like to find some type of resolution. I’d be willing to sit down with someone and talk about “are you willing to take responsibility for what happened to me, and what are some possible conflict resolution that we can do?”’ Those are also available,” Pendleton said. “Students have the right to change their mind and say, ‘I don’t want to go through a formal process,’ or change their mind and say, ‘I do.’”
Pendleton said since the update to the definition for sexual harassment was made on the federal level, OCU is required to follow these changes.
The Aug. 17 email highlighted the initial intake meeting not because there were any changes made, but to emphasize the importance of that meeting, Pendleton said.
“In our initial intake meeting, anytime a student makes a report or someone makes a report on behalf of that student, I always reach out to that student as soon as possible to talk to them,” she said. “We are going to go over all those options in the very first meeting.”
Pendleton said the update that made the definition for sexual harassment stricter was made in response to previous regulations that some policy makers thought leaned too far to the victim side.
“It is a narrowing of the definition. It’s a much stricter definition, for sure, and it’s not necessarily something I would say that colleges and universities were looking for,” Pendleton said.
Catherine Brown, music junior, said she thinks the changes can be unfair to people who experience sexual harassment in a university setting.
“I think that if the work environment or any place that is educational makes someone feel uncomfortable to where it prohibits what the company or operation is for, and it can’t be dealt with because the criteria wasn’t met, then I think that is unsustainable to that person,” Catherine Brown said. “I think that that’s unfair, and I think that takes away from what people feel. I think that takes away a right of feeling comfortable in your environment.”
Brown said the university should treat all cases equally, whether the accounts meet all criteria of sexual harassment or not.
“I think that each victim should be heard, one: always, and should always be taken seriously,” she said. “I also think that OCU should say to students that every situation that you feel uncomfortable in, you should come forward with it, even if you don’t think that it’s worth saying or you don’t think it’s important.”
Billy Palumbo, visiting associate professor of film, said he is concerned about the treatment of victims under these new regulations.
“I’m a little bit concerned, generally, that they might take away protections from victims of harassment or abuse on campuses,” Palumbo said. “It seems to me that it raises the threshold for what is a legal requirement for institutions to take action, but I also know that not every institution in the country follows the letter of that policy, that institutions are able to have more strict campus policies that go beyond what the federal guidelines are.”
Joey Croslin, Title IX coordinator, said she encourages students, staff and faculty to report any instances of Title IX violations.
“I just want to make sure that members of our campus community feel comfortable reporting instances of policy violations under our policy,” Croslin said. “So whether it’s sexual harassment, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, whatever the case may be, I would hope that they feel comfortable reporting that, so, at the very least, we could provide supportive measures and connect that individual with resources, making sure they are safe and supporting those members of our community through our policy.”
Leave a Reply