Following the Department of Education’s announcement that elements of Title IX will be changed, particularly the Dear Colleague Letter that deals with sexual assault at universities, Emporia State remains focused on creating a safe campus environment.
According to a guidance letter from the federal government, the Dear Colleague Letter ensures that schools “investigate and resolve allegations of sexual violence” and classifies sexual violence as a “crime that interferes with students’ rights to recieve an education.”
The letter states that according to Title IX, sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment as it creates a hostile environment for students.
“The most important element is that our interest is in creating an environment where our students and employees and visitors to campus, first and foremost are safe, and second of all, are in an environment that is inclusive and is open to all different sorts of experiences and knowledge and walks of life,” said Ray Lauber, director of human resources and affirmative action and the Title IX Coordinator.
When the letter was introduced in 2011, the university took a comprehensive view of the requirements and made a rewrite to ensure that it fit university standards and goals. The purpose of the letter is to bar universities from ignoring sexual harassment and assault.
To implement the Dear Colleague letter, ESU created training, recreated the reporting process and made a rewrite of the policy.
Lauber was not involved in the 2011 rewrite of the letter. Julie Anderson, his predecessor, was the Title IX Coordinator at the time. A group of about 12 people from Student Affairs, Athletics, the general counsel and other stakeholders assisted with the rewrite.
“It basically put us in a position where we started being a little bit more aggressive I think, in terms of following up on complaints of sexual violence,” Lauber said.
There are numerous situations that fall under the sexual violence category, as outlined in the university policy manual. Sexual assault, violence, domestic violence, stalking and sexual and racial harassment are in Title IX’s jurisdiction.
Last year, the university created an investigator position to increase the efficiency and speed with which they could respond to complaints, according to Lauber.
“We’ve made some slight adjustments and had some adaptations along the way, but overall we’ve had a policy that has worked well for us as an institution,” Lauber said.
The appeals process is one part of the policy that went through changes, such as who has the right to make an appeal and what steps to go through. They intend to clarify how the appeals process works with incidents that fall under Title VI and Title VII, which do not deal directly with sexual assault, according to Lauber.
According to Title IX reporting procedures at ESU, “responsible employees are obligated to report complaints of harassment, sexual violence and/or discrimination to the Affirmative Action Officer and/or Title IX Coordinator.”
ESU’s interest will not charge, regardless of what changes the federal government makes to the requirements, according to Lauber.
“Whatever comes out of this, we’re definitely going to take a look at it and figure out what we need to do to be compliant, but it doesn’t change the fact that our interest is in creating a safe, diverse and inclusive environment,” Lauber said.
