By Emily Sullivan
College administrations increasingly try to replace legalistic methods of defining sexual assault with personal education that is more realistic and accessible to students. With workshop classes taught by specifically trained professionals, schools throughout the United States are also accomplishing this change with the help of Title IX officers with great success.
Personable education and adequate responses to reports of sexual assault are imperative in both upholding Title IX and creating a safe and inclusive atmosphere for students. Some administrations may find it difficult to implement programs about phrases to use in asking your partner for permission, but creating such personalized programs is crucial. Spending time on the nuances of consent places a “yes means yes” norm alongside the more commonly emphasized “no means no” norm, leaving little room for doubt and encouraging safer, consensual sex.
Title IX has been put in place to ensure at least some form of guidance takes place in our education system. Schools that receive federal funding but do not provide guidance to students who have been sexually assaulted or harassed are, by Title IX, at risk of losing financial assistance.
The media has been increasing coverage of reactions to Title IX violations. The Hunting Ground, a 2015 documentary detailing two female students’ experiences in reporting sexual assault at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the most prominent recent example.
Universities have responded to reactions to Title IX in various ways. Over 800 colleges in the U.S. have imposed rules commonly known as “affirmative consent” that require verbal contracts of “yes” both before and during a sexual encounter.
Though these rules do emphasize active consent, education and awareness are crucial in establishing an environment of inclusivity and safety. Harvard University has recently taken this route by hiring its first Title IX officer, Mia Karvonides.
Her daily duties as a Title IX officer include ensuring Harvard is successfully implementing adequate policy and overseeing how the institution responds to allegations of assault.
Fordham’s own Title IX implementation advisor is Anastasia Coleman, who holds the title of director of institutional equity and compliance. Fordham’s Title IX website lists Ms. Coleman’s responsibilities as overseeing “compliance efforts and violations of university policies, including gender equity in athletics, and all forms of discrimination, limitations on consensual relationships, sex and gender discrimination, sexual harassment, rape/sexual abuse, other sexual misconduct, stalking, forcible touching, dating and domestic violence, intimidation and retaliation for filing such complaints.” The Sexual Misconduct Task Force was established in 2015 to better understand campus climate and the extent of sexual assault awareness.
The information and data gathered by the task force was used to update and reassess the university’s already present and mandatory outreach programs. Examples include the lecture about consent and sexual assault during New Student Orientation and the Alcohol and Other Drug Education Core Program.
Fordham’s Title IX office conducts education and training seminars, awareness events and workshops, but these programs are not mandated.
In a statement hosted online at Fordham’s Title IX website, Rev. Joseph McShane, S.J., president of the university, cites Jesuit values in Fordham’s implementation of the law, stating that “kindness, dignity and protection of all persons are at the heart of cura personalis.”
Though Fordham has conducted recent thorough research with the task force and reevaluated its approach to dealing with issues of sexual assault, a crucial remaining point of contention is the relatively small amount of education regarding students.
A more comprehensive approach for Fordham could be to mandate comprehensive sexual assault awareness workshops throughout on-campus resident buildings that focus on what constitutes consent and maintaining healthy relationships.
Emily Sullivan, FCRH ’17, is a psychology and women’s studies double major from Wall, New Jersey.
