Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
By Christiana Paradis, Director of Title IX Compliance
When reviewing the revamped Annual Report released by the Title IX Office on September 1, you may have noticed on the second page that a majority of cases reported to the Title IX Office resulted in supportive measures only.
So, what are supportive measures and why are they important? Supportive measures are non-disciplinary, non-punitive individualized resources and support services that can be put in place for either the Ccomplainant (the person who has been harmed) or the Rrespondent (the person alleged to have caused harm) to help restore or preserve equal access to educational programs and activities offered by the Uuniversity. In other words, they are support mechanisms that can be put in place to help each party continue to access their education.
Why must each party have access to supportive measures? A key mission set forth by the Department of Education is working to assure that there is as little impact as possible to both party’s access to an education when an incident of sex or gender-based discrimination or harassment occurs. Therefore, the Uuniversity is required by law to make sure that resources and support are offered equitably.
How do you access supportive measures? Any person in a Title IX process can request supportive measures. They can be offered as stand-alone support or in conjunction with a Title IX process (formal resolution process or informal resolution process). One of the key reasons the Title IX Office encourages students to report incidents of sex and gender-based discrimination or harassment is because it provides an opportunity for our office to follow-up, reach out to the individual who has allegedly been harmed, and offer supportive measures. Students can pursue a formal resolution process (investigation and conduct hearing), an informal resolution process (voluntary, mutually agreed upon terms/outcomes), or access supportive measures only. There is no right or wrong answer to what process a person may or may not want to pursue, the choice is a personal and individual decision. I often tell students; the best option is the option that is right for them. As a campus we have a duty to respect the decisions made by a person who has been harmed and not to impart our own perceptions on how they should/should not handle a situation. Placing pressure on a friend to select a certain process can be disempowering, unsupportive, and negate a person’s self of autonomy.
So, what supportive measures can a person put in place? A student can be connected to a counselor in CAPS, medical services, or community-based providers, including advocates at our local victim advocacy agency. We can help connect with the Center for Academic Success to send notes to faculty offering support for deadline extensions or course absences. We can help students navigate work accommodations if they have an on-campus job, make referrals to help students file for a protection from abuse order from the local court system, or help them navigate an on-campus no contact notice or no trespass order (if the other party is not a student). Additionally, we can help set up additional security, monitoring, or surveillance in parts of campus or connect the student to a campus safety escort which will help the person get across campus. Lastly, we can help navigate changes to campus housing arrangements or course registration; however, we cannot move one party out of a residence hall or classroom without it being the result of a university conduct hearing or a person self-selecting to move. Due to the Department of Education’s mandate to preserve and restore access to SU’s educational program or activities, we are not able to partake in any action that could unduly burden one party’s access to education over another’s. We know that sometimes this information can be very challenging and frustrating, so we try our best to work with students to help put measures in place that feel right and most comfortable to them. A full list of supportive measures can be found in our Title IX Policy which is listed here.
Additionally, to learn more about no contact notices you can attend the Title IX Listening and Learning Session on Wednesday, October 26 at 7p.m. in Degenstein Meeting Rooms 4 & 5 and on Zoom. If you would like to submit a question to be addressed in future columns or would like to learn more about this topic, please submit a note or question here.