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U. commits to planning Title IX office reform town hall, additional meetings over summer

Title IX- Engage
Zachary Shevin / The Daily Princetonian

The Faculty-Student Committee on Sexual Misconduct and the University Student Life Committee will be meeting with students over the summer and planning a town hall-style event before the end of spring 2019 as part of their timeline for further dialogue on Title IX reform.

“Princeton University is committed to ensuring that all of its community members can learn, work, and thrive in a safe, supportive, and fair environment, free from sexual misconduct and all forms of discrimination,” the committees wrote in the statement. “The Committees are committed to working together with the Princeton community to ensure that our common goals are achieved.”

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In a statement from the Faculty-Student Committee on Sexual Misconduct and the University Student Life Committee, the Committees additionally said they anticipate releasing a final report in fall of 2019.

However, in reference to that final report, the Committees noted that the U.S. Department of Education plans to issue new regulations regarding Title IX investigations and said the University’s ability to implement any of the committees’ recommendations may be affected by those changes.

The Committees plans to meet with student organizers over the summer and the fall. In addition, the Committees said they are “working with the student delegation” to find a neutral third party to facilitate a “listening session” for additional community input.

“The student delegation and the Committees discussed their mutual concerns about this format but agreed that it should be one of several vehicles for the campus community to express their concerns and make suggestions,” the Committees wrote.

The committees also addressed the concern of “adequate funding for students seeking off-campus mental health services” in the statement, directing students in need of financial support to the “Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Students, the Graduate School, the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life, and University Health Services.”

The timeline is a result of the meeting of the Faculty-Student Committee on Sexual Misconduct and the University Student Life Committee with members of Princeton Students for Title IX reform (PIXR) on Monday in the Wu Dining Hall Private Dining Room.

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The steps taken in the timeline are in addition to an external review the University plans on having conducted on the Title IX office. This external review was among the demands of the PIXR protesters.

The meeting comes after an email to the student body on Monday, May 13 from Calhoun and Dean of the Graduate School Sarah-Jane Leslie, in which they wrote they “appreciate and take seriously the concerns [the protesters] have raised.”

“These issues are complex and difficult,” they wrote. “We believe they should be considered in thoughtful and inclusive ways by committees of students, faculty and staff.”

The  Title IX office sit-in is ongoing after beginning Tuesday, May 7. The PIXR leadership will be releasing a statement on the University’s timeline later this afternoon, according to Rebecca Sobel ’19 in an email to The Daily Princetonian.

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