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Joint Committee, External Review reports on Title IX to be released in October

Michele Minter.jpeg

Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter responds to a question during a CPUC meeting in May 2019.

Photo Credit: Jon Ort / The Daily Princetonian

A press release from the Office of Communications confirmed that the deliberations of the Faculty and Student Committee on Sexual Misconduct and the University Student Life Committee will likely be released next month. 

The release also stated that the results of the external review conducted over the summer by “professionals with extensive relevant experience at other universities” will likely be available next month.

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Both the external review and work of the joint committee came in the wake of a ten-day protest, organized by Princeton Students for Title IX Reform, outside of Nassau Hall last May. The joint committee's primary concern is the Title IX process at the University, along with creating additional support structures for students. The external review’s goal is to “provide useful clarity and strengthen trust in the University’s Title IX process,” according to the initial request for the review by Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter.

The press release noted that the joint committee has already endorsed a new web portal, launched by the Office of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration, designed to help students “access information about support resources and the sexual misconduct investigation/adjudication and appeal process.” 

According to the Office of Communications, as a result of the Joint Committee’s deliberations, an expansion of the SHARE staff is under consideration, and Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun is “bringing together relevant campus offices to examine how to streamline the process for students to apply for funding to help with mental health or other medical needs.”

The joint committee is co-chaired by Calhoun; undergraduate Nicolas Gregory ’22; graduate student Mai Nguyen; graduate student Abigail Novick; and J. Nicole Shelton, Stuart Professor of Psychology and Head of Butler College.   

Since May, the joint committee has held more than 18 meetings “with a variety of students and administrators.”

According to the Office of Communications, the joint committee also worked with an “outside consultant,” who facilitated focus groups with “RCAs, SHARE Peer officers, student leaders from the Centers (Fields Center, LGBT Center, and Women*s Center), Graduate Women in STEM, and student protest delegates.”

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The external review, meanwhile, was requested by Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Diversity Michele Minter and Director of Gender Equity and Title IX Administration Regan Crotty.

According to University Deputy Spokesperson Mike Hotchkiss, the reviewers were chosen by University Provost Deborah Prentice.

“As stated in our May 10, 2019 update, Provost Deborah Prentice oversees the external Title IX review process. She selected the external review committee based on their qualifications and extensive relevant experience in this area,” Hotchkiss wrote in an email to The Daily Princetonian.

The members of the external review are “Amy Adelman, Deputy General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, Emory University; Howard Kallem (Ret.), formerly the Director for Title IX Compliance, Office for Institutional Equity, Duke University, who also has nearly two decades of prior experience in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights; and Laura Rugless, Executive Director and Title IX Coordinator, Equity and Access Services, Virginia Commonwealth University.”

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