Photo courtesy of Connecticut College.
The College community has been jolted by the sudden departures of faculty and staff members, outlined in emails by President Bergeron over the past year. As a result, offices are left understaffed which could hurt the students that rely on certain campus resources. The Office of Equity and Compliance Programs (OPEC) which houses the Title IX office has been without an internal investigator for over a year and a Deputy Title IX Coordinator for staff since September. In response to this staffing problem, Associate Dean for Equity Compliance Programs and Title IX coordinator, Ebony Manning, and her team have been working with external investigators at the moment with the long term goal to shift to an in-house investigator. “Once we fill the internal investigator position, that person will also serve as the deputy Title IX Coordinator for Students,” Dean Manning wrote via email, “I am looking to fill the Deputy Title IX Coordinator for Staff, which is currently a voluntary position.”
Ariella Rotramel has served as the Interim Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion since August 2021. Rotramel has been working closely with Associate Dean for Equity Compliance Programs and Title IX coordinator, Ebony Manning, and the director of Sexual Violence Prevention and Advocay (SVPA), Rachel Stewart, to address the staffing concerns. Rotramel suggested via email that the understaffing problem that is being experienced all across campus relates to a nation-wide movement referred to as “The Great Resignation.”
“People are en mass shifting their employers and jobs in light of our changing world,” Rotramel writes, “this is not unique to Connecticut College.” However, Manning offers a bigger reason that stems from federal regulation changes from Title IX itself.
Dean Manning wrote that the Advisor positions, as well as a Hearing Panel, are actually new additions to the Title IX team. In May 2020, the College received new federal Title IX regulations from the United States Department of Education which forced many institutions, including Connecticut College, to rethink how they respond to sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. Accordingly, the focus of the new regulations is that victims and perpetrators of sexual harassment are treated equitably during any complaint process, making the reporting and ruling on sexual harassment in colleges more arduous and more challenging to find a perpetrator of sexual assault guilty.
Unfortunately, since Dean Manning is the sole individual in the Title IX office it may take longer for sexual assault victims to get an appointment. Dean Manning also recognizes that reporting and processing of cases may take a bit longer due to the demands of the new 2020 regulations while the Title IX office is not fully staffed to begin with. Currently, Dean Rotramel writes that a request for a revised investigator for Title IX and bias has been submitted through the College process so that it can be posted for hiring sometime soon. Dean Rotramel writes, “This position would be different from the one we had in the past, as it would be solely housed within OEC rather than shared with Campus Safety.”
Stewart and the SVPA office works very closely with and is housed under the Title IX Office. The SPVA office provides confidential advocacy to any students on campus who have been affected by sexual violence. “We interact with a broad pool of students only some of whom are interested in, or able to, report their experience to the Title IX Coordinator.” Stewart also mentions the challenge that has arisen for the Title IX team, as sometimes there is a longer wait for a student to schedule a meeting with the Title IX Coordinator to report an incident or access supportive measures such as contact limitation orders. However, the SVPA is still able to provide the same support to any affected student whether that would be emotional support, referrals to other helpful resources or supportive measures such as academic flexibility, housing changes or other arrangements to support them as they process and heal.
Zoe Bertone ‘22 is the program coordinator for SVPA. “This is the first year that the role of program coordinator has been part of SVPA. Part of my role is to support the other student staff, and be a liaison between them and Rachel [Stewart].” When asked about general DIEI work conditions since the beginning of the semester in regards to their understaffing, Bertone writes that work conditions have been good. “Our student staff has been extremely committed and working very hard to put on different events, as well as provide educational opportunities for the campus community.”
Overall, the result of both the 2020 regulation changes and the pandemic has led to staffing challenges for the Title IX office. “I hope that we can continue to build the OEC as it is a critical part of our College,” Dean Rotramel writes. “Their work is also the work we all must embrace as issues like sexual violence and harassment are social at their heart. We have to all choose to not tolerate and challenge attitudes and behaviors that contribute to these problems.” In the meantime, all the campus community can do is wait for advocates of Title IX who share Connecticut College’s values to fill these positions. Dean Manning writes, “I want the community to know that this Office will continue to provide supportive measures, (contact limitations orders, academic flexibility) as well as an equitable, unbiased and thorough Title IX process.”
