VAWA/Title IX For Alumni Volunteers
 

I'm the chapter adviser for my undergraduate chapter and have had some limited experience in this area. I won't go into specifics, but I was impressed at the way the school handled everything. Looking into Title IX, however, my impression is that from campus to campus, every school is coming to its own conclusions as to how to best comply with Title IX and implementing their own policies.

In originally approaching this, I was grateful the chapter had an adviser (myself) involved in the process who has legal training. I cannot imagine navigating the Title IX minefields without some legal training. I coordinate closely with our HQ in these investigations and am very pleased at how Sigma Nu is very much on-the-ball when it comes to training alumni volunteers regarding Title IX compliance. Again, this is a minefield that every single Greek organization needs to train volunteers with regard to compliance. I imagine the approaches in our various HQs range from full high intensity seminars to prep alumni volunteers to assist actives as well as training for undergraduate members to "We've never heard of Title IX."

If you aren't sure what your national office is doing, I'd encourage you to call. We need to encourage everyone to understand these issues as sexual violence in our organizations, particularly in fraternities is probably the single largest threat to our existence and many of our institutions could care less that ABC has mandatory bystander intervention and sexual assault prevention training for undergrads as well as training for alumni volunteers while fraternity XYZ's volunteers have never heard of VAWA and seek to perpetuate an internal culture which has changed very little in the last 20-30 years.

Finally, organizations really need to implement bystander intervention and sexual assault prevention training for undergrads. I doubt anything at all has changed, except now schools and law enforcement are taking a much more active approach towards preventing sexual assault. Let's do our part to stop this and change the culture which threatens our existence--but not only for that reason.. it's also the right thing to do.

Have any of you (without getting into any specifics, please no specifics!) had experiences with Title IX issues? What are your thoughts and observations?

As a comment, the non-socials which went co-ed in the 1970s (either directly or indirectly due to Title IX) are likely to have a significantly different viewpoint as to what Title IX is having dealt with it quite some time ago.

I'm specifically wanting to discuss sexual assault prevention measures and investigations, part of the most recent round of VAWA legislation.

We had a forum on this at our summer volunteer leadership conference that included university professionals.

It was eye-opening and I was unaware of some of the university reporting requirements (and specifically how the role of a volunteer in such an issue could change if they were also employed by the university).

It's just another area where we really need to train up volunteers to know what the process is, how to report incidents, when to do it, etc. We're moving to a world where reporting to your Greek Life office that "we handled internally" is probably not acceptable.

I'm involved with it and receive training in my university role, but have never heard talk of it in my organization (though admittedly, I'm only a very minor adviser). I am actually surprised that FIPG isn't leading a charge on this.

I wouldn't think the FIPG would have a ton of exposure here. It would be an awfully hard sale to convince a jury of some sort of organizational liability for an individual or even group of individuals' decision to participate in a sexual assault. But then again, as organizations, we have to admit the stats don't paint a pretty picture. We could probably soldier on, business as usual, or we can try to do the decent thing and change problem cultures.

I have to complete an annual university webinar, due to my role as a faculty advisor, but I think Gamma Phi needs to ensure that the many local advisors who weren't at the summer leadership institute have access to the materials shared. They may be on-line, but I haven't looked yet.

Seeing just how many campus sexual assaults involve alcohol, I would think an organization violating alcohol or drug policies could be considered responsible, no? Or is that too circuitous a path?

I'd say it depends. You'd have to do a very good job connecting the use of the alcohol to the offending behavior. It has to be a better connection than the sexual assault simply being one member's choice. You'd probably have to have some larger conspiracy and further be able to prove it--for Title IX or for civil purposes, by a preponderance of the evidence. [some editorializing--I hate that we use legal phrases like "preponderance of the evidence" and have this quasi-legal setting, but rules of evidence don't apply, hearsay can be evidence, etc., this leads potentially to some bad results]

But the fact that XYZ was having a party, that alcohol was made available and said member of XYZ did commit a sexual assault is probably not going to be enough for an organization to be found responsible.

Reaction to the event is also pretty critical. For example, if it is found that the response to a potential sexual assault in the chapter is an emergency meeting is called to get everyone's story straight to try and portray the alleged victim as someone who was in possession of her faculties who fully consented to the contact when that wasn't the case, I imagine the chapter could probably be found to be at fault here--if not for just the assault, but for creating a hostile environment.

If, on the other hand, a concerned brother contacts the President, who contacts the adviser, who contacts the Student Conduct Office to initiate an investigation, it's probably going to be much harder to conclude that the organization is responsible.

With Title IX around, fraternity chapters really need to do their best to have access to legal counsel. Alumni/ae advisory panels should always have a position for General Counsel to assist when these issues arise. Female organizations need to think about these things too as female-on-male sexual assault does exist and is mostly not reported, but as sexual assault awareness awareness increases as it is with this generation, the reporting of these sorts of incidents is sure to increase.

I was thinking more along the lines of "underage victim was drinking alcohol furnished by XYZ."

In any case, I found it very interesting that Title IX doesn't actually specify who is a mandatory reporter, so each university must make that decision on its own. The language of the act, however, says (paraphrasing) that the university must address sexual assaults reported to anyone the student could reasonably consider to be acting on behalf of the university.

It seems most schools are erring on the side of all faculty and virtually all staff that interact with students, including student activities advisers, but I haven't heard of any requiring training of non-staff who serve as volunteer advisers. And of course, there are pros and cons to such a mandate, as well. I would think, at the very least, that house mothers would be treated as mandatory reporters, as they are akin to RA's at most schools.

As both chapter adviser and attorney, I certainly wear two hats and have different sets of ethical responsibilities. I represent the chapter, not the individual brothers, but I really do have some interesting obligations when it comes to privilege. I also have additional protection, I think, from ever being considered a mandatory reporter since I haven't cashed a paycheck from my alma mater in about 13 years and the whole attorney-client privilege thing.

And tangent: Having a lawyer as an adviser can be a blessing and a curse, as lawyers, we can be tempted to overplay our hand being used to concepts like "beyond a reasonable doubt" when you're playing by a totally different set of rules in the halls of academia. The Tennessee PKA butt chugging press conference comes to mind when I think of lawyer-advisers overstepping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keTbsSfMOdI

/tangent

I would consider myself bound to obtain some sort of authorization (definitely in writing) from the chapter's President or whatever entity might be required [note to self, figure this out, this seems important] before disclosing an suspected incident to the University.

I will tell you this is all very new and when you go into one of these things thinking you have researched the rules, know the student Code of Conduct better than anyone, often your initial assumptions evaporate very quickly. At this stage though, barring experiencing some sort of crippling sanction (note: I've never been part of any Title IX process where any party has been found to be responsible for sexual misconduct), I'm pretty much okay with feeling like I'm engaging in a game of Calvin Ball with the University. Things will eventually start to calcify as administrators become comfortable with processes and procedures.

I can't give specifics, but from working in risk management, there are some universities out there that are trying to get fraternity/sorority advisors to be mandatory reporters, even though they are volunteers with varying degrees of involvement & interactions with their chapters.

Personally, I think it's better that they are not. Having a trusted adult to talk to in confidence could be very important to some students.

I think it's good that they be well-informed on the options available to students and trained to provide appropriate support and guidance, but I feel that a mandatory reporting requirement may deter their ability to provide that support.

As it stands right now, if a member of the chapter I work with were to come to me to discuss a private manner, I would not be able to do so.

I recently received correspondence that advisers at my campus are considered "campus security authorities" and are thus required to report certain crimes that I either directly observe or hear second hand such as sexual assault, domestic abuse, or stalking. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it, especially outside direct observation.