The recent changes to Title IX, which made all Dickinson student employees mandated reporters, has raised both concerns and hopes on campus.
Title IX prohibits sex-based and gender-based discrimination on all college campuses that receive federal funding, including Dickinson’s campus. This new mandate requires all students employed by the College to report any incidents prohibited under Title IX they witness or are made aware of while working. Dickinson has an estimated 1,200 student employees, meaning that over half of the College’s student population will be impacted by this change.
This mandate was given to all colleges on August 1, 2024; however, the Department of Education did not give institutions a timeline for when these updates would be put into effect. At Dickinson, student employees were notified of these changes over the summer; however, the training was not given until October of this year.
When asked why there was such a large gap between when students were given the notice that they would become mandated reported and receiving the mandatory training, Kat Matic, Dickinson’s Title IX Coordinator, said that it was because the College had to wait for the appropriate training program to be created and approved before they could move forward with student training.
Students are not only concerned with the delay in receiving the training, but by the amount of training as well. In an interview with student employee Searrian Smith ’28, she mentioned she felt that the change was very abrupt, and that student employees were assigned training without much explanation.
Smith shared that workers were required to do in-person training in addition to a 45-minute online course, but many students do not feel that this is enough. She stated that she did not feel prepared by the training she received to take on this role as a mandated reporter and is concerned about the impact this role will have on her life outside of her official hours of work.
Matic is very hopeful that this mandate will bring positive changes to the campus community. She shared in an interview that she was already seeing more reports, phone calls and walk-ins to the Title IX office than this time last year. Matic stated that she did not believe that the rise in reports was due to a rise in incidents on campus, but the increased awareness brought by the new Title IX mandate and other organizations on campus such as Its On Us. Matic also expressed optimism that the raised awareness towards Title IX issues on campus will foster a culture of openness and communication at Dickinson. When asked about some of the concerns students raised surrounding the training they received, Matic said she believed there could always be more training and education on the subject. She also shared that she hopes that trauma-informed training will be incorporated into future Title IX student programs.
There have also been concerns on campus over the Title IX mandate given the recent election results and the possibility of the Department of Education being eliminated. When asked how she thought the new mandate would be impacted by recent political changes, Matic responded that it was too early to say anything definitively, however, she is concerned. Her main concern is that if the Department of Education is dissolved, funding for Title IX would be withdrawn, restricting the program’s impact on campus.
While Matic is hopeful about the changes on campus, despite the recent political climate, she acknowledged that “sexual violence in our culture is a pandemic,” and that there is still a lot of work to be done with education, training and prevention on campus and in our wider community.
