Vanderbilt University, with the help of the Boston Consulting Group, conducted a comprehensive internal audit in 2015 to better understand its regulatory compliance costs. With just under 13,000 students, the Nashville university found that compliance cost $146 million in 2013-14, or 11 percent of the school’s non-hospital operating budget. The University of North Carolina’s 17 […]
In a year defined by on-campus and national controversy, higher ed institutions worked to become more nimble. Here, we reflect on the major events in 2017 that will continue to shape the higher ed landscape in 2018 and beyond. Federal action and guidance President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress brought change and a new […]
Campus safety has become increasingly complex. Higher ed leaders face the threat of serious safety incidents on their campuses every day, while changing legislative mandates only add to the complexity. Ensuring that safety training and processes are up to date can be challenging. As a result, many institutions are adopting more efficient processes and individualized […]
Colleges are now free to abandon Obama-era guidelines requiring them to use the lowest standard of proof in deciding whether students are responsible for sexual assault. The Department of Education is withdrawing the statements of policy and guidance on the Dear Colleague Letter on Sexual Violence (2011), as well as the Questions and Answers on […]
Colleges are now free to abandon Obama-era guidelines requiring them to use the lowest standard of proof in deciding whether students are responsible for sexual assault. The Department of Education is withdrawing the statements of policy and guidance on the Dear Colleague Letter on Sexual Violence (2011), as well as the Questions and Answers on […]
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal assistance. —20 U.S.C. § 1681(a), better known as Title IX When those 36 words were signed into law in 1972, […]
Imagine this: You have been charged with sexual misconduct and suspended without warning. You are given no opportunity to make a statement in your own defense. You are given wrong information on policies and procedures in advance of what you believe will be an initial hearing on the charges. When you arrive at your first […]
The day after her attacker was sentenced to six months in county jail, the woman who was violently sexually assaulted by former Stanford University student Brock Turner provided her victim impact statement to the online site Buzzfeed for publication (http://UBmag.me/bf). That statement, which immediately went viral, should be required reading for every college and university […]
With headline after tragic headline, and demands from angry constituents and stakeholders to do more, colleges and universities are facing the harsh reality that just complying with the minimum requirements of the Campus SaVE (Sexual Violence Elimination) Act isn’t enough to prevent sexual assault. What’s more is that it’s not only the Title IX coordinator’s […]
With sexual assault, awareness efforts may well lead to higher incident reporting—and even assumptions that initiatives aren’t working. But there are still ways to measure program effectiveness. It starts with identifying prevention goals, says Jane Stapleton, executive director of practice for the Prevention Innovations Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. “Having clear intended […]
