Best practices template allows colleges and universities to resolve discrimination complaints with unified process
MALVERN, Pa., Aug. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — ATIXA, the Association for Title IX Administrators (www.atixa.org), in collaboration with The NCHERM Group, LLC, is pleased to announce the availability of its path-breaking "1P1P" model. This 26-page model is a best practices template that allows colleges and universities to resolve all discrimination complaints involving faculty, students and staff via one policy and one centralized procedure.
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Why is a unified model needed?
As campuses work diligently to bring processes into compliance with Title IX and other federal laws, they are facing the complexity of aligning multiple policies and procedures. In doing so, campuses are seeing vexing challenges arise in five particular areas:
- Cross-constituency complaints (student-on-faculty, faculty-on-staff, etc.);
- Between 2-13 different policies and processes for resolving complaints accusing students, faculty, staff, unionized employees, etc. (the average campus has four);
- Different processes for discrimination complaints than those used to address Title IX-related sex/gender-based complaints;
- Incorporating Title IX equity standards into employee-on-employee complaints;
- Reconciling complaints that include both Title IX-covered behaviors and those standing outside Title IX.
Given the complexity of addressing these challenges separately — let alone taking on all five simultaneously — many campuses are realizing that a whole new approach may be much more effective than working within existing processes.
The One Policy, One Process Model
The 1P1P model is based on the idea of a global human dignity resolution process. This model permits all discrimination complaints (age, race, sex, gender, nationality, etc.) to be resolved using one institution-wide policy, and one stand-alone resolution process, applied to all complaints involving faculty, students and staff. This process can sit outside existing processes, or can be integrated into existing human resource, affirmative action and student conduct models.
The One Policy, One Process Model harnesses the existing resources of many departments to minimize the need for added staff and expense. 1P, 1P is not only Title IX compliant, it serves the best practices of the civil rights approach with an emphasis on meaningful remedies, social justice, victim empowerment and advocacy, comprehensive investigation and prompt, humane, non-adversarial resolution of everything from bias incidents to stalking, to rape and intimate partner violence.
Why Choose a Unified Process?
A unified process can be centrally administered and overseen, often by expanding the Title IX Coordinator role in the form of an institutional equity officer. Unification simplifies the investigation function and avoids duplicative training that occurs when there are multiple departments all resolving the same kinds of complaints across the campus. Unification allows consistent sanctions and responsive actions for the same types of misconduct, whether committed by a student, faculty or staff member. Unification fosters collaboration across the departments that are stakeholders, including HR, student conduct, and academic affairs while retaining their needed voice in the resolution process. Critically, a unified process can also be essential to the detection and tracking of patterns of misconduct, to limit the frequency of repeat offenses that affect campuses.
Ultimately, we believe unified models will become the standard accepted practice. For those who fear that campus cultures or politics will not accept a unified approach, it will be easier in the long run to fix it right the first time, rather than to band aid existing processes not designed for equity in the hopes that they will suffice. If we wait, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the courts will continue their painful enforcement of Title IX until we end up at a single process. Recent enforcement actions including the Montana Resolution bear this out. Our hope is that now is the time to envision what can and should be done, and to lay the groundwork for a unified policy and resolution procedures on your campus.
For additional information on the ATIXA One Policy, One Process Model, click here.
Purchasing, Training and Implementation Options
ATIXA proudly hosted its inaugural One Policy, One Process Model training June 6th-7th, 2013 at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, WI. We look forward to additional 2014 events.
Purchase the 1P1P Model online or Email.
Contact ATIXA
For additional information, please contact Marianne Price, Director of Educational Programs at Email or 610-644-7858.