Title IX sees influx of new hires

UNC’s Equal Opportunity/Americans with Disabilities Act Office is overflowing with new Title IX hires.

Hilary Delbridge, the Title IX public communications specialist and most recent hire, said jokingly that she has the largest office in the building — the conference room.

Delbridge’s job will center on keeping the public informed on the workings and resources of the Title IX office.

“My role in the office is really to provide clear effective channels of communication,” she said.

Delbridge is a UNC alumna and said she has a variety of public relations experiences. She worked for an advertising agency in New York City after she graduated in 2006, and then moved to Washington, D.C. and worked with several firms.

She spent the past three years attending law school and working with the N.C. Department of Justice.

She said it was premature to talk about the specifics of future Title IX office initiatives, but she added that there are plans for a campaign to elevate the awareness on campus as well as a user guide to help students navigate the policy.

Howard Kallem, the recently hired Title IX compliance coordinator, said his office is still in the process of filling two more positions: a program coordinator to help with training and an additional investigator.

He said the office is also seeking another facility to hold all the hires.

“It’s a race to see if we get the space before the new people start,” Kallem said.

He said the extra staff will put UNC ahead of many other compliance offices on college campuses, adding that the only additional position he would like to see is a victim’s advocate.

But senior Andrea Pino, who co-filed a Title IX complaint in January 2013 criticizing UNC’s handling of sexual assault, said the additions in personnel do not represent a solution to the real problem.

“It makes me laugh that UNC hired a PR person for the Title IX office,” she said.

“UNC is treating all their scandals as scandals and not opportunities to grow.”

Pino said more effort should be put into streamlining resources for victims of sexual assault because she believes those currently in place are too far spread across campus.

“I’m really glad UNC wants to communicate resources, but we don’t have those resources,” she said.

During the fall semester, Pino had been advising other schools about Title IX issues. She said UNC is too focused on compliance with the law rather than the victim’s story.

“If your job is to look good, maybe you should try to fix the problem internally.”

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