Sexual assault module requirements baffle student employees

Student employees only have to complete one of the Title IX Awareness and Violence Prevention online training modules required by both employees and students at the University — but some student employees say this has not been made clear to them.

Work-study student Still Dixon said he is confused by what is required of him as a student employee.

“There hasn’t been any communication about (which modules to complete),” he said. “I’m assuming I’m expected to do both, to avoid holds being put on my registration.”

Hilary Delbridge, a spokeswoman for the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office, said students who are also employees of the University only have to complete the employee training module.

“No one is required to complete more than one training because the information is very similar,” Delbridge said. “It’s important for student employees to learn information that will connect them to resources, including support and reporting options – that is what is on the employee module.”

Delbridge said the confusion might have come from a mass email sent to all students informing them of training.

“That’s the way the mass email system is structured — to send to all students,” she said. “However, student employees should have received only one customized course registration email that contains a link to only one training — the employee training.”

Another student employee, Lily Stephens, said she also thought she needed to complete both the student and employee modules. But for Stephens, the extra work would have been worthwhile.

“I feel pretty strongly about the issue of sexual assault,” she said. “I’m honestly happy to spend more time on the modules if it means that the information is going to reach everyone.”

In an email sent to University employees in December, Jayne Grandes, interim director of the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office, said individuals have a 45-day window in which they must complete the sexual assault training module.

Students received a similar email from Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp more than a month later.

Grandes said reminders are sent out every two weeks to those who haven’t completed it.

Laura DePersia, database coordinator for the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office, said there are three different training modules: one for faculty, one for staff and one for students.

“All three modules are of pretty much the same length, contain similar content and cover identical issues,” she said. “Where the difference lies is in the customization of the training — they are targeted to reach that particular audience.”

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