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NCHERM Featured in the Pittsburgh Examiner.com

Beth Calvano, Pittsburgh Adult Education Examiner
September 14, 2011

Risk management has become a critical issue for institutions of higher learning. A proactive approach is taken by the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM). The organization teaches problem-solving and culture change strategies to colleges and universities. The NCHERM offers expertise in many areas including sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, threat management, litigation management, emergency management, classroom management, hazing, campus safety, culture change initiatives, disruptive students, student suicide, problem drinking, and investigations. These topics are most relevant and significant for campuses today (NCHERM, 2011). The Community College of Allegheny County, PA and other colleges utilize the NCHERM’s Special Counsel Program, and keep them on retainer.

The NCHERM (2011) is a vast resource in that it promotes consulting services, publications, student programs, events, online courses, behavioral intervention/threat assessments, strategic partners, free policies/protocols, testimonials, legal resources, and relevant published articles. Upcoming webinars and seminars include topics such as background checks for all new hires, identifying possible school shooters, and training for hearing officers, boards, appeals panels, and campus Title IX coordinators.

Student programs include “Drunk Sex or Date Rape: Can You Tell the Difference,” “What if the Plane Blew Up? A Program About Empowering Bystander Intervention,” “10 Things Every Student Should Know About Drinking,” and “What You Don’t Know About Hazing Can Kill You” (NCHERM, 2011).

The Behavioral Intervention/ Threat Assessment, College University Behavioral Intervention Team (CUBIT) Model was created in response to campus shootings that began in 2007 (NCHERM, 2011). CUBIT focuses on the prevention of these violent incidents. Research has shown that campus shooters usually exhibit certain behaviors before they act. The CUBIT model was developed using research from the Virginia Tech investigation and research done by task forces, the Department of Education, the FBI, and the Secret Service (NCHERM, 2011).

The NCHERM is an important resource for colleges, universities, faculty, and students. The website is located @www.ncherm.org/index.php

Reference:
NCHERM. (2011). The National Center for Higher Education. Retrieved from
www.ncherm..org/index.php

Washington State University Fined for Violating Clery Act (sexual assault)

NYTimes.com
Copyright 2011 The New York Times Company

August 20, 2011

Section: us

Washington: University Fined Over Crime Reporting
National Briefing | NORTHWEST

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Federal education officials have fined Washington State University $82,500 for violating a campus crime reporting law in 2007, including not properly reporting two sexual assaults.

Federal education officials have fined Washington State University $82,500 for violating a campus crime reporting law in 2007, including not properly reporting two sexual assaults , the university said Friday. Darin Watkins, a spokesman for the university, said it would appeal the fine. Education officials audited campus crime statistics at about a dozen schools this year, including Washington State. Some of those schools remain under investigation and could also be fined for violations of the Clery Act, which requires campus notification of potential threats to students and employees. Washington State was charged with failing to properly disclose forcible sex crime statistics and accurately classify offenses, and with failing to include statements about campus crime reporting policies in its annual security report.

EDITION: NewYork

Word Count: 144
8/20/11 NYTIMESCOM 14
END OF DOCUMENT

ATIXA -- A New Membership Association for School and College Title IX Compliance

Announcing a New Membership Association for School and College Title IX Compliance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 15th, 2011

ATIXA, the Association of Title IX Administrators, launched today. ATIXA provides a professional association for school and college Title IX Coordinators and administrators who are interested in serving their districts and campuses more effectively. Since 1972, Title IX has proved to be an increasingly powerful leveling tool, helping to advance gender equity in schools and colleges.

Title IX's benefits can be found in promoting equity in academic and athletics programs, preventing hostile environments on the basis of sex, prohibiting sexual harassment and sexual violence, protecting from retaliation and remedying the effects of other gender-based forms of discrimination.

ATIXA Executive Director Brett A. Sokolow, Esq., gave the following statement at the launch event: “Every school district and college in the United States is required to have a Title IX Coordinator who oversees implementation, training and compliance with Title IX. ATIXA brings campus and district Title IX Coordinators and administrators into professional collaboration to explore best practices, share resources and advance the worthy goal of gender equity in education.”

The April 4th, 2011 Dear Colleague Letter on campus sexual violence gave us some insight that the role and responsibilities of the Title IX Coordinator are a lot broader and deeper than we thought. The Coordinator role is complex, sophisticated, and comprehensive. In honor of the remarkable impact this has already caused in higher education, and will cause in the future to both schools and colleges, ATIXA has chosen to use the term Title IX Administrators to describe its membership, rather than coordinators, to reflect the broad compliance responsibilities that fall on administrators widely in school districts and on college campuses. To assist in that compliance challenge, ATIXA offers comprehensive benefits to its members, including:

• Access to the best source materials and training on Title IX
• Title IX Legal Updates
• An active and pertinent professional listserv
• Quarterly newsletters
• An annual conference*
• The ATIXA Title IX Coordinator Training and Certification Course*
• Annual Certification Update Opportunities (seminars & webinars)*
• 15% Member discounts on many ATIXA events
• The ATIXA Blog
• Access to the OCR Investigation Finding Letter Database
• Access to Partner and Sponsor organization resources and discounts
• Access to the most comprehensive online Title IX library available
• Membership roster access

*Additional registration fees apply

What can ATIXA do for you? Consider the wealth of the resources we can offer, based on the expertise of our executive team and our amazingly talented Advisory Board. As one example, ATIXA is distributing freely and publicly its Model Gender-Based and Sexual Misconduct Model Policy to commemorate its launch. We hope that it will help your campus or district to comply with Title IX and protect the safety of your community. Access this free resource on the ATIXA homepage at www.atixa.org.
While you’re there, please join ATIXA today.

For more information, please contact ATIXA Executive Director Brett A. Sokolow, Esq. at (610) 993-0229 or email to: Brett@ATIXA.org

NCHERM Partner W. Scott Lewis Quoted in Chronicle Article on Threats by College Faculty

http://chronicle.com/article/Casual-References-to-Violence/128422/

NCHERM Announces Title IX Administrator Training and Certification Courses

The NCHERM Campus Title IX Coordinator Certification and Training Course is being offered to 170 college and university administrators this week in St. Louis, MO.

This event greatly surpassed the initial projection of 100 participants a month ahead of our registration deadline, and even at 170, created a waiting list of more than 50 people. To address continuing interest, NCHERM has scheduled three more Campus Title IX Coordinator Certification and Training Courses around the country, and has broadened the attendance to include not just Title IX Coordinators, but also conduct administrators, HR staff, legal counsel, academic administrators, investigators, campus law enforcement, athletics administrators, k-12 school Title IX Coordinators and administrators and others concerned with Title IX compliance.

Registration is now open and seats are already filling quickly (60+ already) for our Philadelphia event, October 17th – 20th, 2011.

Please visit www.ncherm.org for details and to register for a seat. Or, come to our January 2012 event on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, or Atlanta in spring of 2012 (more information coming soon).

These events will open for registration soon. The faculty will shift slightly for each event, but will include the NCHERM partners, practitioner experts, leaders in issues of athletics equity, and anticipated representatives from the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

For the Philadelphia event, new faculty members include professor and legislative authority John Wesley Lowery, Ph.D., Daniel C. Swinton, J.D., Ph.D., Director of Student Conduct at Vanderbilt University, and Professor David O’Brien, a noted expert on athletics administration and gender equity in athletics programs. These events are the only certification courses on Title IX, and feature advantages unavailable in any other course, including:

• A top-notch expert faculty with extensive writing, publication, research and practical application on Title IX
• Invited representatives from the Office of Civil Rights
• Four full days of content (okay, that’s a blessing and a curse, but you can come for less than all four days if you are willing to forego certification)
• A comprehensive set of 250 PowerPoint slides
• On-site case studies with group and faculty feedback
• Extensive exploration of the NCHERM Civil Rights Investigation Model
• 250 pages of materials, including exclusive access to the Model NCHERM Sexual Misconduct Policy, Civil Rights Investigation and Grievance Procedure

Consider the advantages of attending this course in any of our locations around the country – you get comprehensive advice to enhance your competent compliance. And, if litigation should occur, you’ll have the ability to demonstrate certification from NCHERM, the most trusted source of Title IX expertise.

This event is no mere rehashing of the April 4th, Dear Colleague Letter. It is a comprehensive exploration of Title IX and the role of the Coordinator. Including §504 Disability compliance, another area of responsibility for campus Coordinators.

We’ll go beyond the DCL, share best practice ideas that OCR hasn’t divulged, and explore areas where OCR may have muddied waters on how we’re supposed to comply. Simply put, you’ll have Title IX coming out of your ears after four days with us. But, when you get back to campus, you’ll have the tools you need to implement and operationalize Title IX compliance best practices, take training to your community, and bring meaningful prevention to your campus.

Register for Philadelphia today. www.ncherm.org

Op-Ed on DSK by Wendy Murphy

By Wendy J. Murphy

For The Patriot Ledger

July 3, 2011

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has a big political problem: Sexual
violence is occurring at epidemic rates but the guy can't manage to do
justice for victims. He lost the "Rape Cop" case despite overwhelming
evidence of guilt, and now he stands poised to dismiss rape charges against
deposed IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) in a case he said only a
month ago was very strong and had lots of forensic evidence to corroborate
the victim's description of what happened. If this is what Vance's
constituents can expect from their elected District Attorney, the public
should consider running the guy out of town and electing someone who will
put the safety of women higher up the ladder of prosecutorial priorities.

Jurors said they voted to acquit in the "Rape Cop" case because there was no
DNA evidence. (Didn't Vance's prosecutors tell the jury the cops used
condoms?)

Any prosecutor who just lost a big case because there was NO DNA, should be
hard-pressed to criticize the evidence against DSK where there is PLENTY of
DNA. In fact, not only was DSK's semen found on the front of the victim's
shirt, there's blood evidence, too, consistent with the victim's description
of a violent struggle.

In Cyrus Vance's office, rape cases are apparently unprovable with or
without DNA.

What's that old saying? With prosecutors like that ...

I hate to rub in Vance's face that his decision to criticize the prosecution
of DSK was predictable, but in an article I wrote for Women's eNews only
days after DSK was arrested, I said the case would soon go "poof". It
wasn't that I was suspicious of the victim's credibility or thought she was
some sort of agent for DSK's political opponents (as if they wouldn't think
of a million better ways to bring the guy down), it was the wealth of the
accused, the relative poverty of the victim, and the fact that before the
ink was dry on DSK's arrest papers, people on his behalf reportedly had
already offered money to the victim's family in Africa to make the case go
away.

That a payoff was in the works so soon made the end game obvious before the
game even started. In a criminal justice system where corruption is not
tolerated, it wouldn't matter. But the American legal system has long
protected the wealthy over the poor, which is one of the reasons Kobe Bryant
walked away from his criminal rape prosecution while so many poor men of his
color sit in prison for committing less serious offenses. That's right.
Kobe Bryant, a black man, is partly responsible for why lots of black men
are behind bars. Nice.

Recent developments in DSK's case suggest the players took a page out of
Bryant's diabolical defense strategy. If the victim's reputation is
destroyed in the court of public opinion, and then she's given money as a
"settlement", nobody will care that the criminal charges go away or that a
"settlement" in a criminal case is illegal. Immoral victims who've behaved
badly don't deserve fair treatment in law and society.

The difference between the Bryant case and this one, at least so far, is
that the payoff is not yet obvious - though it's interesting that the
attorney the victim had representing her early on, a "personal injury"
lawyer, has gone silent. It's hard to get at the truth about whether a deal
is in the works when the dealmakers refuse to speak, but let's just say we
should be on the lookout for whether the victim starts driving a Bentley.
If there's a payoff in the works, she will disappear and spend her newfound
wealth in a location where nobody will notice.

Between now and then, the public will watch this case die - in two stages.

First we get the trial balloon about the case developing "weaknesses"
because of the victim's "credibility problems" - (on the eve of a three-day
weekend, no surprise). If the public's reaction is politically tolerable,
step two will be the prosecutor's motion to withdraw the charges "in the
interest of justice".

For those who care about the truth, find corruption disdainful, and who
believe that no man is above the law, the following points should be up
front and center as this facade continues to unfold:

1. The victim's credibility problems in the DSK case have been described as
so serious, prosecution may be impossible. But the victim in the "Rape Cop"
case had equal if not more serous credibility issues. Why didn't Cyrus
Vance dismiss THOSE charges before trial?

2. Cyrus Vance released to the public a detailed description of the victim's
reported lies to immigration officials where she claimed she'd been raped
and tortured in her native African country. She made those claims in support
of her request for asylum and stated she was at risk for further persecution
if she were returned to Guinea. Vance said these lies seriously undermine
the victim's credibility in the case against DSK even though lots of
immigrants lie about abuses in countries where living conditions are
inhumane not because they're pathological liars but because they're
desperate for a better life in the U.S. These lies that Vance claims
destroy the case against DSK were made eight years ago and were probably
crafted by someone other than the victim - an attorney perhaps (ironically
enough) who would have provided guidance to the victim about the things she
should say that would enhance her chances for being granted asylum. If
Vance's policy is that lying about such things almost a decade ago is a
moral failing of such magnitude it prevents his office from prosecuting the
far more serious crime of rape, let the word go out to all sex predators in
New York that they should choose immigrants as their victims and they should
commit their crimes in Cyrus Vance's jurisdiction.

As if immigrants aren't vulnerable enough.

3. No matter what the victim lied about in the past, the prosecutor found NO
reason to question the integrity of her claims as they relate directly to
the sexual assaults. To the contrary, the forensic evidence proved the
victim's essential credibility on the only facts that really matter.

4. If Cyrus Vance thinks it's appropriate to dismiss rape charges because of
a victim's prior false statements and other past "bad" behavior, he must
also consider the past "bad" behavior and lies of DSK. For example, DSK has
been repeatedly accused of sexually offensive behavior toward women and has
admitted engaging in an inappropriate sexual relationship with an inferior
employee. As for his past lies - just ask the people of Greece how many
lies were produced by the IMF last year about the need to prevent collective
bargaining in that country.

5. There's no dispute the incident occurred. Even the most reviled woman in
the world has a chance at justice when there's DNA proof that the incident
occurred. The problem is, there's a good chance the victim doesn't want
justice and that she'll trade even the well being of all women for a big fat
paycheck.

The real question is whether Cyrus Vance has the moral fiber and political
will to let a jury decide this case. DSK says it was consensual. The
victim, and the forensic evidence, says it was forced. A jury can figure
out what to make of the victim's lies in her immigration papers just as they
can correctly weigh the video of DSK's unusually swift flight from the hotel
after the incident - and the fact that he has an ugly history of similar
sexually offensive behavior.

If Cyrus Vance has integrity, he will stay the course. If there's money
involved, he won't. And the only thing that can force him to do the right
thing is people rising up and demanding fair treatment of a woman who may
not even want it.

It isn't the victim's personal lawsuit - it's the public's case against a
man who deserves to face the charges against him. If "we the people" do
nothing in this case, as we did during and after the Kobe Bryant debacle,
then we deserve a legal system that continues unabashedly to facilitate
rather than prevent violence against all women.

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