Abstract

The U.S. Department of Education and Title IX Educational Act of 1972 shaped the way institutions of higher education address and prevent student victimizations. The law originally sought to eliminate sex-based discrimination in education but has evolved to include sexual misconduct. Since the Dear Colleague Letter of 2011, the position of institutions has changed significantly in the way they address student victimization as it relates to dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (Rosenthal, 2017). One requirement is that institutions inform and train Responsible Employees to report when a student discloses experiencing sexual misconduct, including dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. The purpose of this study was to examine faculty members' knowledge of the Title IX Responsible Employee mandate, their experience with reporting student disclosures, and additional resources needed to aid faculty members with this reporting duty. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 34 faculty members at a large research-intensive four-year university in the Southeastern United States. The main findings relate to Responsible Employee trainings, reporting guidelines, issues that might arise for faculty during the disclosure/reporting process, and recommendations to thoughtfully and strategically engage faculty. Universities and colleges that include faculty members as Responsible Employees need to ensure that their institution is fulfilling its requirement from the U.S. Department of Education but must also do their best to prepare and support faculty so faculty can perform their reporting duties. In many cases, faculty members are on the front line when it comes to interacting with and being in a position to help their students. They need specific measures and resources to ensure that they are able to fulfill all their various duties as faculty members, including handling a student's victimization disclosure and then reporting the incident to the Title IX Coordinator so that the university can serve its students to the best of its ability.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2017

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Jasinski, Jana

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Sociology

Degree Program

Sociology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0006895

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0006895

Language

English

Release Date

December 2017

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

Download

Included in

Sociology Commons

Share

COinS