Working with the Simpson settlement
CU announced the hiring of Title IX adviser Nancy Hogshead-Makar Monday – an appointment agreed upon in the 2007 Lisa Simpson settlement.
Hogshead-Makar will be available to CU athletics and administration to evaluate and assess sexual harassment policies instituted by the university, as well as to make recommendations for changes that may be made.
Hoshead-Makar will be reviewing all current policies and acting as a consultant in new policy changes.
“She will be a resource to the university at a number of different levels, from the chancellor to athletics, as well as to the individual student,” said CU spokesperson Bronson Hilliard.
Hogshead-Makar graduated cum laude from Duke in 1986 with degrees in political science and women’s studies and a Juris Doctorate from Geogetown University Law Center. She competed in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, swimming for three gold medals and one silver medal. She is an expert on Title IX, known nationally for her advocacy of women in sports.
“I think she is the best person in the country for the job,” said Baine Kerr, Simpson’s attorney. “I am pleased that she is going to do it, and really pleased that Chancellor Bud Peterson is making it work.”
In a press release, Hogshead-Makar said she is looking forward to her new position.
“I am delighted to be working with the University of Colorado. I am eager to begin my visits to Boulder and to begin working with a group of committed educators, administrators, student-athletes and community members for the betterment of the university community and especially for the women of the CU-Boulder campus,” Hogshead-Makar said in the statement.
The settlement in December, 2007 came after more than five years of lawsuits rising from the 2002 recruitment scandal. Included in the settlement was $2.5 million to Simpson, $350,000 to another woman who said she was raped at the 2001 party and the provision that CU hire a Title IX adviser and a part-time employee for the Office of Victim Assistance.
The position at the Office of Victim Assistance was set to be based upon the area in greatest need within the department.
Originally conceived to be a counselor, it has now been decided that CU’s greatest need is in prevention.
“What is still being worked out is whether they will work in Victim Assistance, or be affiliated with the COURAGE program, in prevention,” said Kerr. “That poses a technical problem in that the settlement called for CU to give funds Victim Assistance, but we’re fine with it.”
Mary Frierichs, director of the Office of Victim Assistance, describes the new position.
“The position will be a half-time person to do prevention and education work. The spirit from which this came is that [Lisa Simpson] didn’t want this to happen again,” Frierichs said.
Kerr said a process of positive change is underway.
“CU has come a long way in the last six years, in that they have learned how to use these issues to create positive change for the university,” said Kerr.
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Danielle Alberti at Alberti@Colorado.edu.
