Chancellor Phil DiStefano awaits more feedback on last week's Title IX report. CU logo courtesy of cubuffs.com. (CU Independent/Molly Maher)
According to CU Spokesman Bronson Hilliard, Chancellor Philip DiStefano has not yet received many student replies to his e-mail seeking feedback on the Title IX Report posted on his Web site last week.
Hilliard said that does not mean Chancellor DiStefano has not seen any feedback at all. On the contrary, more replies have been coming in from CU faculty offering their suggestions, comments and positive or negative feedback.
Hilliard is in charge of handling and categorizing the replies to prepare DiStefano for the next step in the five-year report. In sorting the replies, Hilliard said the comments “run the gamut.”
Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an adviser hired by CU as a result of the Simpson v. University of Colorado lawsuit, assembled the report. In this lawsuit, two women said that they were sexually assaulted by football players.
“The report is an evolving process,” Hilliard said. “It is a work in progress, and this the first. We will continue to incorporate observations into the rest.”
Hilliard said that the chancellor decided to have the report released in August, but waited until school was in session to request feedback so that students and the CU community would be settled in and not distracted by the beginning of the year.
According to Hilliard, these replies will help Hogshead-Makar in fulfilling her duty to “assess and reduce the risk of sexual harassment and assault on the Boulder campus,” as her report states.
In her report, Hogshead-Makar included eight sections that covered her reviews of CU’s sexual discrimination policies, policy implementation and policy education, her ideas surrounding the causes of sexual violence and the areas of campus—both places and people—that should be targeted for improvement.
Hogshead-Makar identified fraternities and male athletes as high-risk areas concerning sexual assault and harassment.
“Specific training for student-athletes at CU has been expanded from the football team to athletes in the entire Athletic Department,” Hogshead-Makar said in her report.
In addition to training through coaches, a student-athlete wellness position was created as a resource for athletes and to implement a drug and alcohol free recruitment process.
Diane Nguyen, a 20-year-old junior on CU’s cheerleading team, said that she has never noticed any discrimination in the Athletics Department.
“If anything, it’s more of the sport of cheerleading that gets disrespected than being female,” Nguyen said.
Hogshead-Makar said that many times incidents are isolated and hard to track, but this doesn’t mean that efforts should not be made.
“Only by examining the recurring causes that contribute to isolated occurrences of sexual harassment can CU be well prepared to prevent future incidents and respond appropriately to those that arise,” Hogshead-Makar said.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Ana Romano at Analisa.romano@colorado.edu.
