There is no room for vagueness in the Title IX laws and regulations.
According to Rick Trietley, St. Bonaventure’s Title IX coordinator, there are regulations and rules within Title IX, the Clery Act and “Enough is Enough” legislation. Bonaventure defines who mandated reporters are, which students have to attend Title IX training and how often these training sessions are held.
Bonaventure has gone above and beyond what the laws expect of them by stating all faculty members have to be mandated reporters. How does this create a safer Bonaventure community? Since every faculty member has to be a mandated reporter, this gives the people of the Bonaventure community more opportunities to report an incident. The more mandated reporters we have on campus, the more opportunities students have to report an issue.
According to Trietley, there are more reports of sexual violence on campus. While unsettling, are more reports coming in due to the availability of mandated reporters, or are there more cases of sexual violence happening on and off campus?
If the number of reports accurately represents how often sexual misconduct happens within Bonaventure, how can Title IX coordinators, faculty and students prevent sexual misconduct from happening in the first place?
Trietley expressed that it is still an ongoing campaign to educate all students, not just the freshmen and mandated reporters, about what to do when they see a situation they are not comfortable with.
Since this is an ongoing process, it will take time to stop sexual misconduct completely, but we as members of a community can speed up this process by refusing to tolerate and engage in behavior that could endanger someone’s well-being.
Marissa McCall is a contributing writer for The Bona Venture. Her email is mccallma14@bonaventure.edu
