Baylor University’s Title IX Office: New Policy and Social Climate Survey on the Horizon

On January 9, the Title IX Office rolled out Baylor University’s Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Interpersonal Violence Policy for students, staff and faculty. Formerly known as the Sex Discrimination, Sexual Violence, and Sexual Harassment Policy, the newly named policy has been carefully revised to better meet the needs of the Baylor community and to evolve with continuously developing federal guidelines.

“The revised policy will expedite our process and provide opportunities for us to improve in our mission to serve our students by remediating several challenges we faced with the previous policy,” said Kristan Tucker, Title IX Coordinator. “The purpose of revising the policy is to continue to move in a more positive direction.”

In addition, later this month, students will have the opportunity to participate in a campus-wide social climate survey that will directly inform Title IX training and education efforts. Using a confidential questionnaire, this tool will gauge social interactions on campus—from healthy relationships to harassment and abusive interactions. The survey is an opportunity for students to take an active role in guiding Title IX prevention and training efforts. Each question was thoughtfully designed with the needs of Baylor students in mind. A link to the survey along with detailed instructions will be emailed to each student late in January and the survey will be available online through Spring Break.

“The survey and data it will yield are going to have such a positive impact on our students,” said Sarah McPherson, training and prevention specialist with the Title IX Office. “Having concrete information available to shape training efforts is invaluable.”

The Title IX Office is dedicated to continually reassessing and adapting policy, procedures and training opportunities based on information gathered from the climate survey and other ongoing feedback and methods of data collection. These efforts, along with the revised policy rollout, are just the latest examples of the commitment of Baylor’s Title IX Office to supporting the campus community.

“We have been through quite the storm, but we’re all here for a common purpose,” Tucker said. “We’re unified in our mission to serve our students.”