HR Question of the Week

HR Question of the week

As a Kent State employee, what do I need to know about Title IX?

Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of a person's gender in educational programs or activities operated by recipients of federal funding, such as Kent State.

While it is often thought of as a law that applies only to athletic programs, Title IX is much broader and protects all students, employees and visitors to campus from gender discrimination. Sexual harassment, including sexual assault, is a form of gender discrimination and is strictly prohibited by federal and state law, as well as university policy.

As a faculty or staff member, you should be aware of the services provided to students through the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART). The responsibility of SART is to educate the university community about sexual assault, to provide anti-violence programming and support services, and to encourage all community members to speak out when witnessing violence. You can find out more about SART at www.kent.edu/sart/index.cfm.

Loretta Shields, director of HRIS, records, benefits and compliance, serves as the Title IX coordinator. Any incident of gender discrimination against a student, faculty or staff member should be reported to the Title IX coordinator. You can do this by contacting:

Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action
Human Resources
Terrace Hall Annex
330-672-2038
aa_eo@kent.edu

If you have a question to submit, send it to hrweb@kent.edu.

View the archive of HR Questions.