Dear campus community,

I am pleased to bring to your attention some heavy lifting the Title IX Implementation Group has been doing since our last update. For those of you who are new to Hesston College, please see our website for background information on our work as it relates to the 2023 External Title IX Report. As a reminder, in addition to my role as chair, members of the Title IX Implementation Group include Devon Riley (external counsel from Cozen O’Connor), Board Representative Paula Brunk Kuhns, Jadah Moore, Meg Beyer, Larry Ruffin, Matt Hiebert, Risa Fukaya, Marelby Mosquera Jensen and Rachel Jantzi.

Current initiatives:

The Title IX Implementation Group continues to prioritize implementation of the recommendations related to Restorative Approaches. These efforts focus on acknowledging, apologizing and addressing the reported harm. These efforts include both individualized outreach for impacted individuals and systemic changes to our Title IX policies, processes and practices that include policy revisions, robust training, as well as improvements to prevention and awareness education. This work is an intentional and ongoing effort to provide momentum in the healing journey for impacted members of the Hesston College community. The Implementation Group invites community feedback on meaningful restorative approaches.

The Hesston College Board of Directors and Administrative Council are reviewing policy changes proposed by the Title IX Implementation Group that ensure our policy is accurate and in line with current federal law. Significant and robust policy change will be made once the Federal Department of Education releases the new regulations, we anticipate this release to occur in October.

Training, prevention and education:

Federal law requires we provide compliance training to all students and employees using content that aligns with current federal regulations and is relevant to the role, rights and responsibilities of the audience. Additionally, federal law requires us to offer prevention and awareness education programming. Our goal is to build a training, prevention, and education program that is not only compliant with federal law, but also based on trauma informed best practices, with relevant and engaging content.

• In July, I completed an ATIXA training and certification course, Title IX Coordinator Four: Advocacy, Prevention and Trauma. This course helped lay the groundwork to build a robust prevention and education program for this school year. In addition to compliance training, student affinity groups will gather with me throughout the fall for conversations about healthy relationships, consent and boundaries, while employee affinity groups will gather with me for conversations about culture and influence. As an example, some of these affinity groups include dorm mods, extra-curricular cohorts, junior and senior cohorts, departments, etc. There are over 50 affinity groups, so any flexibility you can offer with regard to scheduling with student engagements will be appreciated. These conversations have already begun and our goal is to complete them before Thanksgiving break.
• We conducted a robust training with the help of Cozen O’Conner on August 3 for employees who have role specific responsibilities related to Title IX at Hesston College. This includes athletics, international support team, representatives from academics and the full student life staff including resident assistants.
• During the all employee gathering August 9, I presented a six-hour training. This was scheduled in response to a knowledge gap identified by Cozen O’Conner in their 2023 Title IX review of Hesston College. This training went well beyond compliance and also provided employees with a more rounded understanding of trauma informed best practices and responses. This training was supported by the input of implementation group members to help make content relevant and accessible. Additionally, Matt, Rachel and Marelby organized and led community building activities to enhance engagement and establish trust with fellow colleagues.
• I am working with Caleb Loss, vice president of finance and auxiliary services, on a potential Department of Justice grant request that could further enhance, expand and support our work to strengthen Title IX training, prevention and education across our campus community for years to come.
• Individual members of our Title IX Implementation Group are taking initiative to influence their circles, coworkers, classmates, cohorts, etc. to make positive progress regarding awareness related to Title IX, consent, boundaries and healthy relationships. Please encourage them as you come in contact with them. Positive words go a long way!
• I am leading formation October 2 and 6, which will look at Matthew 18 and focus on a healthy understanding and application of accountability and forgiveness. I hope to see you there.

I am so thankful for the many ways the campus community is leaning into this work. Each of you, when you show up to a training, speak positively about the work, or take initiative to learn more on your own – you are investing in this work. Thank you! Written communication can’t seem to capture how deeply grateful I am for your engagement with this work as a community! Please continue to reference the Title IX updates page on our website for the latest information.

Thanks again, and please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.

Whitney Douglas