The Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO) is implementing new techniques and processes to speed up sexual assault and discrimination claims, as well as departmental investigations on UNM campus.
Francie Cordova, director of OEO, said the previous method is not being abandoned, but rather modified to fit the needs of those experiencing injustice at the University.
“We attempted to make the process more timely, more streamlined and easier to understand and read,” she said. “We also drafted a corresponding checklist and flowchart that give visual learners, or those who want a checklist format, the ability to access the process in a different way.”
In the past years, several departments in New Mexico have been under investigation by the Department of Justice, but Cordova said she and OEO staff had been working towards specific goals before the investigation’s results were announced.
“The new process was not implemented because of the DOJ investigation, but it does include many of the DOJ recommendations for improving the process,” she said.
Some results from the investigation mirror new implementations to assist victims and witnesses in these cases. All changes went into effect June 15th.
“OEO began the process of revising the Discrimination Procedure in August 2015. We are implementing it now because it has finished going through the various revision stages (by OEO staff) and review by University Counsel,” Cordova said.
Heather Cowan, Title XI Coordinator at OEO, said the staff has been working hard for several years to find proactive solutions that will work at the University.
“We knew it wasn’t working well for our campus. We recognized the problems with it and have been actively editing and reviewing and researching to try to get the best process we could,” Cowan said.
New steps and precautions will assist victims, making sure their voices are not silenced and their time is not wasted, she said. “We have built shorter time frames and increased communication throughout the investigation, which are the two largest criticisms we’ve heard from complainants about investigations.”
Cowan said they have also included a new step that will allow both complainants and respondents to read the other’s statements at the same time and allow the same opportunity to respond.
With shorter time frames come new standards for complainants and respondents to reply within an allotted amount of business days, she said, because all investigations are time-sensitive.
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For complainants and respondents who choose not to respond, Cowan said, “It always depends on the situation, if the allegations are severe and potentially impact student safety, we would likely continue with an investigation even if a complainant didn’t respond or participate.”
Time is of the essence and all parties must be proactive if they want justice to be served, she said.
“Respondents who don’t respond or participate are told that the investigation will continue and that can result in a policy violation finding which can result in disciplinary action against them,” Cowan said. “We encourage all parties to respond so that their full account can be considered throughout the investigation.”
Sexual violence is prevalent on college campuses across the nation, she said.
“Nationally, the statistics always come back that between 17 and 25 percent of female undergrads will experience attempted or completed sexual assault. We will know UNM’s rates of sexual violence when the results of our climate survey (conducted this past spring semester) come in next month,” Cowan said.
Cowan and Cordova both understand it will continue to be an ongoing battle.
“UNM does not have a higher rate of sexual violence than any of its peer institutions,” Cordova said. “It is important to note that most sexual violence does not happen on campus and is not usually violence by a stranger. However, sexual violence is an issue that we all have to address in every community setting as we know that it is prevalent against women.”
