CEEO hosts virtual town hall on 2024 Title IX regulations

The UNM Office of Compliance, Ethics & Equal Opportunity (CEEO) will host a virtual town hall on Friday, July 12, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. to discuss how new Title IX regulations will impact the UNM community. Join Title IX Coordinator Angela Catena and a panel of UNM partners who will provide a high-level overview of the key changes in the Final Rule and discuss the next steps for UNM as it works to ensure compliance by the deadline.

Interested attendees can access the virtual town hall via Zoom (https://unm.zoom.us/j/91595439017). As part of the town hall, individuals may also submit questions related to the 2024 Title IX regulations via this form.

In addition to Catena, panel participants include:

• Barbara Rodriguez, senior vice provost
• Ben Zinke, CEEO hearing officer
• Frankie Flores, director, LGBTQ Resource Center
• Michelle Dugan, campus advocate, Women's Resource Center
• Mutazz Jaber, ASUNM vice president

For more than 50 years, Title IX has made tremendous strides in access to education for millions of students across the country. Everyone deserves working and educational opportunities free from discrimination, which is why the U.S. Department of Education recently released its Final Rule under Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination and harassment in education programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance. The final regulations promote equity and opportunity as well as accountability and fairness while empowering and supporting its community members.

The U.S. Department of Education's Title IX Final Rule, which was released April 19, 2024, amends the existing regulations to ensure educational environments are free from sex-based discrimination and harassment. The Final Rule outlines requirements for addressing all forms of sex discrimination in a manner that allows UNM to align its Title IX Resolution process with best practices and its community values. Institutional officials are working to carefully assess and analyze the Final Rule to develop an implementation plan to ensure institutional compliance by the deadline.

"These changes should help to make the Title IX process more accessible, more transparent, and more user-friendly," said UNM Title IX Coordinator Angela Catena. "Additionally, the new regulations require the institution to continually monitor and address any barriers to reporting that may exist, which will help us to make our resolution processes more accessible to the members of our campus community."

Major Title IX changes in Final Rule:

• Clarifying scope of sex discrimination
• Revised and updated definitions of offenses, including sex-based harassment
• Expanded supportive measures for impacted parties
• A variety of potential resolution processes, including alternative resolutions
• Expanded mandated reporting obligations for employees
• Broader protections for pregnancy and related conditions
• Clarification of how Title IX protects LGBTQIA+ members of our community
• Greater flexibility in how the institution approaches Title IX rights and protections
• Training requirements with enforcement mechanisms

The final regulations advance Title IX's promise of ensuring that no person experiences sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment or sexual violence, in federally funded education. The final regulations restore and strengthen vital protections, and provide schools with information to meet their Title IX obligations while offering appropriate discretion and flexibility to account for variations in school size, student populations, and administrative structures.

The final regulations also require schools to take prompt and effective action when notified of conduct that reasonably may constitute sex discrimination in their education programs or activities. The final regulations also reaffirm the Department's core commitment to fundamental fairness for all parties, the rights of parents and guardians to support their minor children, and respect for complainants' autonomy.

The new regulations, which are not retroactive, do not address sex-separate sports teams. Many lawsuits are underway challenging the regulations. Institutions have 103 days to implement all required changes, which go into effect on Aug. 1, 2024.

For more information, visit the U.S. Department of Education.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.