Title lX has been making changes to their staff and protocol. This year has brought new ways to report incidents, and collaborations between LUPD and the BIT team with the counseling center to help victims.
As of September 2023, the Title lX office has hired two new successors to Theresa Powell and Cynthia Buckley. Soncearay Higgins is the newest Title lX coordinator, and Marquita Bailey is the Title lX deputy coordinator. They can be found in Page Hall, room 119.
Since their arrival, a new process for managing cases has been implemented with their latest program Maxient. This is a new software that was adopted by OSU and other universities around the country.
Higgins and Bailey attended a Maxient conference to become experts on the software, allowing them to take a deeper look at the analytics of cases which lets them see and understand what issues may be frequent and letting them know what they should do to reach out to students to address these issues.
Maxient also makes it easy for students to report incidents. These can range from sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence, to other title lX related issues such as gender related discrimination. Students can find forms that address each of these on the Title lX page on the new Langston website.
The software is entirely digital as opposed to the previous filling cabinet method of organizing cases. It also allows Title lX to partner with LUPD and student affairs to get in on the software allowing them to easily exchange the information needed for a case.
With partnerships with LUPD, student affairs, and the behavioral intervention team (BIT) from the counseling center, the Title IX officers have been working in unison to help victims of sexual assault, stalking, and other harassment and discriminatory attacks. The BIT team is specially designed to not be a mandatory reporting service, meaning what students say to them is entirely confidential and will not be shared anywhere else. This is for people that may fall victim to sexual assault and need help reporting their incident.
The Title IX office or the BIT team can provide counseling on how students can go about filling out an online form for any situation they may be in.
Students who have been a victim of sexual assault or other violent crimes that violate laws are highly encouraged to report the situation to LUPD. Title lX is also searching for new ways to adapt their service to the best benefit of students. They are looking for workshop ideas to help students get a better perspective on what they can do.
Damien Alexander
Damien Alexander is a senior broadcast journalism major
Story ideas, opinion editorials, calendar events and advertising requests can be sent to dthom34@langston.edu. You may follow The Gazette on Instagram @lu_gazette.
The Gazette serves as the student voice of Langston University. It is produced within the Department of Communication as a teaching tool and local news source for the campus community. The views and opinions expressed within are those of the writers whose names appear with the articles and do not necessarily represent the views of Langston University.
