Eye on the Triangle

In this episode, host Emilia Rivadeneira talks with David Elrod, Associate Vice Provost for the Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity at NC State & Title IX Designated Official, about changes and updates in Title IX regulation. For more information about Title IX and resources, visit the Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity's website.  

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Host
Emilia Rivadeneira
Public Affairs Director (2024)

What is Eye on the Triangle?

Eye on the Triangle is WKNC 88.1 FM HD-1/HD-2’s weekly public affairs programming with news, interviews, opinion, weather, sports, arts, music, events and issues that matter to NC State, Raleigh and the Triangle.

Emilia Rivadeneira 0:00
The views and opinions expressed during eye on the triangle do not represent WKNC or NC State Student media,

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Good morning everyone. Hope you're enjoying your day. My name is Emilia Rivadeneira, host of eye on the triangle. And with further ado, let's get into some news. You

the following interview includes brief mentions of sexual assault, and was recorded prior to August 1 2024 to date, when the Biden administration's final title nine regulations extending protections for LGBTQ plus students and school personal were scheduled to take effect. Currently, North Carolina is exempt from these updated regulations due to a judicial decision. Nevertheless, these interview provide insight into the university's efforts related to Title Nine, as well as its existing policies and updates. Additionally, the interview refers to the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, which, as of August 1 2024 has been renamed the Office of Institutional Equity and equal opportunity.

Hello and welcome to WKNC Eye on the triangle, your source of local news, where we dive deep into the pressing issues affecting our communities. I'm your host, Emilia Rivadeneira, and today we have a very special guest joining us. David Elrod, Associate Vice Provost for the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity at NC State and Title Nine designated official. Thank you so much for being here today. David, how are you doing?

David Elrod 2:10
I'm doing very well. Thank you.

Emilia Rivadeneira 2:13
Well. We are so glad to have you here today, and today we'll be delving into a very important topic in higher education, the changes to Title Nine regulations under the Biden administration set to take effect on August 1 2024 the new regulations will alter how institutions handle sexual harassment and assault cases, while also broadening protections for LGBTQ plus and pregnant students. But kind of before getting ahead of ourselves, let's talk more about Title Nine. What is it and what was its original purpose when it was enacted in 1972

David Elrod 2:54
Sure, so in 1972 the in the educational Amendments Act put out Title Nine as it relates to the protected status of sex and educational programs or activities in organizations that receive federal financial assistance. So there's 37 words and it it narrows it down to things of Education, Employment Program or activities in the United States, federal financial assistance provided. The title nine act was enacted, really about equity of access. Part of that started off about scholarships to schools, admissions and to institutions. A access to residence halls and sports and so on and so forth. That was the origin of some of the conversations that were around it. If you look at the history of institutions, including NC State, it's evolved a lot since then, and it's gone through several iterations and the lenses in which individuals engage with Title Nine, when we teach about it and educate and present about it, we try to make sure that individuals understand that sex means sex. Sex is not just a in Title Nine, and sex as it's described in Title Nine is not just a female related act in the Education Amendment, it's a it's regardless of sex. So it doesn't, doesn't say just one sex. It's just a sex. And so I think that's what's important some of the history. Most recently, I'm only, I'm only going to go back to 2001 but that is still 20 years of some history in 2001 there were some revised sexual harassment guidance that was, that was provided to institutions as they spoke about Title Nine. It was really about the sexual harassment side of addressing behaviors and hostile environments and so on so forth. And then in 2011 the Obama administration put out a Dear Colleague letter. And that dear colleague letter spoke about requirements as it relates to sexual harassment, again, focused not on sex, broadly speaking, in Title Nine, but a Title Nine, dear colleague letters specifically on sexual harassment. That was a big shift, because there wasn't a lot of guidance that was provided before then. There were some things that were wrestling about the US in relationship to incidents happening on campuses. And so that navigated, or institutions were trying to navigate through the implication of that 2011 letter. And then in the Trump administration, the Trump administration actually took it a step further than just a Dear Colleague letter, which isn't law, but it's guidance. The Trump administration then actually went through the process to make things more formalized, and so they put it out for notice and comment. This was out in 2020 or that started in 2019 and was provided in 2020 which identified some very specific areas and specific processes that institutions needed to go through in order to address situations that would be classified under Title Nine, very specifically. If you look at that history, you start to see a little bit of the language, and you see some case law, and you see some conversations out there about a pendulum swing, mainly as it relates to rights of complainants and rights of response through processes that are provided by the institution. And so ultimately, institutions should be working to to ensure that rights of all parties are involved in the process or provided equitably as individuals are navigating through. As the Associate Vice Provost for the Equal Opportunity equity unit, that is what our office specifically does, is navigating through the rights of individuals. So I just wanted to highlight that as part of that, because you'll see some language in court cases and news reports about earlier on, where individuals putting too many pre 2011 were they focusing too much on the rights of respondents and not on the complainants? Some of the conversation from 2011 to 2020 was about, were you putting too much emphasis on complainants and not on respondents? And so that's trying to find that equilibrium. And I think us as at least as NC State, have worked really hard to try to work on that. So that was through 2020 it narrowed the definition under Title non sexual harassment to be very specific. So it had to be in the United States. It had to be in a program or activity. There had to be, you know, had to be severe and pervasive, versus the previous language of severe or pervasive. So these were kind of things that what was codified into law, and then under the Biden administration in April of 2024, if you've kind of alluded to already provided additional guidance and modifications. Went through the same process as the Trump administration did to provide new guidance to institutions, and that's where that August 1 deadline comes into play about the implications and the implementation of Title Nine for, you know, any organization that receives federal financial assistance, I will just highlight, and I think part of this goes about into the history is there was some broadening of the language of sex under the Trump administration, and then there were some additional clarifications under the Biden administration, under what classified under sex, trying to make sure that it's clear. But there's also in between those time periods, there's been court cases and Supreme Court cases and decisions that's kind of helped identify what that looks like,

Emilia Rivadeneira 9:18
Right. And you kind of mentioned a really good timeline of, you know, how these regulation has undergone, like, several changes through the years and through several, you know, different administrations as well. And I wanted to ask you, what do you think about, like, what's your interpretation or opinion of these changes that are gonna set to take effect on August 1.

If I could ask you to clarify your question about what, what do you mean by what my opinion or interpretation is of the new regs? It's,

it's. Kind of, like, more related to, why are these changes in the regulation being made now, rather than, you know, like, maybe a couple of years ago, like, Why? Why now are these changes being made

David Elrod 10:15
Sure I think part of it is that the that it just takes time, there's the, you know, if you look at the number of comments that are provided through the process those the federal government has to respond to those comments, you know, and as they're making the regulation. And so the regulations in 2020, I think, the unofficial version of the one that is written out in a document, not necessarily the columns in the federal registry, that document was 2000 pages long. Of responses the Biden administration and responding to all their comments had about 1500 and 50 some pages for responses and for the regulation. So going through each of the comments, knowing the individuals that are invested in the public in general could respond to that. All that probably takes time. I couldn't speak to why now versus Why not previously. From an institutional perspective, I will say I appreciate it being an august 1 deadline versus the mid August deadline, mainly because it makes it a little bit more cleaner as it relates to the transition of students coming back to campus and our academic year starting. But I will say that we worked really hard, and have had several working groups work in relentlessly throughout the summer in order to ensure that we have implemented whatever changes need to be implemented at the time, while also ensuring that all of our behind the Scenes process is making this move transition for individuals,

Emilia Rivadeneira 12:01
Right. And that kind of connects to my next question. That is, you know, how is NC State preparing to kind of be in compliance with the title nine guidelines that are set to take effect?

David Elrod 12:20
Sure I do have a plot twist in this one is, I don't know if you've heard about an injunction that was filed in the US District Court. Think the district of Kansas, it was early July in in that there's, there was some language around educational institutions or organizations that were connected with, like the moms for liberty, the young Americans Foundation, female athletes united, and any of their members of that and if, if the institution was connected to any of those organizations in some way or capacity. Then there's there was going to be an injunction put into place to say that the new title nine regs, as provided in april 2024, wouldn't necessarily go into effect. August the first as it was working through the court system NC State on July 15, was officially notified that we were part of that injunction. And so the work that we had been doing towards the new title nine regs, we had to take, we had to make a little bit of a shift in order to make sure that we were updating our policy regs where we needed to and then should appropriately do so, but not so far as to implementing the new 2024, Title Nine regs, because we're part of the injunction in that same time frame. So around that, that July 15 time frame we did make a shift a little bit before we thought that that might be coming to be able to work on regulations that we would put into the in place if we were listed or enjoined in this stay, as well as continue to work on Title Nine regs if we were not enjoined in this case, so we have created regulations that were passed by the cabinet, the Chancellor's cabinet, and the policy that was approved by the Board of Trustees based off of the stay related to being a joint in that case, we also have worked on regulations and aspects that should this be resolved, and we are then required to implement the 2024, Title Nine regs. We've worked really hard. We have those in the wings, waiting, just in case, we have to transition

Emilia Rivadeneira 15:03
right, and that makes a lot of sense. I actually one of my next questions was going to be about the federal the federal court ruling in Kansas, and how was NC State responding to that and kind of preparing for that? But now talking more about the changes specifically, and kind of dissecting those changes so students and you know, our listeners can further understand what do they mean. And you know, like, what do they entail? One of the key changes include a new definition, as you mentioned, of sexual harassment, extending jurisdiction to off campus and international incidents. And I wanted to ask you, what does this mean for universities in terms of how they handle and investigate this cases, more specifically, NC State.

David Elrod 16:01
Sure so we'll start NC State specific, and then we can move broader than that. So to understand that, let's think about what happened in 2020 So previously, prior to the 2020 regs, we had a broad definition of discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, etc, and the behaviors of our faculty, staff and students, regardless of where they were located, whether it be here or a study abroad program in Prague at our Prague Institute or in Spain or wherever. Right that if it happened in our program or activity or was connected there, or it may create a hostile environment, and therefore we had the duty to respond. The university has works on a three pronged approach to number one, stop the behavior. Number two, prevent its reoccurrence, and number three is to remedy the effects. And so that's the lens in which we're approaching each of these situations. And so when we went into 2020, where the language around Title Nine was taken and identified more specifically in the United States, for example. Then what that did is it took out if we had an incident between two students or two employees or an employer student that happened overseas in one of our program or activities, it technically wasn't covered under Title Nine, and so, because it wasn't in the United States, and so the university still felt that that would be something that we would want to address, because it was still part of our program or activity. And therefore, in 2020 we created two policies. One of those was our 050042507, Title Nine, sexual harassment policy. And one of those was our 042505 discrimination, harassment Equal Opportunity policy. What that did is that allowed us to dress address both of those behaviors. When you look at some of the language now, it allows for us to address it in our program or activities, regardless and if something happens external to our program or activity, if it's a little bit more specific, of what the language says is if it happens outside of our program or activities, but that behavior, that interaction, or that, whatever incident is, impacts our program or activities or can create a hostile environment in our programs or activities, we still have a duty to respond in that scenario. And so, you know, for NC State, our policies, if we get to implement the 2024 regs, just as a clarifier, would allow us to address some of those behaviors, should it be impacting our program or activity, which is a little bit of what we were doing previously on our two policy approach, right?

Emilia Rivadeneira 19:03
And that's really interesting that, you know, like, since 2020, NC State have had those two kind of regulations and those two policies, can

David Elrod 19:14
I? Can I add something into that, just as a clarify? Yeah, for sure. So what we've done, even, you know, because we have the stay right, regardless of whether or not we can implement the 2024, regulations, or whether we, you know, are on this hold, the university did update Our policy that would be applicable regardless, instead of where in 2020 where we had two policies that were going to be applicable, new policies go into effect, or went into effect on August the first and that one policy is. Comprehensive. So we don't have to work on a two policy process, regardless of whether or not we are able to implement the 2024, regulations ordinance. So we go back to a one policy aspect, instead of having to look at two different locations,

Emilia Rivadeneira 20:17
right, right? And another thing that I wanted to mention is that these you know the change, also expand the definition of sex based harassment, clarifying protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, parent C status, what does this mean for our university and how we support students?

David Elrod 20:48
Sure, I think one of the main things to remember with any of these implications of policies and regulations or processes is that people are involved. And I'll give you a philosophy of myself that our office uses. And it's, it's three P's, the first one is policy. Policy is easy to follow. You go step by step, and it tells you exactly what's prohibited and what's allowed, the procedures, which is the regulations here at the institution are easy to follow because you just follow step by step, and he walks you through exactly what you're supposed to do. But the third P, I feel like, is the most important one, and that's the people, if we don't take into consideration the people that we are engaging with, and we really kind of miss the mark. And so when we're approaching the review and the implementation of our policies and procedures, one of the things we take into account the people. And so when we did that, we tried to make our policy be user friendly. We tried to make sure that they were they were applicable regardless of a person's involvement, whether they're a complainant or a respondent or a witness to a situation. We have also created some regulations out there regardless. So we, although we previously provided accommodations for individuals on the basis of pregnancy, we didn't have those in a regulation. So we've created two regulations, one of those is for employees, and one of those are for students. We also looked at other regulations just on the note of pregnancy. We looked at regulations as it relates to graduate students, because the graduate school had a couple regulations that that implicated it, and we wanted to make sure that that was reviewed as it relates to the other areas and supporting of students. We have a lot of campus partners that we navigate with, because our office can't do it by ourselves. So this is also why we provide training to individuals and responsible employees. Is because our office, when fully staffed, is only eight people, and we have roughly 40,000 students and 10,000 employees and eight people in a building across campus. We're not the ones that do all the work, and so we do invite individuals into that, some of those individuals that assist with the care and concern, and I will, I will miss some, and I know I will, and I apologize to all those individuals, but some of our individuals are like our Cares Unit led by Angel Bowers, has been instrumental in assisting the Women's Center with the direct the lead of the director of Janine Costin and her team to provide support to individuals, the Office of Student Conduct in helping navigate very sensitive situations, led by Thomas Hartman, the violence prevention and threat management team led by Dr Tina Nelson Moss, that helps address safety concerns that we have in a multitude of situations that involve discrimination or harassment based on sex, all the way up to sexual assault and stalking our from all of our campus partners out in the colleges, whether it be an HR person or an advisor or faculty members that we've trained and department heads, they all meet with students on an individual basis, because they built this relationship and this trust, and we want them to continue to maintain that. And so we worked with them on an individual basis in order to try to educate them about what their responsibilities are, what their responsibilities can be and while also letting them know what they don't have to be doing they should not be doing, right and that individuals have their specific roles. So we try to some of the ways that we support students or we support our faculty and staff, because those are the individuals that our students are going to to share that information and to create an avenue. The other the other piece that I think is important is the integrity throughout our process. If you know faculty, staff and students don't trust us, then what's the point in having that process? And so we've worked very hard since I came into the university in 2017 we've worked very hard in order to create a process that is full of integrity. And the individuals that are involved, we hold to high regard, and we hold them to high standards, and they hold themselves to those same standards. And with the individuals from your office, all of our campus partners, the rest of the campus, community centers, our Pride Center, Charlotte Blumell, as the director, we've worked with them on countless instances in order to provide education and training and to provide an area of support for individuals coming through. Although this is on sex, there's a lot of intersectionality that come when individuals are navigating through very sensitive situations that intersectionality may meet to where we need to ask jamico McKenzie, Dr jamico McKenzie and Dr Charlotte blue mail from The Pride Center and from MSA Multicultural Student Affairs, and then Dr gay Audrey from African American culture center. We have to reach out to them and their teams, because individuals may be connected in their spaces, or they were not previously connected, and now they want to be connected because they know that that's an area of support if we don't partner together as an institution and navigating through this, we're really missing the mark, and I think we've done a really good job through the support of the Provost and the chancellor in order to build these partnerships in such a way that we can meet the needs of our faculty, staff and students.

Emilia Rivadeneira 26:56
Yeah, for sure, I think you know, as you mentioned, partnerships, it's, it's like creating this support system for both faculty, students, staff at NC State and and that's amazing. Talking a little bit more about another of the changes. It is me, it is said that, you know, there are some changes in this regulation that are to provide like more flexibility than its predecessors, and one of these changes is the elimination of the mandate for live hearings with cross examination As part of campus disciplinary processes for result resolving sexual assault. Can you further explain a little bit more, what does this entail and how this will look like at NC State?

David Elrod 27:52
Sure. I think one of the important factors to note is that when the federal government is writing this, they're writing it in a very broad spectrum to capture a right under their scope and authority. What's not taken into consideration is the fact that us, as a UNC institution, we also have to abide by the NC System Policy. So I'm going to talk about students, and then I'll talk about employees. So although there's not a requirement for a live hearing, from the federal government standpoint, under the UNC System Policy 700 point 4.1 there is a requirement for hearings. And therefore, as a you know, there's a case where there's a student as the respondent or the alleged individual that goes through an investigation, and it's going through conduct, conduct does have a requirement to provide a lot of hearing, but that's under the UNC System Policy, not under Title Nine, and so they would have to, you know, adhere to that. So although it's not a requirement under one, it is a requirement under the other, and therefore we have to do it right, so that that that process won't change as it relates to there being a hearing on the student side. It did. It does, however, change if we're able to implement the 2024 regs on the employee side, because under the 2020 regs for Title Nine sexual harassment, those would have went to a hearing, and under the 2024 regs, the university would have the ability to make a decision about whether or not it would go to a hearing, or whether or not it would go to some other process That would deem appropriate.

Emilia Rivadeneira 29:40
That's that's that's actually really interesting, that how it works, because, you know, like, you have to follow the UNC system regulations, and then that, then this, like, there's broader like scope of, like the regulation as well. So, so it's really interesting how that works. Um, and you. Uh, another thing that I wanted to mention is that this, besides the live hearings and and all that, um, these regulations are set to kind of like, um, could lead to increased reports of discrimination, of harassment as well. It is, it is mentioned in like several, you know, news stories and new sites is NC State, you know, preparing or equipped to address, you know, such reports promptly and effectively. Sure,

David Elrod 30:31
I think that. I think that's a great question. I think all of your questions are great. But this one very specifically to lead into that the regulations also expand the required the identification of I'm going to use air quotes, responsible employees. That's the language that we use. It's language from the 2020 regulations previously as responsible employees and designated Title Nine officials, the again, if we were to implement the 2024, regs about understanding that scope that's being broadened is at that point in time, it would include all faculty, anybody that teaches would then be considered a responsible employee, which is not the current standard that we have applied. So all faculty members, all advisors, would be considered responsible employees. And then that goes into like administrative lists and so on, so forth. And then it also requires us to train, obviously, all of those individuals about the reporting obligations. In addition to that, we would be training confidential employees. So I'm going to do an interior approach. So we we would train responsible employees about their reporting obligation under the 2024 regs. We'd have to train confidential employees about obligations that they have as a confidential employee, which would be under the 2024 reg says, obviously you're not going to report it, because you're confidential, unless they tell you that you can, but you required to provide them information about the title, nine, coordinator, so on and so forth. And so there's some regulations related to it. And under the 2024 regulations, it says that the institution has to train all employees about providing information to individuals based off of any sex discrimination or related to pregnancy. As we know from history and data has shown us, is that education reduces reports. The more that we train, the more reports come in, so we don't necessarily consider it a bad thing when reports are coming in, because we want individuals to feel comfortable enough to be able to share that information. To your question about whether or not the university would be able to or is prepared to address it effectively and efficiently for individuals that are engaged, I would say that we are. We've added to our staff through the support of our vice provost and our Provost and the Chancellor. They have seen the need. We have provided data, and they have continued to provide support to our office in order for us to navigate through this in an equitable manner and in an effective manner. Time will only tell if we need additional staff and with the support of our leadership thus far, I don't see a reason why they would not invest in that in the future, should that become a need, but I will say that we have made great strides through their support, such that individuals that engage in our office, if a report is submitted to our office, oftentimes, the impacted party is getting an initial response from our office within two business days, and oftentimes that's within one business day

Emilia Rivadeneira 33:58
that's amazing to Hear, actually, you know, like the prompt, you know, it's very promptly, the responses and and all that, and the connections and and as well, like the trainings. Um, talking more about how these regulations will broaden protections for specifically LGBTQ plus students, is, I wanted to ask if, you know, you mentioned partnerships with the centers and, and, you know, that includes the Pride Center. Is there any type of, you know, work that it's being done, you know, in collaboration with the Pride Center? More related to these, you know, these regulations. How will that kind of like affect our students?

David Elrod 34:48
Sure. Well, I will tell you, those are back in the 2020, regs. And in there we had regulations around gender identity and sexual orientation. There was court. The cases that also identified that, as well as we were navigating through that, I remember one situation where I'd reach out to Dr Blue mail with the Pride Center to kind of talk through and navigate some next steps, but it was more holistically, and that was trying to get individuals preferred name on class rosters, for example, and so worked with Dr Lu MEO and the registrar's office in order to get individuals preferred names. Well, that happened, but then there's a disconnect in the system, because the university uses multiple different systems and identified that a change in one section and necessarily make a change in other section. And so how did we find spaces in the locations to where everybody were using preferred names, or to the extent that possible, about pronouns that were listed in there and so on and so forth, just to allow it for more ease of use. As we were looking at that, one of the things that came up was about our our one card. So you go to the One Card Office, and on the front of it, it puts your name on there. Well, in looking at the Delta Testing Center, they'll need to see an ID and sometimes a person's preferred name and the name that's listed on their ID are not the same name. And so how do we help navigate through that? And so we were able to work with the One Card Office to ensure that individuals could get an ID card that had their preferred name on the front and then on the back, if you flipped it over, it would have their legal name. So if they went to like the Delta testing center, they would, in fact, have an ID card that had their preferred name and it had their other name. And so navigating through that, you know, one of the questions that came up was about cost, right? And so we, you know, Dr Blue mail had mentioned that, and talked to the One Card Office, and they shared if that's a change that someone's wanting to make on their ID card, and they bring their ID that that could be done at no cost. And so navigating through what that looks like and providing language on the website. Some of the other situations that we've worked through is educating some faculty and staff that may have utilized inappropriate language or language or language that is more offensive because they thought that it was what they should say, and so like coaching and like navigating through these aren't requirements that we put on the individuals. It's voluntary, whether or not they engage in those types of conversations, but most of our faculty and staff that's engaged with us, you know, are willing or and would like to meet with and gain that experience so that when they engage with students in the future that they're doing in a way that is more comfortable for the student to engage in their class, for example.

Emilia Rivadeneira 38:14
That's amazing to hear as well, actually. And again, you know how collaborative all of this, all of this is because, you know, like, we have the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity, but then, you know, like we have collaborations with the office, the One Card Office, and then you know, Pride Center and all of the other centers as well. So this has been a very insightful interview. And you know, thank you so much for joining us today at Iona triangle. David, is there anything else that you would like to add?

David Elrod 38:51
Sure? Well, one I'd just like to thank all the individuals that were part of the process in in whether it be the 2020 regs or the 2024 regulation updates. It's taken a lot of work to make sure that we meet that within the 100 day time frame that's provided by the government as an institution. We have to do that a lot earlier because of who it has to go through and so on, so forth and so the you know, members from my team conduct Employee Relations out of human resources and the General Counsel's Office have been very instrumental in working endlessly since April 19 in order to get the regulations where they need to be and the adjustments as It relates to the stay that we're currently at, given that we're enjoying with this current case, I do want to just share that the university has made updates to its policy, which went into effect August the first and should be located on our website. We have modified the accompanying regulations that go. With it, we have updated language in it that we feel like would be appropriate, regardless of whether or not we stay in joined or if it moves into the 2024 regulations. Should at any point in time, moving forward, should we move into the 2024 regulations, we will notify the campus community of those changes, because it would impact both policies in our area and policies in the Office of Student Conduct, and so we'll make sure that we notify individuals as we're moving forward. I just think that it's important to to reiterate that it does take all of us. You hear the motto of the university that says, Think and Do, and I interpret that personally to that we want individuals to be their best selves and do their best work. And when that happens, they impact a lot of the world that's around them. When I think about that as it relates to like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I see the like the self actualization side of things, but in order to reach there, you got to have your safety needs met and your physiological needs met, and that's really where our policies and procedures come to play. And it does take all of us. And I wouldn't be doing this work if I didn't have a hope for whatever better tomorrow would be. I have a a son that I try to teach and educate along the way, and it's important for me, as a professional and as a parent to teach him, and hopefully those teachings that I'm doing with him are things that show up in my day to day work. And our team comes to the work every day with their best self, and it's hard work. It takes a lot of emotional labor for individuals that are involved with that, whether that's a team member and any of our areas across campus, or if it's an individual who's going through the process, regardless of who the individual may be, it takes a lot, and as we're Navigating through that again, going back to that 3p principle is the people are the most important. And so I said, individuals help us navigate through that, and that we all work together. And should anybody feel like they will not to be connected with our office, that they can email us one way is our office email, which is equal opportunity at NC issue.edu they can call our office or stop by. We're located in Winslow Hall on the second floor. I will say that most ways that individuals get connected with our office is through our online reporting form, and that's located@go.nc issue.edu, backslash report concern. And so individuals can complete that online, or they can contact anybody that's on our team to ask, and we will help navigate through with care and concern for that individual, we have our resources also available online at the currently at the safe at State website. They can go to that page and look at those resources and engage with those resources, regardless of whether or not they communicate with our office those resources that are listed online are also identify individuals that are confidential. So that should someone want to speak with a confidential individual? Those individuals on our campus are on buds, so Mike, Jen cola for students, Bradley Davis for employees, our healthcare professionals have a level of confidentiality, Student Legal Services, Pam to race and her team, as well as the Counseling Center. And then for employees, we have a faculty and staff assistance program that provides resources that that are confidential in nature. And so I just want to make sure the individuals are aware of those and we were more than happy to connect them to those resources. Should they need them? For

Emilia Rivadeneira 44:25
sure? Thank you so much once again, David for joining us today. I appreciate you know joining an eye on the triangle, great.

David Elrod 44:34
Thank you for inviting me.

Emilia Rivadeneira 44:35
You On that note, thank you for tuning in to wknc. Eye on the triangle. Your source of local news interviews and more next week, tune in on Monday at 11am for an F doc special first day of class at NC State. As well. You can listen back to this episode or past episodes on wknc.org/podcasts. Music for this episode is titled krakatua by Noah Stark, licensed under creative commons. For more information about Title Nine, visit diversity.ncsu.edu/title-ix/ Thank you for listening.

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