PHOTO | Tara Espinoza
Title IX turned 50 this past June.
The federal law bans discrimination based on gender in education and Arkansas Tech offers a number of events to educate students about the law.
Title IX article states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
The law covers more than athletics, Amy Pennington, associate vice president for student affairs and Title IX coordinator for student services, said.
“A lot of people do associate Title IX with athletics, because of the early days of Title IX a lot of the emphasis was making sure that women also had an equal opportunity to participate in athletics as their male counterparts… for instance, fund our women’s teams equitably as to compared to our men’s teams.”
There are various events and training for the student body this fall.
On Sept. 19, “Hollaback!: Street Harassment Intervention,” focused on catcalling, and students learned how to team up with Title IX administrators to learn how to safely disrupt, document, and report street harassment.
The next event is the “Zero Shades Freed,” which is a seminar from Collegiate Empowerment. It is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Witherspoon Auditorium. “Zero Shades Freed” kicks off Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and helps participants gain positive and healthy relationships, change the way they think about sex, and ultimately become a Zero Shades Advocate to build a movement that challenges everyone on the culture that’s being created within the community.
Each fall when students return to campus, Tech sends out the “Mandatory Title IX Training,” where returning students aim to understand key issues pertaining to harassment. It also helps the university meet legal requirements and guidance issued by the U.S. Department of Education. Every returning student gets an email from Tech where it specifies the course is about 25 minutes in length. Students have until Saturday, Oct. 1 to complete part one of the course. Then, 30 days after part one is completed, students can log back in and complete part two.
