Universities should rethink how they address racism allegations: Expert

NEW ORLEANS — Campus unrest during the last academic year, which resulted in lawsuits and complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education, should have universities rethinking the way they manage allegations of racism and ancestral discrimination, according to a consultant who spoke Tuesday at the University Risk Management & Insurance Association’s annual conference.

While changes to federal civil rights regulations under Title VI are in the works, universities can lean on resolutions and guidance from the Department of Education to rework policies and procedures, said Andrea Stagg, director of consulting services at Saratoga, California-based Grand River Solutions, which works with colleges on establishing policies.

As a best practice, universities should create “one door” for managing Title VI complaints, a common practice for Title IX anti-sex discrimination enforcement that should be reworked for complaints that deal with discrimination on the basis of race and/or disability, she said.

Recordkeeping under Title VI is an area of concern, Ms. Stagg said, as universities often handle complaints through separate departments, such as human resources and students affairs. She anticipates that changes to Title VI will call on organizations to assign this responsibility to one department. “So, do it now,” she said.

Addressing online activity is another area universities can improve upon, with or without an official policy from federal regulators, Ms. Stagg said.

For example, if a university’s policy for addressing hostility doesn’t include “online speech or anonymous speech from social media” it might be time to address how such complaints are investigated, she said.

“We need to have an obligation to assess whether there’s a hostile environment and to redress the hostile environment, whether or not we have a named respondent,” she said. “We can’t ignore that after all of this guidance.”