Freedom Tower turns teal for Sexual Assault Awareness Month; LU fosters student awareness

Seeking to continue its mission of protecting and advocating for the safety and well-being of Liberty University students, the Office of Equity and Compliance (OEC) is creating more ways of raising awareness for important issues on campus, updating its reporting system, and growing its team of Title IX professionals.

The OEC is responsible for administering the sexual misconduct policy, the equal opportunity policy, and Clery Crime violations under the Jeanne Clery Act.

“Our office exists to be a safe environment for students, and we also want it to be supportive,” said Vice President of Equity Compliance Ashley Reich. “We want it to be a neutral process, because that is what Title IX is supposed to be. ‘Safe, Supportive, and Neutral’ is our tagline because it encompasses what we do as an office and how we serve our Liberty students and community.”

April is nationally recognized as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the office will be observing the month in multiple ways. On each Wednesday during the month, the Freedom Tower will be lit in teal, the color designated for sexual assault awareness.

The OEC will be hosting an open house for students, faculty and staff on April 19 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in its new office space, located on the first floor of DeMoss Hall, to help them learn more about the OEC’s role at the university. Guests will be able to meet representatives from Liberty’s Department of Emergency Management and Community Engagement, Office of Public Security & Safety, and Liberty University Police Department (LUPD), as well as external vendors.

The OEC has provided statistics and resources on preventing and reporting sexual assault to all residence halls and has made them readily available on the OEC website.

This semester, the OEC has highlighted Stalking Awareness Month in January and promoted healthy relationships in February.

Training for employees and student leadership has been a concerted effort, Reich said, and she plans to involve more student groups soon.

“We just launched a Title IX course for employees here, and we will be working on a student course,” Reich said. “We are really looking to engage with student groups on campus, such as the Student Government Association (SGA), and we’ve had a couple opportunities to do that already. We have a lot of training coming for our new and returning RAs (Resident Assistants), RSs (Resident Shepherds), and RDs (Resident Directors) in the fall.”

“One of the ways we are looking to engage with students is from a feedback perspective,” she added. “We want to provide a survey to those who may have gone through our process and hear how we are doing. We want to know what can be improved, if there was anything confusing, and also what was helpful and positive.”

In recent months, the office hired a new Title IX Coordinator, Nathan Friesema, and three new investigators. Reich said the investigators are able to provide a trauma-informed approach to investigations, which is integral to Title IX, and come with years of experience in law enforcement or advocacy work related to sexual assault.

The office is also planning updates to its incident report software, moving to a more modern, intuitive, and robust system that is the industry standard.

“The students won’t know anything different, but for us staff members, it will really give us a more user-friendly system,” she said.

Reich said students can play a key role by being responsible and proactive advocates for their peers.

“Students can assist us by being ambassadors for Title IX. If they hear of something that needs to be reported, they can encourage their friends that this is a safe space for them. We really want the students to be the champions of that.”

To learn more about the Office of Equity and Compliance, visit Liberty.edu/Title-IX.