Robin Nelson-Bailey, the vice president of human resources, is serving as the acting Title IX coordinator, following the departure of Linda Shinomoto from this role. Stew Uretsky, the executive vice president for finance and administration, announced in an Oct. 31 campus-wide email that Nelson-Bailey would take on this role.
The coordinator job is within the office of Human Resources and this person “helps with filing complaints against faculty, teaching assistants, administrators or staff,” according to the Brandeis Resource Guide for Sexual Assault Survivors. The coordinator can also provide advice and point people to other resources, the guide says.
Staff, faculty and students can report allegations to Nelson-Bailey by email, phone or in person at her office, according to Uretsky’s message. Students can also use an online sexual misconduct reporting form which asks questions about the incident—or the anonymous version of that form. Both are located on the Department of Student Rights and Community Standards website. Nelson-Bailey was unable to comment as of press time regarding the search for a new Title IX coordinator.
Shortly before Shinomoto left Brandeis, Rebecca Tillar left her role as the Title IX Investigator/Compliance Officer, The Hoot reported on Oct. 27.
Tillar’s position reports to Sheryl Sousa, the vice president for Student Affairs. The university did not appoint someone to her role in an interim capacity, but other university employees are able to manage the work, said Sousa. Paula Slowe, another case manager in the office, will continue to reach out to students who file complaints as usual, according to Sousa.
Tillar primarily handled two types of investigations, the Special Examiners Process (SEP) and the informal investigation. Special Examiners are investigators from outside Brandeis, selected from a pool of pre-screened attorneys. The SE works with a co-investigator from Brandeis, who is typically the case manager (Tillar or Slowe).
There are, however, other university employees with the necessary Title IX training to fill this role, including Sousa, Dean of Students employees and Kerry Guerard, the Director of Student Rights and Community Standards. University employees from outside Title IX are also equipped to handle an informal investigation if necessary.
The university aims to fill Tillar’s position by next semester, according to Sousa.
“What’s valuable about having a dedicated Title IX investigator,” she said in an Oct. 26 interview, is they can put all their time into the case, while other employees “have to put our other roles aside when we focus on a case because we want to do those in as timely a manner as possible.”
