USU welcomes new AAEO Director and Title IX coordinator
Utah State University held an open house in the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art on Thursday to welcome the new positions in the Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity office.
Alison Adams-Perlac, Hilary Renshaw and Emmalee Fishburn join the new office as the director, Title IX coordinator and prevention specialist, respectively.
As the three accept their new roles within the university, they step into an office that has been a focus of attention for media within the state, following sexual harassment allegations against former university employees last year, as well as the high-profile trial of former USU football player, Torrey Green.
“It’s always best to look forward” Adams-Perlac said. “My approach is ‘Are there things we can do better right now?’ and ‘How can we move forward?’”
Finding individuals with the ability and the enthusiasm to tackle discrimination and sexual misconduct on campus was key in the search for new AAEO staff members, according to university administration.
“Both Allison and Hilary bring a great deal of experience and expertise,” said Frank Galey, the USU provost. “I am very confident that they will take USU’s work to addressing discrimination and sexual misconduct to the next level.”
Fishburn said media attention last year brought more awareness for both faculty and staff.
“I think [media attention] brought more awareness in general, especially for students,” Fishburn said. “I think that when we say we’re from the Title IX office they’re like ‘Oh, I have more of an understanding of what Title IX is.’”
According to Fishburn that awareness helps the AAEO office members do their jobs better.
“That might seem counterintuitive to people, but the more that people know about us, then we can actually walk into spaces and have good conversations with them because the ice has already been broken, “ Fishburn said.
Passed by Congress in 1972, Title IX is what has been termed a “civil rights law”, or in this case, a law focused on protecting individuals from sex-based discrimination in education.
In recent years, a shift of focus at a federal level has brought a greater level of application of Title IX against sexual harassment in educational settings.
Fishburn said harassment and discrimination can occur on all levels, and while many USU students do well in accepting others, there is still room for improvement.
“We all come with different cultural backgrounds and understandings of other individuals and their diversity,” she said. “I think that there are some elements where Utah State students are more accepting than students I’ve worked with at other institutions and other spaces where they aren’t.”.
The new AAEO director and Title IX coordinator said they feel confident to tackle the challenges to come, and stressed the importance of having an open dialogue between their office and the students.
“Our goal, always number one, is campus safety and making campus a place where everyone feels accepted and welcome and free of discrimination and sexual misconduct,” Adams-Perlac said. “The way that we do that is by understanding when there are problems and concerns.”
As Adams-Perlac and Renshaw take office, they intend to make use of campus resources to diminish levels of discrimination and continue to foster relationships between the AAEO, students and other campus organizations.
“We have the resources to be able to now make strides in what we’re doing,” Renshaw said. “It’s exciting.”