Talking Stick - March/April 2017 - 37

T

he mood was part reunion
and part starting line, as
approximately five dozen
campus housing professionals came
together in Atlanta, Georgia, for
ACUHO-I's inaugural State of the
Profession event. There was a palpable
sense of anticipation to go along with
the usual welcoming smiles, hugs,
and handshakes. Part of that, certainly,
could be attributed to the start of a
new year and a new semester. The
other part was the recent election and
the uncertainty surrounding college
campuses under a new administration.
The changing political climate
would serve as the backdrop for the
three-day event. Everyone in the
room still held fresh memories of the
contentious campaign and the loud
debates it sparked on their campuses.
In the days since the inauguration,
other events - controversial
appointments, statements, and policies
- raised further concern. A handful
of participants arrived in Atlanta after
a weekend spent responding to the
excutive order banning travel from
seven majority Muslim countries, a
move that stood to affect an estimated
17,000 or more students on campuses
across the country. A week earlier,
attendees watched as millions of
women marched in solidarity in cities
across the globe.
It's safe to say that when this
event first was conceptualized, the
amount of change in the air could
not have been anticipated. However,
as Deb Schmidt-Rogers, ACUHO-I
president-elect and assistant vice
president and director of residence
life at Loyola University in Chicago,
Illinois, explained, the event "was not
directly about our work as housing
professionals. It was about our work
as educators and members of campus
leadership teams that must be aware of
the larger influences on our work and
on our institutions." As the program

overdue. This assertion was supported
by a 2007 U.S. Department of Justice
study, which reported that 20 percent
of college women were survivors of
sexual assault.

The event "was not
directly about our
work as housing
professionals. It
was about our work
as educators and
members of campus
leadership teams that
must be aware of the
larger influences on
our work and on our
institutions."
soon revealed, there were plenty of
influences to consider.

EMERGING ISSUES
Recent years have been a roller coaster
ride of legal issues for college and
university campuses. Illustrative of
this theme was the federal guidance
for how administrators should respond
to incidents of sexual violence on
campus.
In April 2011, the U.S. Department
of Education's Office for Civil Rights
issued a 20-page "Dear Colleague"
letter on Title IX. Along with
detailed directions for how college
administrators should respond to
instances of sexual assult was the
acknowledgement that a stronger
response to this issue was long

The effect of that letter was
sustained through the years by a
number of public and extensive Title
IX cases, the development of new
campus positions and procedures,
and highly visible public relations
campaigns such as It's On Us. Even
as the Obama administration was
packing to leave the White House,
reminders were issued to campuses
stating that sexual assault was an issue
that required their continued attention.
With a new administration in
place, though, the question soon
became whether or not the "Dear
Colleague" letter would maintain its
weight. In their presentation at the
State of the Profession event, Travis
York of the Association of Public &
Land-Grant Universities, Thomas
Harnisch of the American Association
of State Colleges and Universities,
and Emily Dickens of the Thurgood
Marshall College Fund suggested that,
though they did not expect the current
administration to continue the efforts
of the Obama White House, that didn't
mean the issue of sexual assault would
disappear from campuses.
Later, in a Columbus Dispatch
article, Scott Jaschik, editor of the
Inside Higher Ed website, said,
"Republicans have widely criticized
the 'Dear Colleague' letter. People
expect that it'll be replaced. If that
happens, it'll be a really big deal
because so many colleges switched
their policies." He went on to say that
budget restrictions also could hinder
the Office for Civil Rights, adding, "It
doesn't matter what the law is if you
have nobody to enforce it."
In the end, the panel's advice was
that, even if the federal landscape is

MARCH + APRIL 2017

37
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