Amy Jayasuriya ‘26 and Leah Gorence ‘28
Editor-in-Chief and Social Media Manager
Since Oct. 2023, Scripps students have been left without an official on-campus Title IX and Civil Rights Coordinator, despite a committee of students and faculty members working to find and interview various candidates for the job. After more than a year of searching, the position is still yet to be filled by a permanent faculty member.
The search for a new coordinator began during the spring 2024 semester after the last permanent Title IX Coordinator, Sara Miller, resigned on Oct. 13, 2023. The committee’s search continued until the end of last semester and was made up of two student representatives and five faculty members.
Abbie Oh Arroyo ‘25 was one of the two student representatives on the hiring committee as part of her job as the Scripps Associated Students (SAS) Faculty-Staff Relations Chair.
Reflecting on her time on the committee, Oh Arroyo said, “We had some candidates, people who sent in resumes, CV letters and we reviewed them and then had meetings to go over them and see if we have any questions. We’d then have interviews with the candidates and then [everyone on the committee] would debrief.”
One of the main problems the committee ran into was a lack of applicants for the position. Throughout its year-long search for a new coordinator they only interviewed four people, none of which ended up being the right fit for the position.
In a statement to The Scripps Voice, Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students and member of the hiring committee, Dr. Sha Bradley, reflected upon the lack of the applicants.
“The biggest factor in hiring a non-interim coordinator is the industry itself. The job’s emotional and intellectual demands, along with constantly shifting federal regulations, have caused many qualified candidates to leave the field or become external consultants. Because of that, many schools are struggling to fill open Title IX-related openings,” she wrote.
Since Donald Trump’s return to office, Title IX rules have been rapidly changing as many colleges and universities across the country have to enforce new Title IX policies according to rules set by the former Education Secretary Betsy DeVoss in 2020. These changes include narrowing the definition of sexual harassment and which cases universities must address, as well as rescinding past protections for LGBTQ students.
As well as the low number of applicants, Oh Arroyo also discussed how many of the people that did apply for the position had a lack of experience needed for the job.
“The concerns of the faculty members and staff on the committee was lack of experience. Some candidates didn’t even consider the nuances of being at a [historically] women’s college and what that might entail and the cross consortium culture. There’s a lot of really nuanced situations in that sense, but also systemic [and] technical things when it comes down to knowledge and experience,” she said.
While the Title IX and Civil Rights Coordinator must have the knowledge and experience to handle cases related to gender and sexual discrimination, the role also involves enforcing Title VI, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.
While conducting interviews Oh Arroyo highlighted the importance of hiring a Title IX Coordinator that would be sensitive and able to handle Title VI issues as well.
“Something that I found very important to bring up [in interviews] was in terms of the civil rights coordinator and how they would act [because] when I was participating in these interviews, the Motley shutdown was happening,” Oh Arroyo said, referring to Scripps administration’s shutdown of the student-run coffeehouse from Oct. 5-Nov. 5 last semester over a Palestinian flag displayed on its wall. “So I brought up a lot of questions of how we can maintain the students’ rights to exercise their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”
Oh Arroyo continued by saying, “Ultimately, [the coordinator] has to be someone who advocates for students and [maintains] a culture of empathy and understands that this is a space for students.”
As the search for a permanent coordinator is still underway, students can still reach out to the Interim Title IX Coordinator, Alyssa-Rae McGinn, who began working at Scripps in Dec. 2023. However, McGinn has been working off-campus which has made it hard for students to get in contact with her.
“Personally I tried to file a Title IX case and I wasn’t able to get a meeting with the Title IX [coordinator]. That was concerning because apparently we do have someone who is serving as an interim coordinator. Last time I checked with them they were based in the East Coast so the communication wasn’t that great,” Oh Arroyo recalled.
Despite there being a number of resources students can turn to in lieu of an official Title IX Coordinator, such as the Scripps Advocates and the Deputy Title IX Coordinators, Oh Arroyo discussed how it was hard to take advantage of these resources when they aren’t prominently advertised to the student body.
Reflecting on her experience utilizing these resources throughout her time at Scripps she said, “With the role of advocates, we don’t know a lot about their resources. I remember [my] first year I didn’t know what the advocates were. I didn’t know about them until I reached out to a friend from another school because I was going through something I didn’t know who to talk to about. For me that was a big red flag. Even as a senior, I still see issues with this sort of information and spreading of knowledge when it comes to campus resources.”
While the search for a permanent coordinator stretches on for another semester, Oh Arroyo emphasized the importance of better advertising the resources available to Scripps Students such as the EmPOWER Center and the Scripps Advocates.
“I’m hoping that they find someone who’s on-campus so they can take care of us while they’re here. [And] hopefully during this interim time [admin] makes it known that Title IX right now isn’t functioning at its full capacity but [advertises] alternative avenues for students,” she concluded.
Photo Courtesy of Madeline Hertle ’27
