By Abigail Vidals
Eight Title IX complaints were reported at Peninsula College in the 2016-2017 school-year.
“It doesn’t have to be an incident that happens on campus, it can be off campus. In an apartment building, at a party. They just need to be associated with the college,” according to Krista Francis, the Title IX coordinator.
Title IX prohibits any form of discrimination based on sex, including sexual harassment.
These reports are looked into by Francis, who calls on a team of trained investigators when necessary.
Of last year’s reports, five were from women, three from men. Only one, a report of dating violence, was determined to be a Title IX violation.
Student Services sends an email to new students every quarter, offering a Campus Clarity module, which trains students on the prevention of sexual assault, stalking, rape, acquaintance rape, and domestic violence.
“The subject is coming up a lot more, like throughout the whole country, especially at colleges, because there have been a lot of incidents” said PC student Gretchen Sotebeer, age 20. She received the email when she first enrolled in 2016.
According to the email, all students are required to complete the training.
Khadijah Othman, age 19, enrolled in Spring, 2017, did not receive the email.
“I think the College should be sending the email to all students… Then it’s up to the individuals to whether he or she wants to receive the information,” stated by Othman.
A number of other students also reported not having received the notification.
Jack Huls, vice president of Student Services, said glitches in the system would have to be looked into.
“For the future, we are going to be moving to a new platform for all of our student services, all of our business services, called Peoplesoft, and there is a student module in there.” said Huls.