Utilizing NASPA’s Resources to Facilitate a Culture of Respect at Your Institution

The recent changes to Title IX regulations have left many angry, sad, and frustrated with what the new rules mean for student affairs professionals and institutions of higher education. While several organizations attempted to file lawsuits, colleges and universities across the United States were left with the requirement to ensure their policies and processes were compliant with these new regulations by the August 14th deadline. Thankfully NASPA offers a number of resources to institutions currently making these changes, such as the recently completed new Title IX Certificate Program and a short course focused on The Use of Restorative Justice in Sexual Misconduct Cases.

NASPA’s Culture of Respect initiative provides institutions of higher education with the tools necessary to move beyond compliance and to support them in creating a culture that ends campus sexual violence. Some of the many options available to schools include the prevention programming matrix, the Foundations online course, and the newly created Title IX Technical Assistance Project (T9TAP) designed specifically around the new Title IX regulations.

The most comprehensive of Culture of Respect’s tools, however, is the Collective: an ambitious two-year program that brings together institutions of higher education who are dedicated to ending campus sexual violence and guides them through a rigorous process of self-assessment and targeted organizational change. Members of the Collective, who are nearing 120 institutions of higher education and even some K-12 systems, participate in a cohort-based model of assessment, action planning, connection, and collaboration based explicitly in research and evidence-based practice. Some of the key benefits to joining the Collective are outlined below:

• The Collective program and process facilitates the creation and maintenance of an effective multi-stakeholder sexual violence prevention and response team. Research supports the Collective’s approach to enhancing knowledge, effectively engaging students, and removing hierarchical structures for these teams while promoting positive working relationships amongst campus stakeholders and encouraging an overall culture of respect at institutions of higher education.

• Establishing a culture of assessment is a strategy recommended widely within the field of student affairs and is a requirement under the CAS Standards for Sexual Violence-Related Programs and Services. The CORE Blueprint and CORE Evaluation are key components of the Collective and all members are supported through the facilitation of the CORE Evaluation assessment, followed by a robust and detailed report summarizing the institution’s results.

• We know that having well-trained staff is vital to building an effective prevention infrastructure on a college or university campus. Members of the Collective have access to a series of online professional development webinars and regular opportunities for collaboration and learning via virtual roundtables, free registrations to national conferences, and connection to a Collective-specific listserv. 

• Ninety-two percent of participants from the first two cohorts of the program saw an increase in required prevention programming for undergraduate students as a result of their participation in the Collective. Participation in the Collective has resulted in positive outcomes for many institutions, as detailed in our report exploring the results seen in the 68 schools that took part in the first two cohorts of the program..

These are just some of the many benefits to joining the Collective. Culture of Respect is currently recruiting for members to join Cohort 5 and we invite you to learn more by visiting our website or watching our information session. Not sure if your institution is ready? Review our Campus Readiness Assessment and explore our FAQ. Still have questions? Send an email to me at jhenkle@naspa.org and I’ll be happy to connect with you!