NCHERM and ACPA Announce Three Institutes on Responding to Campus Sexual Violence

MALVERN, Pa., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Center for Higher Education Risk Management (NCHERM) and College Student Educators International (ACPA) announce their collaborative sponsorship of three national Institutes on Responding to Campus Sexual Misconduct to be held in July of 2010 at sites on the East Coast, in the Midwest and on the West Coast.

Today, colleges and universities are facing an unprecedented onslaught of litigation, fierce media coverage and deeper scrutiny through government investigations. Sometimes, the allegations and media coverage are unfair, and sometimes, colleges and universities could do a better job in addressing campus sexual misconduct. These Institutes are about rising to the challenge, learning better methods, and improving campus approaches. These landmark two-day Institutes are designed to provide comprehensive training for college and university administrators, hearing boards, conduct administrators, appeals officers, sexual harassment grievance officers, and legal counsel.

NCHERM has been a national leader for ten years on issues of campus sexual misconduct. These Institutes are designed to elevate the dialogue across the country about how colleges and universities can more effectively respond to campus sexual misconduct, including harassment and sexual assault. NCHERM Managing Partner Brett A. Sokolow, Esq., explained, "We have presented standing-room-only sessions on campus sexual misconduct at a number of conferences over the past year, and the need for deeper and more comprehensive training is clear. We wanted to provide our colleagues in higher education with a thorough overview of the legal and procedural issues that campuses are facing today. A two-day Institute will allow us to really take this issue to a new level of national competence, excellence and accountability."

Vernon A. Wall, Director of Educational Programs & Publications at ACPA, said, "ACPA is proud to partner with NCHERM in providing this outstanding resource for campus administrators and policy makers who are ready to expand the dialogue around campus sexual misconduct and provide timely and effective interventions for the campus community."

Three of the foremost nationally known experts on this subject, NCHERM partners Brett A. Sokolow, Saundra K. Schuster and W. Scott Lewis, will serve as Institute Faculty. The Institutes have been designed to provide each attendee with the following five learning outcomes:

• Gain an understanding of the Title IX, negligence law, FERPA and Clery Act-based legal framework that provides the underpinning of effective and compliant campus sexual misconduct remedial structures;
• Comprehensively understand the best practices for campus sexual misconduct policy development;
• Learn the essential elements and recommended best practices for conduct procedures and protocols on sexual misconduct;
• Gain knowledge of how to effectively manage the conduct proceedings in sexual misconduct cases from intake to investigation to appeal;
• Explore the substance of what training should be provided to hearing panels for these types of challenging hearings.

All three institutes will be held during the month of July. Providing this training opportunity during the summer gives administrators time to focus, and allows institutions to be well-prepared as they enter the fall term.

The Institutes will be held at:

• Drew University in Madison, NJ on July 20th and 21st;
• Loyola University Chicago on July 26th and 27th;
• Stanford University on July 29th and 30th

NCHERM will provide a follow-up series of sexual misconduct investigation training events for administrators and campus law enforcement throughout the 2010 fall semester.

For more information, please visit http://www.ncherm.org or contact NCHERM Client Relations Coordinator Samantha Dutill at (610) 993-0229 or [email protected]

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SOURCE National Center for Higher Education Risk Management