By Annie Russell
CSU Bakersfield is no stranger to criminal activity on and off campus including sexual assault. To enforce that all new and continuing students are educated on the issue CSUB is requiring students to take the online student Title IX training course created by Student Success “Not Anymore.”
Title IX ensures that students are not discriminated against on the basis of sex, gender, or sexual orientation in activities and educational programs operated by CSUB. Title IX covers: sexual harassment, sexual discrimination, gender discrimination, stalking, domestic violence, rape, sexual assault and gender equity in athletics.
Now required by the state and federal legal mandate, all CSU’s must have students that are enrolled complete a sexual violence prevention training program each academic year.
“Last year we launched it, it was just freshmen. Just first year students and first year transfer students. This year were doing training for everybody on campus,” Title IX Coordinator Claudia Catota said.
The online training course must be completed by October 1, 2016 or a hold will be placed on student’s accounts who fail to comply. The academic hold will also prevent students from registering for classes for the following semester.
An email was sent in the beginning of July to all students on campus with the link and login code to the course. For those who might have not received the email or mistakenly deleted the email are to contact the Title IX office.
“We can certainly look into sending a reminder, something that we definitely did discuss,” said Catota.
First time takers are required to complete the hour long training module that holds a background survey on Title IX, gender identification, experience and issues regarding Title IX. Afterward, students will view several training module videos and scenarios that is specific to the campus and its resources. To complete the course students must pass the post exam with an 80 percent or higher and are allowed to take the exam multiple times.
“I think it’s good, because a lot of students don’t know what is considered harassment,” said senior human biology major Ariana Abarca. “Its lengthy but has a good intention.”
Students who took the hour long course last year will only be required to take a 30 minute refresher that summarizes over the hour long course.
“The reason why we have implemented these training programs on our campus or this online training program is the CSU issued an executive order 1095,” Catota said. One of their requirements is that all CSU implement a training for all students.
Accommodations can be requested if students prefer to take the course in person, but they will need to provide their student ID to be counted as taking the course.
“All they would need to do is just contact [email protected] to request an accommodation,” Catota said.
“Over the past two years students have definitely have become more aware of what Title IX is, perhaps not identifying it specifically what title IX is, but knowing that the resources are here on campus and I think that’s really what the goal of the training is.” Catota said.