Dartmouth Launches Mandatory Sexual Violence Prevention Training

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Title IX office asks the College community members to complete the online course by March 13.

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Baker Tower on the Dartmouth campus
(Photo by Eli Burakian ’00)
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As part of the Campus Climate and Culture Initiative (C3I) announced by President Philip J. Hanlon ’77 on Jan. 3, the College has launched an online training program called “Bridges: Building a Supportive Community,” a mandatory Title IX sexual violence prevention course for all Dartmouth faculty, staff, and post-doctoral scholars.

An email went to 6,600 members of the Dartmouth community last week, asking them to complete the required training. The course offers a widely tested sexual harassment and violence prevention training curriculum that has been customized to incorporate Dartmouth-specific policies and procedures, says Kristi Clemens, Dartmouth’s Title IX coordinator and Clery Act compliance officer.

“This training will provide the campus with a common language and a common baseline for understanding these issues,” says Clemens. “Then we can talk about the bigger culture and climate issues that might be happening on our campus.” 

In the campus-wide email, Clemens asked members of the Dartmouth community to follow a link and log on with a NetID. All faculty, staff, and postdoctoral scholars must complete the interactive module by March 13. The Bridges session will take most people 45 minutes to an hour to complete and community members can work through the training module in more than one session if they choose, she says. 

This module will be followed by another online training program for graduate and professional students, which is still under development.

An online sexual violence prevention training module, called Sexual Assault Prevention for Undergraduates, or SAP-G, has been in place for all matriculating undergraduates since 2014. This training module, as well as Bridges, is provided by EverFi/LawRoom. Dartmouth has partnered with the digital institutional training firm EverFi since 2002 for a variety of training materials developed specifically for higher education. 

Any faculty, staff, or postdoctoral scholar who did not receive the email should email the Title IX office at titleix@dartmouth.edu. For help with technical problems in accessing the training, Information Technology Services has created an online information page.

Bridges consists of interactive slides and short videos providing education on what constitutes sexual misconduct, from verbal sexual harassment to sexual violence. It includes information and interactive scenarios aimed at ensuring that employees know how to identify and report incidents to College officials. 

“Building a safe, welcoming, and inclusive campus is the responsibility of the entire community. I thank you in advance for the time you will take today and in the future in support of this important endeavor,” Clemens writes in the Bridges module introduction.

C3I is a set of actions aimed at creating a learning environment free from sexual harassment and the abuse of power. The initiative includes new programs as well as programs that have been in the works for some time, and is organized into five categories—campus climate, academic and professional development, recruitment, resources, and mandatory reporting.

In addition to the mandatory online training program, the initiatives include review of all academic departments; creation of a single policy to address sexual misconduct for faculty, staff, and students; and creation of research advisory committees for all graduate programs to ensure that graduate students have access to multiple advisers. The initiative will also expand capacity in the Title IX office, increase mental health resources, and provide additional resources for the hiring of faculty who are underrepresented in their fields. An independent external advisory committee will evaluate Dartmouth’s progress on the C3I programs.

Program administrators urge members of the extended Dartmouth community to provide input on the C3I initiative, at C3I@dartmouth.edu, and to support implementation of its programs. Further detail about C3I can be found on the initiative’s website.

William Platt can be reached at william.c.platt@dartmouth.edu.

Bill Platt