Dear UMBC Community,
As many of you know, in April 2024, UMBC entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to improve and expand upon our work to prevent and respond to reports of sexual misconduct and sex discrimination under Title IX. The agreement followed a lengthy investigation by the DOJ that found systemic failures in the university’s Title IX compliance between 2015 and 2020.
The agreement, which will remain in effect through the 2028 – 29 academic year, commits us to taking many steps to strengthen our Title IX office and its work, to provide specific support for student-athletes and the Athletics Department, to expand training for all members of the community, and to provide financial relief to certain individuals, as determined and directed by the DOJ.
We have made significant progress toward all of these aims, building on work that we began together in 2022, well before the DOJ released its findings. Today, as we approach the one-year mark in our response to the agreement, we wanted to share with you a detailed report on that progress, which is available online. To summarize the work briefly:
- We have hired several new staff members in the Office of Equity and Civil Rights, including the inaugural assistant vice president for equity and civil rights and Title IX coordinator;
- We have made meaningful improvements in our policies and protocols related to Title IX compliance, including the development of a new university Title IX policy;
- We have launched new, improved mandatory training for all students and all employees;
- We have fulfilled the provision for financial relief for individuals as determined by the DOJ.
As president, I am deeply grateful for the tireless efforts of everyone involved in this response, most especially my co-author on this message, Tanyka Barber, our vice president for Institutional Equity and chief diversity officer. The work she is leading, the team she has built, and the collaboration she is fostering across campus are fundamentally transforming our efforts to prevent and respond to sex discrimination and harassment. We are also grateful for the work of the Office of Equity and Civil Rights staff, whose dedication to this work is evident every day.
Our commitment in this work is not only to the agreement, but, more importantly, to all of you, and to all who will join this community in the years to come. Nothing is more important than your well-being, and we will continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards of care, safety, integrity, and accountability.
Thank you all for your ongoing support of this work and your dedication to UMBC.
Sincerely,
President Valerie Sheares Ashby
Tanyka M. Barber, Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer
