Meredith Raimondo Appointed Special Assistant to the President

Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Meredith Raimondo has been named Special Assistant to the President for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion.  In this position, which emerged from an ongoing process to review campus sexual misconduct policy and Title IX compliance, she'll work with the campus community to implement the new sexual misconduct policy and further enhance institutional planning on diversity and inclusion.

Raimondo's position was developed as a result of conversations that happened on campus over the past 18 months about how best to meet the college’s obligation to respond to allegations of gender‐ and sex-based discrimination and harassment in compliance with Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Clery Act, and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act of 2013 (SaVE).

This is the latest development in Oberlin's ongoing commitment to supporting survivors of sexual abuse. In fall 2012, Oberlin launched the Sexual Offense Policy Task Force, which conducted an exhaustive review of Oberlin's Sexual Offense Policy and its response to reports of sexual offense and, in May, approved a new sexual misconduct policy for the college.

This past year has also seen increased scrutiny by federal and state governments into institutions’ handling of sexual abuse reports.  In March of 2013, President Obama signed SaVE  into law, which increases the types of sexual abuse schools are required to report, requires them to improve their complaint process, and provides federal resources to improve their procedures. This January, he created the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, which published a thorough set of guidelines for colleges to prevent and respond to sexual assault, as well as instructions for students on what to do if their institutions fail to respond appropriately. In May, the Department of Education announced that it was going to investigate how Title IX complaints were handled at 55 different colleges from across the country.

"The current national conversation about addressing sexual misconduct on college campuses is one example of the ways in which equity issues are deeply connected to educational opportunity," says Raimondo. "I'm proud to be at a campus taking responsible and proactive steps on these issues."