Beginning in January 2025, Trinity’s Title IX office implemented changes in assigning and addressing cases. In reaction to the high employee turnover rate and students’ difficulty navigating the Title IX office, the university merged aspects of the Title IX and Dean of Students’ offices.
One of these changes included hiring Ben Williams as both Associate Dean of Students and Deputy Title IX Coordinator. Williams explained that sharing the work of the Title IX office with Michaela Postell, director of Title IX compliance, has improved the efficiency and efficacy of the current Title IX system. He said that the new team plans to look at student feedback to review policies and create Title IX educational materials over the summer.
“I think Trinity just saw that there’s a critical need here,” Williams said. “You mentioned there was turnover in this area, and so now I think bringing in new energy, also having kind of both the coordinator and the deputy coordinator structure, which helps to kind of spread the different work out and [creates] continued investment, is critical.”
Williams also discussed what the changes entail. He explained that while Title IX itself will essentially remain the same, the Trinity office is working to streamline processes and make it easier for students to navigate Title IX systems.
“While the broader Title IX policy has not changed because that’s set by the federal government, I will say I do think that our approach is evolving and it’s just being more broadly supported,” Williams said.
Andrew Wells, Vice President of Student Affairs, described Ben Williams’s position and how it is unique in both the Title IX office and the Dean of Students office.
“The role he has allows him and ensures that he’s trained and prepared and authorized to support students when he meets with them who may disclose that they have experienced or are aware of something that falls in the Title IX realm and might require reporting or might warrant supportive measures,” Wells said.
An anonymous student who filed a Title IX complaint last year expressed their frustration with the lack of communication between departments, noting that whoever receives the Title IX report holds power around campus. The source expressed that this could put other students at risk.
“I’m pretty disappointed in why is there not some sort of inner communication between the departments coordinating this type of shit,” the student said.
However, overall, the source described their experience with the Title IX office last year as a positive one. They said that the office was thorough and moved quickly with their case.
“I got reached out to by this one lady, Kateeka Harris, and that was pretty much like my only contact at all with the Title IX office. She was the interim Title IX coordinator and I know she just left, but she was actually super helpful,” the student said. “We would, like, sit on Zoom calls, and she listened to me just go off. It was pretty good, and she always would resolve all the shit at the end of it.”
