Title IX Advisors

Policies and Procedure

All parties are entitled to an advisor of their choice to guide and accompany them throughout the campus resolution process. The advisor may be a friend, mentor, family member, attorney or any other supporter a party chooses to advise them who is both eligible and available. People who will be called as witnesses may not serve as advisors. The college maintains a pool of trained (non-attorney) advisors who are available to the parties. The parties may choose advisors from outside the pool, but those advisors may not have the same level of insight and training on the campus process as those trained by the college. Advisors from outside the pool are not eligible to be trained by the college.

The parties are entitled to be accompanied by their advisor in all meetings and interviews at which the party is present, including intake, interviews and appeals. Advisors should help their advisees prepare for each meeting and are expected to advise ethically, with integrity and in good faith. The college cannot guarantee equal advisory rights, meaning that if one party selects an advisor who is an attorney, but the other party does not or cannot afford an attorney, the college is not obligated to provide one.

All advisors are subject to the same campus rules, whether they are attorneys or not. Advisors may not present on behalf of their advisee in a meeting, interview or appeal and should request or wait for a break in the proceeding if they wish to interact with campus officials. Advisors may confer quietly with their advisees as necessary as long as they do not disrupt the process. For longer or more involved discussions, the parties and their advisors should ask for breaks or step out of meetings to allow for private conversation. Advisors will typically be given a timely opportunity to meet in advance of any interview or hearing with the administrative officials conducting that interview or meeting. This pre-meeting will allow advisors to clarify any questions they may have and allows the college an opportunity to clarify the role the advisor is expected to take.

Advisors are expected to refrain from interference with the college investigation and resolution. Any advisor who steps out of his or her role in any meeting under the campus resolution process will be warned once and only once. If the advisor continues to disrupt or otherwise fails to respect the limits of the advisor role, the advisor will be asked to leave the meeting. When an advisor is removed from a meeting, that meeting will typically continue without the advisor present. Subsequently, the Title IX/Equity/AA/ADA/504 coordinator will determine whether the advisor may be reinstated or replaced by a different advisor, or whether the party will forfeit the right to an advisor for the remainder of the resolution process.

Advisors are expected to maintain the privacy of the information shared with them by the college. This information may not be shared with third parties, disclosed publicly or used for purposes not explicitly authorized by the college. The parties are not otherwise restricted from discussing and sharing information relating to allegations with others who may support them or assist them in preparing and presenting. The college may seek to restrict the role of any advisor who does not respect the sensitive nature of the process or who fails to abide by the college’s privacy expectations.

The college expects an advisor to adjust their schedule to allow them to attend college meetings when scheduled. The college does not typically change scheduled meetings to accommodate an advisor’s inability to attend. The college will, however make provisions to allow an advisor who cannot attend in person to attend a meeting by telephone, video and/or virtual meeting technologies as may be convenient and available.

A party may elect to change advisors during the process.

Where an employee is a member of a union and entitled to a union representative in the process, that employee may be accompanied by the union representative as their advisor.

The parties must advise the investigators of the identity of their advisor at least one business day before the date of their first meeting with investigators (or as soon as possible if a more expeditious meeting is necessary or desired). The parties must provide subsequent timely notice to the investigators if they change advisors at any time.