‘How many other staff members and students have fallen victim to this?’

Content warning: This story includes mention of sexual harassment. The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673.

Jack, an employee at DePaul, was using a campus restroom in the DePaul Center in April 2019 when he suddenly noticed a phone peek under the urinal divider. When he realized that a student was attempting to take a picture of his genitals, he rushed out of the stall, confronting the student and calling Public Safety.

While Jack said that “no one was touched,” he said he still felt “disturbed” by the incident and went forward with reporting to the Title IX office.

“What also disturbed me about it was that [the alleged perpetrator] would go to such extreme lengths to get a dirty pic,” he said. “That’s creepy, you know what I’m saying? Like, how many other staff members and students have fallen victim to this?”

After reporting the incident, Jack maintained a five-month correspondence with DePaul’s Title IX office pertaining to the case, meeting with investigators several times throughout the summer of 2019. He expressed frustration about the “back and forth” nature of their communication.

“This office changes hands so much, no one wants to be there for some odd reason,” he said. 

Jack first corresponded with the office shortly after the bathroom incident. He spoke with Landis, the Title IX Coordinator at the time who unexpectedly left DePaul in May 2019. 

Following Landis’ departure, the office was manned by an interim Title IX Coordinator until September 2019. Another woman was then appointed coordinator on Sept. 9, before leaving the university in January 2020. Following her departure, former investigator Kathryn Statz stepped into the role, which she presently holds. Prior to Landis’ tenure as the coordinator, Tamburro — another former Title IX coordinator, who is now at Northwestern —  held the role. 

The Title IX Coordinator — now dubbed the director of Gender Equity — is primarily tasked with monitoring and overseeing implementation of Title IX across campus. This includes “training, education, communications and administration of complaint procedures for faculty, staff, students and third parties in the areas of sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual violence, sexual misconduct, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking,” according to DePaul’s website. 

Communications obtained by The DePaulia showed that between April and August 2019, Jack communicated and met with Title IX investigators. After keeping steady communication with the office throughout the summer, Jack was told via email that the investigation’s next steps would involve hearing from the Dean of Students Office

“I am not certain that this will be immediate but more likely to be sometime next week,” the July email from Statz, an investigator at the time, read.

 Nearly two weeks passed without word from either Title IX or the Dean of Students Office.

“I haven’t heard from anyone in the Dean of Student’s office,” Jack said in an email to Statz dated Aug 1. “This does not sit well with me.”

Later that day, Jack got an email from the Dean of Students Office letting him know that the office would be meeting with the accused student and requesting time to speak with Jack. After phone and email communication, the office asked Jack on Aug. 9 to “hold the morning of August 19” for a potential hearing date. 

“The reason I say potential hearing is we are waiting to confirm a panel for the hearing,” the email read.

Jack agreed — only for the hearing to be canceled due to “scheduling conflicts with the panelists,” according to the office. 

The individual who corresponded with Jack and previously worked in the Dean of Students office declined to comment on Jack’s case or answer general questions regarding timeliness of response.

Jack later reached out to Human Resources with his frustrations, and the hearing occurred on Oct. 11, 2019, six months after Jack made the report. He told The DePaulia he did not want the hearing to be delayed any further out of fear that he might cross paths with the offender while at work.

“Why is it like you’re protecting the perpetrator and it’s like giving me a hard time?” he said. “…Just imagine having to be in the same building as somebody who did something like that to you … And there’s no telling how many times you’ve got to cross paths because the Loop building is so small, and it’s only one building.”

Guidelines released in 2011 by the Department of Education said that if there are known instances of sexual misconduct, schools “[have] a responsibility to respond promptly and effectively” under Title IX.

“If a school knows or reasonably should know about sexual harassment or sexual violence that creates a hostile environment, the school must take immediate action to eliminate the sexual harassment or sexual violence, prevent its recurrence, and address its effects,” the policy reads.

In 2016, former President Donald Trump’s administration rescinded those guidelines, claiming they “led to the deprivation of rights for many students,” according to a Congressional Research Service report. Interim guidelines from the Department of Education in 2017 said there is “no fixed time frame” that constitutes the “prompt” investigation of sexual misconduct required under Title IX. Those guidelines have since been rescinded, too. Equally vague guidance on the definition of “prompt and effective” response was released in Oct. 2020; President Joe Biden’s administration has said it plans to review — and likely change — those guidelines. 

Title Ix Rights 201104 by DePaulia on Scribd

According to Statz, DePaul’s current Title IX coordinator, prior Title IX guidance expected cases to be completed within 60 days. Though the present regulations do not specify that time frame, Statz told The DePaulia that the office still uses the 60 day framework as an “objective measure” and has been “successful in completing most investigations well within that timeframe over the last year (2020-21)” — roughly the amount of time Statz has held the coordinator position. Previously, she was a university athletic director until 2017, when she became an investigator, and was designated as a deputy coordinator in 2013.

After the hearing, Jack said the Dean of Students office called him to inform him of the student’s punishment, telling him that a signifier of the incident would be placed on the students records, and that employers and other schools would be able to see it. He said he was also told that the student was banned from the bathroom in which the incident occured. Jack said that he received no documentation regarding the student’s punishment and that he felt it amounted to a “slap on the wrist.” 

“They said that [the harassment] is on the student’s record, so that whenever they try to apply for a job or go to another school, it’ll appear and they can make an inquiry into it,” he said. “But that just sounds like bullshit. Like, [there’s] no proof.”