On May 12 the Office for Equity and Diversity appointed Malorie Porter as the Title IX compliance officer and senior deputy Title IX coordinator. Porter will serve as the first compliance officer of East Carolina University.

This brand new position is responsible for making sure that ECU is fully compliant to all Title IX policies and law. Porter will be responsible for coordinating efforts and practices for responding to reports of sexual assault, sexual discrimination and other forms of sexual misconduct. In addition to overseeing cases involving these misconducts, she will be developing and implementing a Title IX compliance plan for the university.

“The position was created to demonstrate the university’s commitment to Title IX and to making sure that we are fully compliant to Title IX, in all the ways that you can be in prevention and training and awareness programs in the community,” said Porter. “It's beneficial to have a full time person dedicated to that.”    

Porter said that she feels that ECU as a university is handling Title IX compliance well already, and that ECU is already on the forefront of this field. She said that she believes that ECU has a dedicated team and staff, as well as campus partners who are in the position to make improvements to the policies she plans to implement.

“I would say that East Carolina University has a solid effort in place and I know of a number of campus partners who are very dedicated to this kind of work,” said Porter.

Porter said that the most important thing is for students to be aware of the resources available to them and to know that there are people prepared to help them in any situation. According to Porter one of her priorities in this new position is to streamline this message and get it out to students and faculty across the campus.

Porter also said that she encourages any input from students and faculty about the practices and policies in place. She said that she thinks such input is important to understanding the student’s perspective and to making sure that the Office of Equity and Diversity is performing to their maximum capacity.

“We are continuously working to improve what we have and create the best practices, and if people feel that they have suggestions that they’d like us to consider, we definitely value the student’s perspective,” said Porter. “Anytime that people want to give us their input, we find that to be valuable and we want them to feel free to do that and feel comfortable coming to us and letting us know what their thoughts and opinions are.”

Porter said that the article published just over two weeks before her recruitment as compliance officer questioning ECU’s handling of sexual misconduct cases and Title IX compliance is a great example of student input.

“I think that the article did highlight the student’s perspective and their view,” said Porter. “I think all that kind of information is valuable to us for improving and adapting our practices for both students and practices.”

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