Ohio State has hired a new coordinator for Title IX and Clery Act compliance to its year-old Office of Compliance and Integrity.
Andrea Goldblum first joined the university in 2005 as the director of Student Conduct before taking her new role, with a base salary of $97,500, in March.
Title IX, passed in 1972, states, “No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The federal Clery Act, passed in 1990, requires publicly funded universities to disclose crime statistics in an annual report, provide timely crime alerts and maintain a daily crime log.
Goldblum said she is excited for the changes in her responsibilities.
“I’m interested in working in a systemic perspective. So rather than one case at a time, working on it systemically for the institution,” Goldblum said.
Goldblum has held a variety of positions at the university level, including assistant dean of students, chief housing officer and director of sexual harassment policy, as well as serving as an adjunct faculty member in English.
For OSU students who need answers about sexual violence, Goldblum said she wants to remain a resource.
“If people don’t know where to go, they can come to me and I can make sure that they get treated with equity and they get the services they need,” Goldblum said.
She said the variety of positions has given her a breadth of experience.
“It gives me the ability to see the big picture from a lot of perspectives,” Goldblum said.
Besides working as an administrator, Goldblum is also a student at OSU’s Moritz College of Law and expects to graduate in spring 2015.
“It’s very busy. In kind of a strange, funny way, taking college classes is a fun part of my day,” Goldblum said. “I’m much older than most of my classmates, so that’s interesting too.”
In her new role within OSU’s Office of Compliance and Integrity, which was established in February 2012, Goldblum said OSU’s size provides her with the biggest challenge.
“It’s just such a big place. I think it’s going to take time, for instance, to take a campus-wide assessment,” Goldblum said. “It’s much simpler to do at a small school than it is at a very large school.”
Goldblum said OSU might have seen an increase in reported sex crimes because students and faculty are more aware of their resources.
“More people feel comfortable coming forward and know that the university takes reports very seriously but that we’re also going to deal with situations fairly,” Goldblum said.
According to a report from OSU’s Department of Public Safety, there were seven on-campus sex offenses in OSU facilities in 2010 and 19 in 2011. A report for 2012 has yet to be published, but the Department of Public Safety’s daily log shows 17.
“We’ve worked very hard at the university to create an atmosphere where if there is an incident that people feel comfortable coming forward,” said Student Life spokesman Dave Isaacs. “It is reasonable that when people feel more comfortable there would be more reports coming to light.”
Gates Garrity-Rokous, the university’s chief compliance officer, said in a release he was “delighted” to have Goldblum joining the staff.
“Through her deep experience, expertise and commitment to the mission of the university, Andrea will work to ensure that all members of our community feel secure to teach, learn and work in an equitable environment free of sexual harassment, intimidation and violence,” Garrity-Rokous said.
Isaacs said the people involved in Student Life are pleased to continue working with Goldblum.
“We will still be relying on her and working with her, and we view that as a good thing,” Isaacs said.
Goldblum earned her bachelor’s degree in secondary education at the University of Miami (Florida) and her master’s in higher education administration at the University of Michigan.