On Monday, Sept. 30, the University of Maine Title IX Services hosted its first Taco Tuesday of the year, a recurring event set to take place on the first Tuesday of November. Apart from the tasty tacos catered by local Mexican restaurant, Tacorita, the event offers students a chance to learn more about what the Title IX organization is and what services it provides to students.
Seeking more information myself, I spoke to Quie Siegfried, Graduate Student Assistant, who was at her post during the low-key event. The name “Title IX Services” refers to the eponymous 1972 federal law that prohibited sex discrimination in educational institutions, spurring the creation of boards in said institutions to uphold its compliance. With the Supreme Court clarifying in the 1980s and ‘90s that sexual harassment and assault constitute discrimination, Title IX boards now aim to prevent such offences and offer resources to those affected.
The University’s Title IX agency offers aid to those affected by sex discrimination, dating violence, assault and stalking and breastfeeding assistance for students with young infants. Taco Tuesday and other such events aim to spread the word about the multiple reporting options (anonymous and otherwise) through which students can obtain recourse and accommodations, such as no-contact orders.
For about two years now, those wishing to volunteer for Title IX can do so via the Peer Ambassador program. Ambassadors assist with the organization of events like Taco Tuesday, and in offering help to students elsewhere on campus who may in some cases be too traumatized or intimidated to report to the office.
One thing I was curious about was the true extent of sexual abuse issues on campus. In response to my question about the most common type of incident reported to the agency, Quie responded that the Clery Act mandated the release of an annual report detailing, among other things, all Title IX reportable incidents on campus, and that it just so happened to be scheduled for release tomorrow (Oct. 1) — the full 2024 report can be found in the “Clery Annual Security and Fire Safety Report” section of the UMPD website.
I also wondered about the outcome of the majority of reports made to Title IX, and for this, there is no one answer. The organization works with the victim to decide what sanctions are most appropriate.
“When a report gets made,” said Quie, “Cam [Cameron McDonnell, Deputy Coordinator] will reach out, and they’ll have a conversation about what the options are, [and] what they’d like to do, so it really just depends.” She also mentioned that no-contact orders are the only form of sanction Title IX deals with personally, with only UMPD having the jurisdiction to impose anything beyond that. Jurisdictional limits do not, however, prevent Title IX from assisting with cases of abuse committed outside the boundaries of campus if all parties involved were UMaine students.
The event wasn’t empty, but not busy either, and there were plenty of tacos to go around; opportunities to interview other students about Title IX were therefore limited, with one student responding that they hadn’t volunteered with or made use of Title IX services in the past and that they had decided to come “just for the tacos” — as good a reason as any, I’m sure we can all agree.
Additional events that Title IX plans to put on include, but are not limited to, “Chalk About It” (a sidewalk chalk drawing session) and other events that will be announced on their Instagram, @umaine_titleix, and flyers posted around campus.
