Report to School

How does it work?

To report an incident of sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact, you can connect with Central College Title IX Coordinator by phone, email, or in-person.

Peggy Fitch
Title IX Coordinator and Professor Emeritus of Psychology
Roe Center 231D
Central College, Box 023
(641) 628-5249
[email protected]

You can download a record form to your personal device to document what happened and bring that documentation to help you make a report in-person.

All faculty and staff, as well as students who receive payment for leadership roles and/or work study are considered “Responsible Employees” and are required to share reports of sexual and relationship misconduct with the Title IX Coordinator. Students who are not employees of the college are encouraged to promote safety on campus by sharing any reports they receive about sexual and relationship misconduct with the Title IX Coordinator, as well.

Please note that student RAs are Responsible Employees. They are trained to listen carefully, provide immediate support, and accompany you to report what happened. If you disclose sexual assault to your RA, they are required to inform the Title IX Coordinator. They can also help you report directly to the Title IX Coordinator.

Counselors and the college chaplain are confidential resources; as such, they cannot report to college officials any experiences about sexual and/or relationship misconduct you share with them in the privacy of a counseling session without your informed consent. If you want the college to investigate and/or want to use the student conduct system, you must make an official report to the Title IX Coordinator or other Responsible Employee. The counselors and the chaplain can accompany you during this process.

To speak with someone confidentially, contact:

Counseling Services
You can schedule an appointment to see a counselor by calling 641-628-5656. Evening appointments are available by appointment when necessary. Counseling services are not available on-campus during the summer. The counseling services office is located on the second floor of the Maytag Student Center / Student Development Suite.

College Chaplain
You can schedule an appointment to speak confidentially with Chaplain Joel Brummel by calling 641-628-7648 or emailing [email protected].

What happens after I report?

You will be contacted by the Central College Title IX Coordinator within two business days of your report.

You will be invited to meet with Title IX in their office. The Title IX Coordinator is only person involved unless you choose to have someone else involved. You can bring anyone you wish to your meeting for support. If you want support but do not have a specific person in mind, Title IX can connect you with an advocate who can accompany you to all meetings.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss;

Your safety and wellbeing
Support services and resources
The Sexual & Relationship Misconduct Policy and your options
- Speak with someone confidentially
- Report and request confidentiality
- Report and not bring charges against the perpetrator
- Report with a formal complaint against the perpetrator
- Report to the Police Department
Details of the incident - the when, where, who, and what
Accommodations, such as no-contact order or academic/housing arrangements

If you choose to either (a) Report and request confidentiality, or (b) Report and not bring charges against the perpetrator, Central College will proceed with an investigation with minimal or no involvement from you.

Central College is obligated to investigate any reports to the best of their ability and provide a safe environment for all. If you do not want Central College to proceed with an investigation, your wishes will be weighed against many factors, including; the seriousness of the incident, your age, if there have been other incidents involving the same perpetrator, whether the incident involved threats of future harm, whether the perpetrator used force or coercion, including alcohol or drugs, and whether the school has other methods for obtaining evidence (such as security cameras or physical evidence).

Note:
If the incident you are reporting happened before you were a Central College student, the process may be different. The primary focus would be to support you and provide any accommodations that would promote your success and healing. If the identified perpetrator is not affiliated with the school, Central College will still attempt to investigate. The school may be able to help apply sanctions to the perpetrator such as no readmission (if they were previously a Central student), no rehire (if they were previously a Central employee), or a no trespass/contact order.

Who is involved?

Reports of sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact are directed to the Title IX Coordinator.

If you report anything that makes the Title IX Coordinator feel like the safety of you or others is in jeopardy, information needed to protect you or the campus community may be shared with the Dean of Students, Assistant Dean for Residence Life & Student Safety, and Safety Officers.

The process is designed to protect the privacy of all; as such, as few people as possible are involved. If Central College pursues an investigation, The Title IX Coordinator assigns two members a pool of trained administrators/faculty to conduct the investigation; the Dean of Students and Director of Human Resources are first options.

You will not have to interact with the perpetrator. You will be interviewed separately as part of the investigation.

Your parents will not be informed unless you tell them. Central College's primary relationship is to the student and not to the parent. College officials will inform your parents if you request for them to do so, or in a life-threatening situation.

What is an investigation?

Central College is obligated to investigate any reports to the best of our ability and to provide a safe, nondiscriminatory environment for all. As such, any report you provide to the school will be investigated. If you do not wish for this to happen, you can speak to someone confidentially. If you do not want to take part in an investigation, Central College will proceed with minimal or no involvement from you.

The purpose of the investigation is to gather evidence to determine whether a violation of Central College’s Sexual & Relationship Misconduct Policy occurred. When an investigation begins, you will be offered an advocate to help you navigate the process. An advocate is a college employee who is knowledgeable about the conduct process and investigation. They are available to provide information on the process and may be present during the investigation and any pre-investigation and post-investigation meetings. Those qualifying as advocates include resident advisors, residence life Area Coordinators, and other campus professionals.

The Title IX Coordinator will assign two investigators to take point on the investigation. These people are trained on the specifics and sensitivity of Title IX and the Sexual & Relationship Misconduct Policy. Before the investigation begins, the Title IX Coordinator will send a letter to both you and the perpetrator that includes your name, the name of the perpetrator, a brief description of the policy violation, and details about the investigation that will follow.

Throughout the investigation, you will not have to interact with the perpetrator. You will each be interviewed separately as part of the process.

During the investigation, both you and the perpetrator:

Will be allowed to present your version of events to the investigators and to provide any supporting evidence.
May be accompanied in your interviews by a silent representative, support person, or Central College advocate.
Will be allowed to identify witnesses, all of whom will be interviewed by the investigators absent a compelling reason why such an interview cannot take place.
Will be notified of the witnesses identified by the other party and be given an opportunity to comment on those witnesses and identify rebuttal witnesses, unless safety considerations prevent such disclosure.
Will be given an opportunity to review all tangible evidence submitted or identified by the other party and given an opportunity to comment on that evidence, unless safety considerations prevent such disclosure.

All investigations will be conducted as discreetly as possible. All witness interviews will be audio recorded, and all such recordings shall at all times remain the property of the College. Investigators are encouraged to confer with the Title IX Coordinator throughout the process in an effort to ensure compliance with the outlined processes. Individuals making good faith allegations of Sexual or Relationship Misconduct and those participating in such investigations will not be subjected to retaliation.

In most cases, the investigation will be concluded within sixty days after the official report. However, if circumstances exist that make this not possible, you will be notified of a different time-frame.

At the conclusion of the investigation, the investigators will determine whether a Preponderance of the Evidence supports a finding that the policy was violated.

If Central College does not determine that a policy violation occurred, that does not mean that a sexual assault did not happen. It means that the investigation did not find a “preponderance of evidence.” This standard of evidence means that an investigation must determine whether a policy violation is “more likely than not” to have occurred or 51% likely to have occurred. The outcome of an investigation will not always be representative of what actually happened, and a finding of no violation does not change what happened to you.

If a policy violation is found as a part of the investigation, the sanctions will be based on the nature of the incident, any prior conduct violations, sanctions resulting from prior, similar cases, and any other relevant facts. Possible sanctions include:

Probation
Suspension (removal from Central College for a minimum, designated length of time)
Expulsion (permanent removal from Central College)
Restitution
Loss of privileges

Both you and the perpetrator have the right to appeal the outcome of the investigation. To do this, you’ll need to submit written notice to the Title IX Coordinator within 5 calendar days of the decision. The basis for the appeal must be one of the four following reasons:

To consider new information that was not available during the time of the investigation
To assess whether the written procedures were followed by Central College
To decide if the sanctions were disproportionate to the policy violation
To assess whether bias on behalf the investigators impacted the investigation

Learn more about the investigation & appeals process in Central College’s Sexual & Relationship Misconduct Policy.