Title IX hosts educational outreach event

Hellen Akinyi
Staff Writer

The Office of Equal Opportunity, which is well known as Title IX office, hosted an educational outreach on campus to educate students more on what they do.

This was a first of many trainings they hoping to have as a way of spreading word about their office and what they do. They focus more on offering training to individuals, residential life and security and offering services like pregnant/parenting student accommodation which gives housing to students who are pregnant or have little children. 

Affirmative action is, in the context of the allocation of resources or employment, the practice or policy of favouring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously. It is not about lowering anyone’s status or roles by providing these opportunities. 

“We are making sure we are taking steps and our goals are met when it comes to hiring individuals,” Linda Alvarez, the director and coordinator of the Equal Opportunity & Title IX office said.

The office has set some hiring goals they want to achieve by 2020, which is next year. Alvarez talked about how it can be so hard to meet some of these goals. “As we get higher and higher in the ladder, the skills we look for in the minorities lessens. So we are trying to find a way of making these skills available to them by encouraging them to go high up the ladder,” said Alvarez.

The office runs under certain laws and regulations, and they have to make sure their laws go hand-in-hand with the federal laws, this is because Minnesota State University, Mankato being a public university gets funds from the federal government to run.

As much as the office has its goals set and is trying to have a diverse group of people in each and every single role, it is hard to meet some of the requirements due to the different factors that arise in different situations. Factors like retirement or budget happen to be the biggest factors. Whenever a job posting is made, they always have to make sure they job description matches the qualifications stated.

Alvarez, along with Laura Diaz, the assistant director and deputy of Title IV office, and Equal Opportunity and Title IX specialist Maegen Sincleair Usher all agreed in unison by saying that candidates for some jobs don’t really need to have a PhD degree despite that being a requirement, as if anyone is able to do it efficiently, they don’t see the need for them to hold the PhD degree, and they will ensure whoever made the posting knows so candidates can get hired.

Despite having an official staffing process at MNSU, the office works hard. They did encourage people to show support for their efforts. One of the ways to support them is by doing things like engaging in any ongoing training to further develop skills to supervise a diverse work force, participate in diversity training, challenging misinformation on affirmative action and so on.  

You can find more details by visiting the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX in Morris Hall 014, or visiting their website at www.mnsu.edu/eotitleix.

Header photo: Director & Title IX Coordinator Linda Alvarez speaks to a group of students, faculty and staff about equal employment and resources the Office of Equal Opportunity & Title IX offers during the Taking Action: Supporting Equal Employment Seminar held in the Centennial Student Union Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019 in Mankato, Minn. (Samuel Oluwadoromi/MSU Reporter)