National Park College updates policies on sexual bias, misconduct

HOT SPRINGS — National Park College on Wednesday updated its policies on sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual misconduct.

Jerry Thomas, vice president for student affairs and enrollment, said during a virtual board meeting Wednesday that the college had to make the updates because of changes to federal law.

Thomas reminded the board of the purpose of Title IX, noting that the 1972 law was enacted to protect employees, students and staff members from any type of sexual misconduct in the workplace or on campus.

He also noted that the college must abide by the law because the school receives Title IV funds, and all of the college’s Pell Grant programs and federal loan programs are contingent upon compliance.

“We didn’t change,” Thomas said. “We added the language from the law into our policy, and so that’s what’s reflected in this policy. The first thing is that we added language that defined what sexual harassment is.”

Thomas said if anyone files a claim with the college, it has to be a quid pro quo type claim and has to be severe, pervasive or something that is clearly defined in the Clery Act. According to the Clery Center, the act is a consumer protection law that aims to provide transparency around campus crime policy and statistics.

“It has to be one of those categories if someone brings a case before us, based on a sexual harassment claim,” Thomas said.

The college also inserted language regarding jurisdiction. The policy also was updated to adopt the “preponderance of evidence” standard to decide a case, Thomas said. A preponderance of evidence “means that there is greater than a 50% chance that the claim is actually true,” he said.