Henry Gamble, News Editor—
In a June 2020 letter to the campus, President Weinberg wrote, “Society changes when we think and act differently. I believe our nation’s college campuses are crucial to this process. We have to do more to step into this space.”
Denison Forward represents this commitment to inclusion, diversity and equity. A recent development of these long-term and all-encompassing initiatives is the creation of a new role, Director of Civil Rights and Title IX, and Special Advisor to the President. Beginning Monday, October 31, this role will be filled by Justin Brown, according to an October 24 Denison press release.
Brown joins Denison with what he describes as a career that “has been largely focused on behavioral change, anti-discrimination work, compliance, and policy development.” Working at both Indiana University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Brown expressed his eagerness to work at a liberal arts institution, because they, “[they] are… motivated by a strong set of shared ethical values, and this values-focused approach appeals to me. It gives us a fighting chance against the systemic issues that pervade our larger society.”
According to Vice President of Student Life, Alex Miller, this role is one that Denison hasn’t quite had before but will help to create a centralized point of contact for all campus constituents.
This addition will help “build an organizational culture rooted in equality around all areas in which people need to be protected, whether that be race, class, gender… and also work with our students to create the culture around what Title IX should be.”
Cultural change is exactly what Denison Forward intends to promote, said Ayana Hinton, the Director of Denison Forward as well as Deputy Title IX Coordinator. These shifts aren’t unprecedented, as Hinton said, “we can shift the culture, because there have been cultural shifts before, we want to keep moving forwards, we are trying to continually push that bar.”
In order for Denison to be a place that leads these cultural changes, it is important that the same type of cultural conversations are happening in all of these different spaces on campus, said Hinton. Denison Forward therefore aims to provide this education to every member of the Denison community, and to promote the development of cultural competencies.
One such member of the community, the Denison Coalition for Sexual Respect (DCSR), hopes that the expansion of this role will lead to a larger engagement by students, faculty, staff and administration to conversations concerning sexual respect, said PR and Social Media Chair, Alexandra Andres ‘24.
Andres elaborated on the benefits of such a partnership, as she said, “sometimes when you’re very close to an issue, you can’t see the whole picture, it’s helpful to have different types of people add perspectives to further the conversation for this reason.”