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Upon completion of my degree and program in Guidance and Counseling I plan to work in the Higher Education Department. I hope to work with either graduating high school students and university students, guiding them through their academic journey. I'd hope to work as an Enrollment Counselor or Academic Advisor/ Counselor type role.

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 Step 2: Exploration Option #1: Current Five Issues of a Professional Enrollment Counselor

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 Step 2: Exploration Option #1: Current Five Issues of a Professional Enrollment Counselor

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I interviewed Ms. Samantha  Perez Enrollment Counselor II of Western Governors University. I discussed with her the current legal and ethical trends affecting her role as an Enrollment Counselor.
#1: No big legal issues affecting role as an Enrollment Counselor. The Government shutdown affected the students FAFSA documents and verification, and as a result enrollment dates were dropping and have been changing.
#2: As an Enrollment Counselor one has to take in consideration the students rights and the Ferpa. Students information cannot be shared with anyone and that has to be taken in consideration when family members call asking about students.
#3: Regarding topics and training, Ferpa is the main concern at the university in terms of legal information.
#4: To stay up to date in current trends and legal issues about the school and training, the management team is in charge of all of that.
#5: Regarding experiencing a situation where legal and ethical issues had to be considered, when talking on the phone with students still in high school or whom state they are graduated, it becomes an issue. This is due to the fact that in some cases they are minors and their parents call asking for information about enrollment and etc, but again FERPA must be considered and the student has to be present to release that information if necessary.

(S. Perez, personal communication, March 22, 2019)

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Step 2: Exploration Option #3 -  Education Dive

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Step 2: Exploration Option #3 -  Education Dive

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Within the current trends and briefings of the Education Dive, an article titled: How Far Should Educators go to help students, by Amelia Harper discusses a case where a teacher was charged with multiple accounts of  fraud and misconduct as a result of going above and beyond in terms of helping a student obtain medical help claiming he was her son. Within schools many educators see students who are in need of help financially, experienced trauma and etc, but educators need to be aware there is a certain protocol they must follow. Educators are not to interfere with the students lifestyle and take situations upon themselves. Instead, educators need to share the burden and make it a community issue, via telling the right resources and getting help (Harper, 2019). As a result schools are developing pantrys, and resources for students to use when in need as a way of putting the burden on everyone so that no one individual has to take it personal and upon themselves to help. Having resources like this makes the issue a school wide one, and the educator is not held accountable for helping.

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Dive Brief:

Superintendent Casey Smitherman of Elwood Community School District in Indiana faces felony charges for insurance fraud, insurance application fraud, identity deception and official misconduct after she allegedly took a 15-year-old student to a health clinic and claimed he was her son so he could receive medical care, Education Week reports. Smitherman suspected the student - who lives with an elderly relative who doesn't have a car - had strep throat, and she wanted to make sure he got treatment, according to the Indianapolis Star.

While her attorney, Brian Williams, says she had good intentions from the start, Smitherman said she regrets what she did. William said Smitherman is keeping her job, and the prosecutor's office offered her a diversion agreement that, if she doesn't get arrested in a year, would dismiss her charges and allow her to admit to the crime.

Daniel Domenech, executive director of The School Superintendents Association (AASA), told Education Week that "other than breaking the law, there are no limits" on educators helping students. However, he says, educators should caution becoming too emotionally attached to students to the extent that they view them as their adopted children, as well as complying with relevant policies and regulations.

Dive Insight:

Compared to what could have transpired, Smitherman is relatively fortunate in that she may be able to evade any long-term consequences of her alleged actions. It seems many, including the Elwood Community Schools Board's president, back her and understand her motives - even if they agree what she reportedly did was wrong - and the prosecutor's office is working with her to avoid a criminal record. However, the situation allegedly caused her to take illegal measures, including placing the student she helped in a position where he felt he had to hide her actions.

While compassion is a necessary quality for an effective educator, school leaders and teachers need to keep the students' needs in perspective and make sure their responses to those needs are above board. Because school officials are often exposed to children enduring poverty and trauma in their personal lives, many feel the need to provide extra help. And while these actions can be seen as noble and sometimes necessary, they can also lead to a compassion fatigue, which can affect emotional health, job performance and judgment. Teachers who report such a condition sometimes end up leaving the classroom to protect themselves.

Students' neeeds are better addressed by schools and communities as a whole. By sharing the burden, educators can ensure these needs are met without feeling they have to bear the load alone. Schools with good networks of social workers can help locate resources, but this can be a double-edged sword, as educators - including Smitherman sometimes fear the consequences to the student and the family if these actions lead to something like a family separation.

As a result, more schools are turning to the community-centered model, which has health clinics and mental health services available on a school's campus. And additional services, including food pantries and school clothing closets, also help met student needs. These efforts can not only improve student attendance and academic achievement, but also help relieve teachers of too great a burden that comes as a result of compassion.

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How far should educators go to help students?

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Superintendent Casey Smitherman of Elwood Community School District in Indiana faces felony charges for insurance fraud, insurance application fraud, identity deception and official misconduct after she allegedly took a 15-year-old student to a health clinic and claimed he was her son so he could receive medical care, Education Week reports.

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Step 2: Exploration Option #3 -  Education Dive

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Step 2: Exploration Option #3 -  Education Dive

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Within the current trends and briefings of the Education Dive, an article titled: UVA Lawsuit Raises Question of What Counts as Hazing, by James Paterson discusses the current issue of hazing going on among many universities. This particular university, University of Virginia is currently facing a lawsuit due to the Greek life, sorority chapter Sigma Lambda Upsilon members accusing the chapter of hazing them. The chapter had a study requirement for the members, which consisted of 20-25 hours study time separated into sessions throughout the work. The members of the chapter described this as a form of hazing because they did not want to have to do this as a requirement and for some of the members they believed it was mentally exhausting and distressful (Paterson, 2019). For many universities this lawsuit raises the question what is considered hazing?

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The University of Virginia's (UVA) chapter of Sigma Lambda Upsilon is suing the college in federal court, alleging it restricted its freedom to associate on campus by suspending the group and determining the sorority's requirement that members study 25 hours per week violated an anti-hazing policy, The Washington Post reported.

The university maintains there were more serious infractions, such as requirements members attend 10- to 12-hour info sessions on weekends, during which there were several two- to three-hour periods of standing. Emails shared with The Post indicate some members felt emotional distress while others felt supported by the sorority.

UVA suspended the chapter for the spring 2018 semester. Sigma Lambda Upsilon, which is a Latina sorority, claimed in its September lawsuit that UVA "does not impose a less-than-25-study-hour rule on any other ethnic group." The group's attorney also said the college's claims were exaggerated.

Dive Insight:

The lawsuit comes at a time when Greek life is in the spotlight. The focus has tended to be on fraternities, where hazing resulted in four student deaths in 2017 alone, drawing attention to the issue on a national scale.

Sororities have faced similar scrutiny, however, if less of it. Last month, the mother of Jordan Hankins, a women's basketball player at Northwestern University who took her own life in 2017, sued the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority claiming hazing caused mental health issues that led to her daughter's death.

In August, East Carolina University suspended the Alpha Phi sorority for three years as part of a crackdown on misbehavior in the Greek system, which the university documents publicly. It did not disclose the nature of the Alpha Phi hazing.

Penn State last spring upheld a decision from the Alpha Chi Omega national organization to suspend the chapter on its campus for three years, also due to hazing.

It is one of several universities doing more to keep Greek life on campus in check. In October, Pennsylvania enacted a law requiring secondary and postsecondary institutions to implement anti-hazing and reporting policies and procedures, and strengthening penalties. It also adds a felony charge for aggravated hazing if serious injury or death occur. The law is named for Timothy Piazza, a Penn State student who died in 2017 as a result of injuries sustained from falls after drinking excessively at a fraternity pledge event.

The law also required colleges in the state to report documented instances of hazing over the last five years. Going forward, such reports will be required twice a year.

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UVA lawsuit raises question of what counts as hazing

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The University of Virginia's (UVA) chapter of Sigma Lambda Upsilon is suing the college in federal court, alleging it restricted its freedom to associate on campus by suspending the group and determining the sorority's requirement that members study 25 hours per week violated an anti-hazing policy, The Washington Post reported.

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Step 3: Legal/ Ethical Issue That Interest Me: Title IX Sexual Misconduct

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Step 3: Legal/ Ethical Issue That Interest Me: Title IX Sexual Misconduct

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Upon my search of topics that interest me i was torn between two, bullying and sexual misconduct within universities in particular. I am interested in the methods universities use to get the issue across to students, particularly drinking and sexual misconduct IE: rape. I chose this topic because during undergrad, as a member of a sorority i had the privilege of taking courses and required training on hazing and sexual misconduct. But, i always wondered do other students get this information to. Why this peaked my interest is because as i attended these informational meetings, year after year when surveyed was pulled from student population, many male students did not considered sexual misconduct when drinking rape, despite the other party was not consenting of sane mind and state. This shocked me year after year.

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Step 4: Credible website on the issue of Title IX and Sexual Misconduct

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Step 4: Credible website on the issue of Title IX and Sexual Misconduct

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Within the New York Times website, in an article I read an Education Secretary named  Betsy DeVos was in the process of implementing a policy that ensures schools offer support for sexual misconduct victims. In 2011 she prepared a letter rescinded by the Obama administration, describing all the responsibilities of the universities. The article discusses how many victims are not being taken seriously and rape accusations are being ignored. The article discusses the fact that sexual misconduct is an issue that should not be taken lightly and there is a need for support system establishments for victims.

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Michigan State University students demonstrate in support of sexual assault survivors in East Lansing, Mich., in January. Credit Credit Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com, via Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is preparing new policies on campus sexual misconduct that would bolster the rights of students accused of assault, harassment or rape, reduce liability for institutions of higher education and encourage schools to provide more support for victims.

The proposed rules, obtained by The New York Times, narrow the definition of sexual harassment, holding schools accountable only for formal complaints filed through proper authorities and for conduct said to have occurred on their campuses. They would also establish a higher legal standard to determine whether schools improperly addressed complaints.

The new rules would come at a particularly sensitive time, as major institutions such as Ohio State University, the University of Southern California and Michigan State University deal with explosive charges that members of their faculty and staff have perpetrated serious sexual misconduct. But for several years, higher education administrators have maintained that sexual misconduct rules pressed by the Obama administration unnecessarily burdened them with bureaucratic mandates that had little to do with assault or harassment, and men's rights groups have said the accused have had little recourse.

Unlike the Obama administration's guidance documents, the Trump administration's new rules will have the force of law and can go into force without an act of Congress, after a public comment period.

Liz Hill, an Education Department spokeswoman, said on Wednesday that the department was "in the midst of a deliberative process." She added that any information obtained by The Times "is premature and speculative, and therefore, we have no comment."

Last fall, Ms. DeVos rescinded a 2011 letter prepared by the Obama administration that outlined the responsibilities of schools and colleges that receive federal funding to address episodes of sexual misconduct. Victims rights groups praised the Obama-era guidelines for aggressively holding schools accountable for complaints of sexual harassment, assault and rape that they said had often been played down or ignored. But critics contended that too often they trampled due-process rights for accused students.

In announcing the rescission of the letter, Ms. DeVos assailed the guidelines as federal overreach that coerced schools into setting up quasi-judicial systems fraught with inconsistencies.

"The truth is that the system established by the prior administration has failed too many students," Ms. DeVos said in September 2017. "Survivors, victims of a lack of due process and campus administrators have all told me that the current approach does a disservice to everyone involved."

Ms. DeVos has also criticized the Obama administration for imposing rules without following the legal processes, which would allow for a public comment period.

The department's proposal would preserve much of the law that protects against sex discrimination, called Title IX, which for the past two decades has extended beyond gender-specific discrimination to include sexual misconduct as a form of denying students access to an education. But for what appears to be the first time, the federal government would go beyond guidance and recommendations to codify how it defines sexual harassment in the nation's schools and the steps institutions are legally required to take to address it.

They could also be revised before they are formally published.

There is still dissension among employees in the Education and Justice Departments about whether more of the standards from guidance issued in 2001 should be codified in the new regulations, and whether some of the provisions should apply only to higher education, according to people familiar with the administration's deliberations.

While the issue has centered on allegations against students on college campuses, it also applies to elementary and secondary schools and allegations against teachers, professors and other employees.

"The department recognizes that despite well-intentioned efforts by school districts, colleges and universities, advocacy organizations and the department itself, sexual harassment and assault continue to present serious problems across the nation's campuses," the department wrote in the draft rule. "The lack of clear regulatory standards has contributed to processes that have not been fair to all parties involved, that have lacked appropriate procedural protections and that have undermined confidence in the reliability of the outcomes of investigations of sexual harassment allegations."

Advocates of victims rights condemned the proposals.

They are "a tacit endorsement of making campuses a safer place to commit sexual assault, rather than a safer place to learn free from violence," said Jess Davidson, the executive director of End Rape on Campus.

But groups that have long challenged the sexual assault policies under the Obama administration praised the proposed rules.

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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, center. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times

"Going solely by what has so far been reported, it sounds as though the proposed rules will go a long way towards restoring meaningful due process protections to the campus justice system, which will benefit both accusers and the accused," said Robert L. Shibley, the executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

After the department rescinded the Obama letter and a subsequent question-and-answer document, it reinstated temporary guidelines, which drew from guidance issued in 2001 and a subsequent letter issued in 2006. The Obama administration built upon that guidance but had notable differences.

The new regulations cement some of the most debated policy positions in the interim guidance, such as allowing schools to choose the evidentiary standard - "preponderance of evidence" or "clear and convincing" evidence - to apply in determining whether accused students are responsible for alleged misconduct. They also leave it to schools to decide whether to have an appeals process.

The most protested part of the Obama administration guidance was the mandate that schools use the preponderance-of-evidence standard, the lower standard of the two, in determining whether those accused should be disciplined or expelled. The Trump administration rules propose that a school's choice of evidentiary standard must apply to any investigation of civil rights violations.

The rules also maintain Ms. DeVos's year-old policy of using mediation to reach informal resolutions, and would add the ability for victims and their accused perpetrators to request evidence from each other and to cross-examine each other. The rules also allow the complainant and the accused to have access to any evidence obtained during the investigation, even if there are no plans to use it to prove the conduct occurred.

The Obama administration held that mediation was not appropriate, even if voluntary. It also strongly discouraged parties from personally questioning each other during hearings, believing it would be "traumatic or intimidating, thereby possibly escalating or perpetuating a hostile environment." The previous administration also recommended that schools provide an appeals process.

The new rules would adopt a new Supreme Court definition of "sexual harassment" that appears to be reserved for repeated complaints or the most egregious allegations. The new rules would define sexual harassment to mean "unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies a person access to the school's education program or activity."

In its guidance, the Obama administration defined the act more broadly as "unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature," that includes "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature."

The proposed regulations do not define what constitutes a "hostile environment" for victims as previous guidance did, but does allow a school to remove an accused person from campus after conducting a safety and risk assessment.

The new rules would require that institutions only be held legally responsible for investigating formal complaints and responding to reports that school officials have "actual knowledge" of happening. A formal complaint is one made to "an official who has the authority to institute corrective measures," not, for instance, a residential adviser in a dormitory.

The regulation contrasts with the standard, dating to 2001, that a "school knows, or reasonably should know, about possible harassment." College leaders have long complained that was too broad and held them accountable for allegations of which they were not aware.

Under the new rules, schools would be held to a new standard for determining whether they took the proper steps to address the allegations. That standard, called "deliberately indifferent," means that an institution is found in violation of the law "only if its response to the sexual harassment is clearly unreasonable in light of known circumstances."

The new rules would also hold schools responsible only for investigating episodes reported to have taken place within their own programs, or on their campuses, not, for instance, in off-campus parties. The Obama administration required that schools investigate a complaint regardless of where the conduct initially took place.

The rules also say that the government will not penalize schools if they provide "supportive measures" to victims who choose to forgo filing a written complaint. The regulations encourage measures that are "nondisciplinary individualized services" and "nonpunitive, time-limited and narrowly tailored" to keep students in school. The rules provide an extensive list of options, such as counseling, deadline extensions, changes in class schedules, campus escort services, mutual restrictions on contact between the parties, changes in housing, leaves of absences or increased security and monitoring.

The regulations go to great lengths to require impartiality in investigations. They call on schools to conduct objective investigations and provide "prompt and equitable" resolutions. And, for the first time, the administration explicitly says that just as an institution's treatment of a complainant could constitute sex discrimination, so would the treatment of the accused.

The regulations require that schools approach all investigations under the presumption that the accused is innocent until proved guilty.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: DeVos Plans to Reshape Sexual Misconduct Rules. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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New U.S. Sexual Misconduct Rules Bolster Rights of Accused and Protect Colleges

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WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is preparing new policies on campus sexual misconduct that would bolster the rights of students accused of assault, harassment or rape, reduce liability for institutions of higher education and encourage schools to provide more support for victims. The proposed rules, obtained by The New York Times, narrow the definition of sexual harassment, holding schools accountable only for formal complaints filed through proper authorities and for conduct said to have occurred on their campuses.

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Step 4: Academic Resource on Title IX and Sexual Misconduct

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Step 4: Academic Resource on Title IX and Sexual Misconduct

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As a result of browsing the San Angelo Universities Electronic Database, I came across an article titled:  READY, FIRE, AIM: How Universities Are Failing the Constitution in Sexual Assault Cases, by: Tamara Rice Lave.
The article goes in depth with how universities are brushing off sexual misconduct cases and not upholding to the the title IX law. Victims are not being taken seriously, and in some cases the schools are taking their time with reporting the incidents.

Reference:
Rice Lave, T. (2016). READY, FIRE, AIM: How Universities Are Failing the Constitution in Sexual Assault Cases. Arizona State Law Journal, 48(3), 637–702. Retrieved from https://easydb.angelo.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lgh&AN=121071372&site=eds-live.

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Step 5: What I Learned About Title IX and Sexual Misconduct

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Step 5: What I Learned About Title IX and Sexual Misconduct

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Upon my research on Title IX and sexual misconduct, I learned that there are universities out there in the world that are still not taking Title IX seriously. From reading the articles I learned that there are women who are having to wait months to get trials from their rapist, and not taken seriously when they are reporting the instances.

As a guidance counselor and for educators, this topic is important to us because there are students who are experiencing sexual misconduct in a daily basis and do not know what resources to use or how to handle the situation. Students are committing suicide and self harm as a result of keeping their emotions bottled up and as a guidance counselors, one is suppose to be there for the student in their times of need.

Understanding this issue can help educators and guidance counselors in the future so that in cases where students do come and express what they are going through, we can help guide them to the correct resources. Educators should not doubt the victim but help them.