Update on UMBC’s Settlement Agreement with the DOJ

Spring 2025

In April 2024, UMBC voluntarily entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to improve significantly the university’s work to prevent and respond to reports of sexual misconduct and sex discrimination under Title IX. The agreement came as the result of a lengthy investigation by the DOJ into UMBC’s Title IX compliance.

The agreement committed UMBC to continue to implement measures to enhance the strength, accountability, and independence of the university’s Title IX office; provide specific support for student-athletes and the Athletics Department staff who serve them; expand training for students and employees to improve UMBC’s prevention and response to sex discrimination; and provide financial relief to certain current and former members of the Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving team, as determined by the DOJ. The agreement requires regular reporting by UMBC to the DOJ and will remain in effect through the 2028-2029 academic year.

At the time of the agreement, many of its provisions were already underway; in a few short months, we have made significant progress on others. The update below provides a detailed report of our progress toward full implementation of the agreement.

General

The individuals with responsibility for coordinating the compliance of the agreement and its provisions are President Valerie Sheares Ashby; Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer Tanyka M. Barber; Chief of Staff to the President Kacey Hammel; and, since her arrival in August 2024, Director of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation Tiffany Tucker. UMBC has also engaged a full-time project manager to oversee the day-to-day coordination of the compliance work.

The university secured the services of Education Civil Rights Solutions to conduct a comprehensive review and assessment of UMBC’s Title IX compliance program. A final report was submitted in September 2024.

Staffing

UMBC hired an inaugural assistant vice president for equity and civil rights and Title IX coordinator; who began in the role on September 10, 2024.

Several other staff members have been hired into the Office of Equity and Civil Rights (ECR) since early spring:

Two Civil Rights Investigators (March 2024)
Training and Prevention Manager (April 2024)
ECR Administrative Assistant (July 2024)
Civil Rights Hearing Officer (August 2024)
Case Manager (October 2024)

To further strengthen ECR, the university is currently recruiting for four (4) new positions:

Senior Case Manager and Deputy Title IX Coordinator
Case Manager
Civil Rights Investigator
Civil Rights Hearing Officer

ECR also developed and continues to refine its staff succession and transition plans to ensure stability and sustained Title IX compliance efforts when ECR staff depart or are onboarded.

In January 2025, the university hired a full-time survivor advocate within the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center.

Policies and Processes

The university has undertaken significant improvements in its policies and processes. Among them:

ECR established internal protocols for intake, initial assessment, and investigation of Title IX complaints.
ECR continues its use of an electronic case management system for receiving and storing reports.
UMBC conducted a search of all records systems for reports of sex discrimination received since January 1, 2015, to ensure their inclusion in ECR’s case management system and provided a description of that search to the DOJ.
ECR completed two biannual reviews of all reports of sex discrimination received in the preceding six months to determine whether the university had met its obligations; the Title IX coordinator conducted these reviews, confirming compliance and identifying report trends and recommendations for action.
As of August 1, 2024, UMBC has revised its Title IX Policy and shared it with the university community. The updated Interim Policy on Sex Discrimination, Sex-Based Harassment and Sexual Misconduct extends the role of mandated reporter to all employees, including student employees, and it provides information for seeking supportive measures and confidential resources. Feedback from the DOJ is being incorporated, and the policy will be finalized once the USM’s latest Title IX policy is finalized.
ECR eliminated the “quasi-confidential resources” designation from the university’s Title IX policy and notified all relevant units of this change, including all athletic trainers, who are now designated mandated reporters. All non-licensed counselors, non-licensed healthcare providers, and/or staff, advocates, or volunteers with Retriever Integrated Health or the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center are now designated confidential resources.

Coordination of Campus Resources

Work is underway to foster and formalize greater collaboration among ECR and campus partners, including, but not limited to, the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, Retriever Care, Retriever Integrated Health, Residential Life, the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, the Office of the Provost, and Campus Police. Such work has included assessments to inform practices for information sharing, recordkeeping, the provision of supportive measures, and more. This initial work included drafting internal operating protocol to outline the roles and responsibilities of each campus partner when responding to reports of sex discrimination.
ECR launched a Coordinated Community Response Team (CCRT) in November 2024 to assist in fostering a coordinated, university-wide approach to addressing sex discrimination. The CCRT comprises a broad representation of campus partners consisting of students, faculty, and staff.

Training

UMBC conducted annual mandatory Title IX training for all students in 2023, and the training for 2024-25 launched August 1, 2024. A registration hold was imposed for students who did not complete the training by October 27, 2024. As of December 20, 2024, 86% of students (11,941/13,906) had completed their assigned training. The specific completion breakdowns are as follows:

Undergraduate Student Completion

● New Undergraduate Students: 96% (2,093/2,189)

● Returning Undergraduate Students: 81% (6,954/8,578)

● Total Undergraduate Students: 84% (9,047/10,767)

Graduate Student Completion

● New Graduate Students: 93% (773/831)

● Returning Graduate Students: 92% (2121/2308)

● Total Graduate Students: 92% (2,894/3,139)

Initial online training for mandated reporters launched in the spring 2024 semester. A total of 98% of mandated reporters had completed this training by the end of the spring 2024 semester. Additional in-person and virtual mandatory training sessions for mandated reporters began in September 2024 and continued through February 2025. During this time, ECR offered 196 training sessions. A total of 92% of all employees had completed the training as of March 1, 2025. The DOJ reviewed these training materials and provided feedback that was incorporated into the materials.

Mandatory training for all student-athletes and Athletics staff occurred in September 2024. The DOJ observed some of these trainings. Additional training was conducted for Athletics staff, including club and recreational sports staff, in February 2025.

ECR continues to provide supplemental training to various groups across campus using training materials evaluated and enhanced by the DOJ.

Prevention and Educational Programming

Campus-wide prevention programming and education activities, led by the Women’s, Gender, and Equity Center, the Office of Health Promotions, and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, continue to be offered during the 2024-2025 academic year. The DOJ reviewed these training materials and provided feedback that has been incorporated into the materials.

To further enhance our prevention efforts, UMBC was selected to participate in NASPA’s Culture of Respect Collective (Cohort 9) and will engage in a two-year program that brings together faculty, staff, and students to engage in a rigorous process of self-assessment and targeted organizational change. This initiative will be co-led by ECR and the Office of Health Promotions.

Institutional Response and Financial Relief

UMBC has provided the DOJ with a complete list of signage, plaques, and other physical displays and website references to the former head coach of Swimming and Diving and identified plans for their removal or mitigation.

UMBC has fulfilled the provision of financial relief as determined and directed by the DOJ. Six individuals have accepted payments of $180,000 each; 26 have accepted payments of $60,000 each, for a total of $2.64 million.

End-of-Season Surveys and Feedback from Student-Athletes

UMBC has provided the DOJ with a draft end-of-season survey for student-athletes and is exploring the use of a third-party platform to administer the surveys. This new survey was first administered to student-athletes in fall 2024. The survey addressed essential areas such as team culture, treatment of student-athletes, and interactions with coaches, staff, and peers, as well as any concerns related to sex discrimination or harassment. As this was the first administration of this specific survey instrument, results will serve as a baseline for subsequent surveys, as well as document existing strengths and areas for improvement as part of UMBC Athletics monitoring.

Policy on Expectations for Coaches’ Behavior

UMBC has provided the DOJ with a draft policy outlining behavioral expectations for coaching staff.

Sexual Assault Campus Climate Survey

In accordance with Maryland state law, and pursuant to the settlement agreement, the University administered its biannual sexual assault campus climate survey in May 2024. The survey tool and the results were provided to the DOJ.

Monitoring

UMBC submitted two monitoring reports to the DOJ covering the periods of January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024 and July 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. Both reports provided a summary of the university’s progress in meeting the terms of the settlement agreement. These reports also included the results of the Title IX Coordinator’s biannual review of the university’s response to all sex discrimination reports and identified trends in reporting.