Penn UA calls for sweeping Title IX reform in unanimous resolution

Penn’s Undergraduate Assembly passed a resolution on Sunday calling on the University to overhaul its Title IX policies and formally involve students in the improvement process.

The resolution identified “key problems” the UA gathered from meetings with various University offices, including communication and transparency, timeliness and capacity, fairness and survivor experience, outcomes and accountability, and policy and governance. The UA also organized its demands into three tiers based on the recommended implementation timeline.

The five sections highlighted a lack of public information about the “process, timelines, and outcomes” of Title IX investigations, the protracted timeline for case resolution with little communication, limited support for survivors, and a lack of clarity regarding disciplinary actions.

College and Wharton junior Khalil ElBechir — who serves as the UA’s Community Engagement and Sustainability director — described the “current situation” at Penn as “unacceptable.”

“Penn promised a national model. So far, students have gotten silence,” ElBechir wrote in a statement. “Survivors wait weeks for an update. Cases take months. According to HESMA 2024, most students who experience violence never contact a single campus resource. These are symptoms of a broken system that students do not trust.”

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ElBechir is also leading the UA’s ad hoc Title IX committee, formed amid a national outcry over Cornell University’s handling of an alleged gang rape that took place on the school’s campus in 2024.

“The Cornell case reminded the country that survivors depend on their institutions for protection, for answers, and for accountability, and that a university’s process is often the only route they have to any of it,” ElBechir wrote. “Every student at Penn deserves to know that our system would protect and support them. That is the problem this resolution aims to fix.”

The document was addressed to the President’s Office, the Provost’s Office, the University Board of Trustees, the Center for Civil Rights, the Associate Vice President for Equity and Title IX Officer, the Penn Violence Prevention office, and the Office of University Life. 14 organization have signed the resolution as of publication.

According to the document, the UA met with representatives from the Penn Women’s Center, the LGBT Center, Penn Violence Prevention, the Center for Civil Rights, the Title IX Office, and the Vice Provost of University Life to understand the most pressing issues regarding interpersonal violence.

“It draws on over six months of research and conversations with campus offices and support centers, a review of Penn’s Sexual Misconduct Policy and the Center for Civil Rights, comparisons with peer institutions, and a fruitful collaboration with Abuse & Sexual Assault Prevention at the University of Pennsylvania (ASAP) and The University of Pennsylvania’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC),” the document read.

College senior James Glomb, who serves as the president of SAAC, wrote in a statement that the organization “remains committed to working alongside students, student organizations, and University administrators to foster a safer and more supportive environment for all members of the Penn community, both within and beyond Penn Athletics.”

“We recognize that meaningful progress requires continued collaboration, open communication, and a shared commitment to strengthening sexual violence prevention, education, and response efforts across campus,” Glomb added.

College junior Nicolina Monacelli and College senior Ashley Kim — the UC Representative and President of ASAP, respectively — similarly wrote that the organization assisted the resolution “by providing background information and data on the rates of interpersonal violence on Penn’s campus.”

“Increasing transparency and communication from campus leaders is crucial in supporting the student body,” Monacelli and Kim wrote. “We will diligently work to actualize the demands in the guidelines.”

The resolution’s “Immediate Action” tier called on the University to take public steps by Dec. 1 to demonstrate an “intentional commitment to reform its Title IX process.” Those changes include redesigning the Title IX Office’s website to be more “concise” and to offer community members “easily digestible flow diagrams” of routes to take after experiencing interpersonal violence.

The resolution recommended that the website outline “students’ and faculty members’ rights” and “the roles of relevant University offices” while distinguishing between confidential resources and those with mandated reporting obligations.

Within the first tier, the UA also called on the Center for Civil Rights to make its “mission, vision, and role” clear to the broader Penn community during New Student Orientation and on its website. Another line urged the University to form a “consultative advisory board” to CCR involving student members, requiring the center to “respond in writing to the board’s recommendations.”

Another short-term recommendation was that the University “expand equitable access to legal assistance” by offering students a public list of “free or low-cost legal services” to provide guidance during the investigation process.

The second tier of the resolution, titled “Near-Term Procedural Reforms,” listed improvements to be implemented by June 1, 2027. These recommendations focused on streamlining the investigative process and strengthening interim support for survivors of interpersonal and sexual violence.

The resolution asked Penn, for example, to “implement trauma-informed questioning procedures that eliminate unnecessary and repetitive questioning during hearings.” Another line recommended that the Title IX Office and affiliated investigators “release the final investigative report within six weeks of the filing of a formal complaint.”

The UA requested that the University “strengthen sanctions for confirmed cases of interpersonal violence,” ensuring that they are “survivor-centered” and “proportionate to the gravity of the violation.”

The second tier also included recommendations to improve educational resources for the Penn community, such as the implementation of “mandatory annual interpersonal violence prevention training” by the Title IX Office for every undergraduate student, with specific modules for each class year.

Titled “Structural and Ongoing Reforms,” the third tier of the resolution centered on the enforcement of long-term improvements. Many such requests were for periodic, publicized reviews of Title IX procedures and outcomes, including “an annual report on the Title IX Office’s staffing capacity, aggregate caseload, case processing timelines, and resource needs.”

Another line called on the University to “conduct an independent review of the efficacy of the Title IX Office’s two-investigator model.”

College senior and UA President Musab Chummun emphasized in a statement that the resolution “is only the beginning.”

“We are looking forward to hearing from the Center for Civil Rights, Title IX, and other administrators on how they will incorporate our demands in order to improve the Title IX policies,” he wrote. 

Chummun added that it is “critical” for Penn students to “hold each other accountable” and “push each other to be better.”

“Policy change is only as good as the community behind it,” he wrote.

Senior reporter Christine Oh leads coverage of student life and can be reached at oh@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies English and philosophy. Follow her on X @ChristineOh_.