Safeguarding Universities from Sexual Predators: A United Educators Symposium

In March 2019, United Educators (UE) hosted a symposium to enable experts from research universities to collaborate on concerns, strategies, and effective risk management practices for confronting the challenge of preventing sexual predators. Symposium participants included risk managers, general counsel, Title IX coordinators, and specialists in protecting minors.

This report, designed for higher education professionals seeking to protect their own campuses, summarizes attendees’ conversations about challenges, details possible solutions the participants suggested, and provides high-level risk management action steps derived from attendees and UE research. While not a comprehensive list of recommended policy provisions and practices, this information will help other colleges and universities as they audit their institutions and establish risk management practices to address the problem of sexual predators.

• As a first step, regular inventories of vulnerable populations and areas on campus should be part of every institution’s action plan for stopping sexual predators.
• Since predators are not generally identifiable through personality traits or other visible characteristics, rooting them out requires a strategic effort.
• Ideally, an institution’s reporting channels are easy to access, and its culture encourages the community to report all concerns.
• Shifting campus culture to encourage reporting, supporting victims, and placing the safety of the community above all else is a gradual process that requires intentionality and campus-wide participation.