May 15, 2018

Current status of UVU's EOAA/Title IX Office:
It is vital for students, faculty, staff, and all of our stakeholders to understand that UVU's Equal Opportunity, Affirmation Action, and Title IX Office is fully operational and functioning effectively. Under the current leadership of Director Laura Carlson, UVU's EOAA/Title IX Office supports our students and employees with all the integrity, confidentiality, fairness, and collaboration required of their challenging role. This Office actively works in integral partnership with Student Affairs, Human Resources, Academic Affairs, Athletics, General Counsel, UVU Police, and other offices to provide a safe and inclusive campus.

UVU's EOAA/Title IX Office is staffed with trained professionals who address student, faculty, and staff concerns in a fair, impartial, and sensitive manner. They also provide individuals with various resources, including confidential resources, across campus.

Faculty, staff, and students throughout UVU have championed the ideal of inclusion as one of UVU's core themes and made this a safe, welcoming, and supportive place to work and learn. Our collective commitment to equal opportunity forms the heart of our inclusive culture. This is reflected, in part, by our firm commitment to Title IX.

 

General statement in response to Melissa Frost and Emily Tooy:
Melissa Frost and Emily Tooy are disgruntled former staff employees airing their claims in the court of public opinion because it is the only place where they can play fast and loose with the facts. In reality, their allegations have been separately and thoroughly investigated by outside, respected, impartial attorney investigators and found to be wholly unsubstantiated.

 

UVU's statement in response to Melissa Frost:
Melissa Frost was not terminated for making compliance recommendations. It was Ms. Frost's job to identify and address compliance issues, and UVU expected her to do her job with collegiality, collaboration, professionalism, and in a manner that engendered trust in those she served. Ms. Frost was terminated for cause, not for what she alleges in her complaint.

Due to the pending lawsuit brought by Ms. Frost, and out of respect for the confidentiality of parties who have had cases in its EOAA/Title IX Office, UVU cannot provide many specifics beyond what we are providing in this statement.

To clarify, UVU has one Title IX complaint under investigation by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Ms. Frost filed that complaint after receiving her notice of termination, as she stated in her lawsuit. We are not aware of any other OCR complaints against UVU. Ms. Frost's current lawsuit rehashes the same Title IX retaliation claim she made in June 2017, after she received notice of her termination. UVU immediately engaged a nationally respected, impartial, outside Title IX investigator who thoroughly investigated her retaliation claim and found it wholly unsubstantiated. We continue to cooperate with OCR, including having already provided OCR with this investigation report.

 

UVU's statement in response to Emily Tooy:
Contrary to what has been reported by Ms. Tooy (and implied by Ms. Frost), UVU did not ignore Ms. Tooy's discrimination allegations, or any other allegations. As Ms. Frost and Ms. Tooy well know, Ms. Tooy brought forward a discrimination complaint against her supervisor. Ms. Frost began investigating this complaint before her departure. UVU did not discourage or impede Ms. Frost from moving forward with this investigation. To the contrary, UVU continued and completed the investigation after Ms. Frost's departure in a fair, neutral, and thorough manner.

Immediately upon Ms. Frost's departure, Laura Carlson took over supervision of the EOAA/Title IX Office as Acting Director. Ms. Carlson and her team immediately triaged all pending cases, including Ms. Tooy's case, for investigation and resolution. UVU engaged an outside employment law investigator (different from the one assigned to Ms. Frost's claim) to investigate Ms. Tooy's complaint. After thoroughly reviewing Ms. Tooy's allegations, the impartial outside investigator found them unsubstantiated. The investigation report contradicts Ms. Tooy's current statements to the press. Under UVU's discrimination policy, Ms. Tooy could have appealed the decision internally, but chose not to. UVU is committed to protecting the rights of all parties in discrimination complaints and did so here.

 

FAQs

Are there women in leadership at UVU?
UVU has women leaders throughout the organization, including an incoming president, a vice president, dean, and general counsel, along with several associate and assistant vice presidents, associate and assistant deans, and numerous directors.

UVU has made significant and intentional efforts toward increasing opportunities for women at all levels within the university and we are working hard to do more.

UVU established the Women's Success Center in 2011 to offer women the support and resources they need to complete their degree and enhance the confidence, opportunity, and knowledge that come with a diploma.

UVU has been at the forefront of the national dialogue to address women in leadership roles. At UVU, we are very fortunate to have on our faculty Dr. Susan Madsen, who is the founder of the Utah Women in Higher Education Network. As a nationally recognized thought leader, Dr. Madsen's vision, research, and initiatives have engaged education and community leaders. Her efforts continue to bridge gender-based leadership gaps and have elevated the talents of women at UVU, within our state, and across the globe.

UVU was in the inaugural cohort of organizations who accepted the ElevateHER corporate challenge with the Women's Leadership Institute to elevate the stature of women in business and boardrooms. Recognizing the need to increase the number of women and people of color in leadership and faculty positions, just this Spring leaders from across campus have received Search Advocacy training to promote equity and diversity in UVU hiring searches.

During 2017-18, a UVU chapter of the Utah Women in Higher Education Network (UWHEN) was formed. In May 2018, under the leadership of Vice Presidents Linda Makin and Kyle Reyes, a new campus-wide UVU Women's Council has been formed to provide a stronger connection between all the efforts across campus to advance equitable opportunities for women.

 

Is the UVU's Office of Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action and Title IX currently operational and effective?
It is vital for students, faculty, staff, and all of our stakeholders to understand that UVU's EOAA/Title IX Office is fully operational and functioning effectively. Under the current leadership of Director Laura Carlson, UVU's Equal Opportunity, Affirmation Action and Title IX (EOAA/Title IX) Office supports our students and employees with all the integrity, confidentiality, fairness, and collaboration required of their challenging role. This Office actively works in integral partnership with Student Affairs, Human Resources, Academic Affairs, Athletics, General Counsel, UVU Police, and other offices to provide a safe and inclusive campus.

UVU's EOAA/Title IX Office is staffed with trained professionals who address student, faculty, and staff concerns in a fair, impartial, and sensitive manner. They also provide individuals with various resources, including confidential resources, across campus.

Faculty, staff, and students throughout UVU have championed the ideal of inclusion as one of UVU's core themes and made this a safe, welcoming, and supportive place to work and learn. Our collective commitment to equal opportunity forms the heart of our inclusive culture. This is reflected, in part, by our firm commitment to Title IX.