Amaya Latuszek
Staff Writer
An Assistant Dean of Community Care and Inclusion position has been created in Willamette's Department of Student Affairs, which will be held by Andrea Doyle Hugmeyer. Hugmeyer was previously the director of the Gender Resource and Advocacy Center (GRAC), where she will remain until the University hires a new director at the end of the semester. In an interview, Hugmeyer said she is in, “learning and observing mode rather than taking [on] additional duties,” as she is still overseeing the GRAC.
Hugmeyer's new position will include coordinating the Students of Concern Committee. This committee manages the Campus Assessment, Response and Evaluation (CARE) reports, which are available to the Willamette community to submit if there are concerns surrounding a student’s well-being and to offer that student support. Currently, Student Care and Conduct Manager Tori Ruiz manages these reports. The position will also include managing bias reports and the university’s response to them. “So I will work one-on-one with students for the CARE reports, whether it’s academic issues, grief, medical concerns, or experiences with interpersonal violence bias. So in a lot of ways, my work as an advocate and my training around trauma-informed practices will help in that capacity; it will be beyond issues of interpersonal violence.”
Hugmeyer will also remain responsible for violence prevention education efforts. This includes managing EVERFI training, which are the mandatory online training modules that first year students are required to take, as well as analyzing the answers to survey questions and other data. EVERFI is a company Willamette partnered with to give students access to training and education surrounding drug and alcohol abuse, diversity and inclusion. Hugmeyer said, “We have access to this awesome training, but haven’t used it to its full potential, so that’ll be incorporated.” There are also additional modules specific to returning students, graduate students and student athletes.
Hugmeyer will also become a deputy Title IX coordinator, and will work alongside several other deputy Title IX coordinators throughout the Willamette College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), as well as the College of Law and Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA). Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex, including sexual harrassment and sexual violence in education programs that receive federal financial assistance. Hugmeyer along with the Dean of Students, other Title IX coordinators, and the new director of the GRAC will be in charge of receiving and managing Title IX reports. She will also make sure support measures (no contact or restricted contact orders, safety planning, conflict resolutions, etc.) are being coordinated for students, and aim to understand what the desires or preferred outcomes might be for the student that has been impacted as well as ensure a fair adjudication process.
Over the last several years, Hugmeyer said there has been a “collapsing of positions due to staff turn over, perhaps being fiscally responsible at times” in Student Affairs. Hugmeyer said she thinks “we’re in the state where the restructuring [in Student Affairs] was necessary to ensure things are able to get done in a meaningful way.”