Equal Employment Opportunity Director Presents at USAC

Posted by Carlos Ruiz on Monday, August 27, 2018 in Archive, News.

At its August meeting USAC welcomed Anita Jenious, Director of the Equal Employment Opportunity Office at Vanderbilt. In January of this year, the Office of Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action and Disability Services (EAD) was divided into three distinct areas so that the University could “commit more resources to the various functions,” according to Jenious. Those functions include Title IX (sexual misconduct and discrimination), accessibility, and equal employment opportunity which is overseen by her office.

EEO supports staff in the following ways:

• Monitoring the University’s compliance with applicable equal opportunity and affirmative action laws and regulations.
• Advocating for equal opportunity and affirmative action for all persons.
• Encouraging and promoting the recruitment and retention of qualified people from diverse backgrounds.
• Providing religious accommodations and reasonable accommodations to qualified persons with disabilities.
• Conducting unbiased reviews of discrimination and harassment complaints.
• Providing education and training about EEO/AA, discrimination, harassment, diversity, disabilities and sexual misconduct.

In addition to race, sex, age and national origin, EEO also protects staff from discrimination on the basis of religion, disability, military background, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Jenious stressed that, under most circumstances, employees have a duty to report incidents of harassment that they become aware of. If persons who experience harassment want to report with a certain degree of confidentiality, they can do so through Project Safe, EAP or their healthcare provider.

Please visit the EEO website for more information on these (and other) services and policies that promote fairness, equity, access and respect for all employees.