The Office of Equal Opportunity is leading an operation to educate Iowa State on unlawful harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct.

For the first time, a universitywide Web-based training program will attempt to inform faculty, staff and students on the university policies, contacts and resources for concerns regarding discrimination and sexual misconduct, which fall under Title IX.

“If [people] know anything about [Title IX], they may know that it may impact athletics and equal treatment of men and women in athletics,” said Keith Bystrom, associate counsel with the office of university counsel. “It’s broader than that because it deals with equal treatment for any program at a university.”

Title IX covers discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual misconduct. Sexual misconduct is an umbrella term that includes sexual assault and sexual harassment. The training aims to educate people about what Title IX means, what qualifies as sexual misconduct and what rights students have underneath the policy.

The course also covers unlawful harassment, including harassment dealing with disabilities, veterans’ status, race, ethnicity and gender.

There will be two separate launches of the trainings. The first, for faculty and staff, is planned to be dispersed via email link Dec. 3. Their training differs a bit from the one for students in that more information will be regarding how to recognize and report sexual misconduct as well as how to direct students if they report any violations.

The student portion is set to be released at the beginning of spring 2014 and will educate students about their own personal safety, rights under Title IX policies and where to go if they have experienced sexual misconduct.

To work on creating training like this, Robinette Kelley, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, said the program has been in the works since March 2013. Kelley said that when she came to be director of the Office of Equal Opportunity in February, she noticed that only about a third of faculty and staff had been trained within the last three years, which was one reason behind the idea of universitywide training.

The training is interactive, giving real life scenarios, case studies and advice. It is expected to take approximately 40 minutes. A stop-start feature is included.

“It’s taken some time. It’s taken some revisions,” Kelley said. “We need to go beyond just training. We need to do prevention and training and educate the campus about [sexual misconduct] cases. If we can prevent some of them by training and educating people, that’s great.”

Kelley said the Office of Equal Opportunity gave many areas of the university opportunities to provide feedback on the training before it’s dispersed, including Office of University Counsel and the president’s office.

Miles Lackey, associate vice president for the president’s office, said this is an important issue to President Steven Leath and the entire ISU community.

“President Leath wants to make sure we provide an environment which is welcoming to all people, and he believes this training can help us to accomplish that goal,” Lackey said. “I think [the training] is something that all of us should be supportive of.”

Kelley said she would like to see the training done annually, but she isn’t sure if that will happen just yet.

“We just want to ensure that people understand our policies, that we’re a land grant institution and what our mission is,” Kelley said. “We want to make sure our environment is welcoming and inclusive to all.”