When Nadia Shahin walks near campus at night, she gets on the phone with a friend so they can call the police if something happens to her. As a female college student, she’s aware her demographic puts her at risk, she said.
"There's so many people I know that have been sexually assaulted, and you don't think about that until it happens to you," the 20-year-old UF nutritional sciences senior said. "A lot of people have that false sense of security.”
Shahin is not alone in her concerns. Less than 9% of cisgender female UF students reported feeling very safe walking on campus at night in a Spring 2022 survey, compared to the national average of 19%. Yet UF has recently renamed, outsourced and cut several sexual assault resources.
UF hired a private California-based company to manage Title IX reports, stopped using two campus-wide violence prevention programs, and renamed and moved its gender equity office, all in the past two years.
The Office for Accessibility and Gender Diversity, or OAGE, used to oversee Title IX compliance. Under Title IX, students and faculty can report and resolve incidents of discrimination or assault, as required by federal law. OAGE also managed accommodations for people with disabilities.
OAGE closed in its existing form and split into two separate offices in 2024: one for Title IX and one for American Disability Act, or ADA, compliance. The move followed Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on state funding to diversity, equity and inclusion-related higher education programs.
Two coordinators from Grand River Solutions, a firm UF began contracting for Title IX and disability compliance consulting in October, now head the offices. Both work remotely from out of state. The previous coordinator under OAGE, Russ Froman, resigned in August after seven years in a UF Title IX position.
Also in the past year, UF ended its Green Dot Gators program, a bystander training aimed at reducing campus violence. The university additionally decided not to renew its three-year trial with uSafeUS, a sexual assault prevention and response mobile app, in June.
Aidan Lieberman, a 21-year-old former UF sports management student, interned for OAGE before graduating from the university in August 2023. Lieberman said he watched increased administrative scrutiny impact the office in the months leading to its closure.
“The employees wanted to help people — obviously, if there’s sexual assault, sexual harassment on campus, you want to help,” he said. “But when you have that oversight and overstep from people higher than you, what are you going to do about it?”
Outsourcing assault response
The university first asked Grand River Solutions, a third-party education consultant, to provide Title IX and disability services in August 2023. The two entities entered the yearlong contract Oct. 15, 2023 and finalized terms in May through engagement letters acquired by The Alligator.
Under the contract, two Grand Rivers employees were hired in interim administrative positions. Jackie Moran is serving as Title IX Coordinator from New York, while Crystal Coombes is the Virginia-based ADA Coordinator.
The joint annual salary for both roles is $360,000, or $180,000 per year each if split evenly. Their contracts include 160 hours of joint work per month, or about 20 hours per week each.
Moran has consulted for the University of Portland, while Coombes has served diversity and ADA roles for the University of South Florida, Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University.
Previously, Russell Froman had overseen both assault reporting and disability services as the Assistant Vice President for Title IX and ADA since 2019. He received a $130,000 annual salary to monitor both areas, according to an employment letter acquired by The Alligator.
UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan said in a statement to The Alligator the university contracted with Grand River to fill the gap after Froman transitioned to ADA Coordinator in the Human Resources department in March.
Yet according to public records acquired by The Alligator, the university first reached out to Grand Rivers in August 2023, seven months before Froman moved departments and a year before he notified the university of his intent to retire in July.
UF outsourced Grand River without announcing the contract publicly, and both Moran and Coombes are listed as interim directors on the university’s website without mention of their affiliation with the company.
Former OAGE intern Lieberman said he worries sexual assault, discrimination and ADA claims won’t be handled as effectively now they’re not streamlined under the OAGE office.
“This office had people that cared about these issues, and wanted to make them complete and make them better,” he said. “With the closing … you lose those people.”
Of the four salaried OAGE employees at UF in Fall 2023, none still work in Title IX or disability services for the university.
Sofia Marcilese, an 18-year-old UF psychology freshman, said it was "hard to say" whether she'd feel comfortable reporting to the university if she experienced sexual assault. But she’d feel less inclined to do so with administrators working remotely, she said.
"When you talk to someone directly, it feels more personal," she said. "Like they're going to actually listen to you and take action."
Sexual assault prevention training, app discontinued
GatorWell, a UF health promotion department offering services like substance misuse support and HIV testing, began training faculty, staff and students on campus violence prevention through Green Dot in 2019.
Green Dot is a training program used by universities throughout the country. It uses a top-down approach to train faculty and then students to prevent stalking, sexual assault and domestic violence. UF discontinued its Green Dot services without announcement at some point in the past year. University representatives did not share exactly when or why the program ended following inquiries from The Alligator.
Green Dot is still used at universities across the state, including Florida State University. Nell Robinson has worked as Green Dot coordinator at FSU since 2019. Robinson said the school loves the program enough to keep funding it even after its grant money ended last year.
In a five-year study on Green Dot’s effectiveness, beginning in 2016, FSU found the program correlated with reduced violence on campus, Robinson said. The result supported early nationwide research suggesting Green Dot campuses show an 11% violence reduction.
“Our students were reporting that they felt more comfortable intervening, that they felt more comfortable recognizing violence, and that they had the skills and tools to do something,” she said.
Hannah Farrell, a marketing and strategic communication director in the Division of Student Life, said in a statement to The Alligator that bystander intervention education remains an ongoing priority at UF despite Green Dot’s discontinuation.
“Our staff in GatorWell have developed a robust program and provide dynamic presentations and training that are tailored to the specific needs and requests of our students,” she wrote. Samantha Kinggard, a 21-year-old UF political science senior, contacted GatorWell to organize a Green Dot training for UF Student Government members over the summer. Student senators used to be required to complete one Green Dot training per semester.
Kinggard, who serves as the Rules and Ethics Committee chair, said GatorWell informed her Green Dot was discontinued.
“They didn’t say anything about why,” she said.
Kinggard instead scheduled a general presentation from GatorWell about bystanderism. SG statutes will likely be updated soon to amend the Green Dot requirement to a general sexual assault prevention training requirement, she said.
Green Dot was run by GatorWell, not OAGE. But another former UF assault prevention program, the uSafeUS mobile app, was managed by UF Title IX employees. That was until June, when its three-year test trial ended and the university didn’t renew. Despite its discontinuation, the uSafeUS app is still being advertised on screens around campus as a resource to students as of Sept. 19.
USafeUS, developed in 2016 and used at over 500 universities nationwide, offers features including “Time to Leave,” which crafts a fake text or call to get the user out of an uncomfortable situation, “Expect Me,” which allows friends to track the user’s GPS location, and “Angel Drink,” which lets users signal bartenders if they feel uncomfortable.
USafeUS saw an average of 55 monthly users from UF, peaking in August 2023 with 105 users, according to UF data. UF decided not to continue with the app after the trial ended, deciding it would be better to direct students toward its existing UF-specific GatorSafe app.
GatorSafe, launched in 2015, offers safety features including a “Mobile Blue Light” feature that sends the user’s location and calls the UF police department. Like uSafeUS, it also offers access to mental health resources and options to report a tip.
Unlike uSafeUS, GatorSafe can provide push notifications from the UF Alert Emergency Notification System. It also allows parents to download the app to keep up with on-campus emergencies affecting their students.
However, GatorSafe does not include assault prevention resources such as FAQs about sexual harassment and stalking or features like “Angel Drink” and “Time to Leave.”
With university initiatives changing, some people have turned to student-run clubs for assault education and support.
Faith Hammock, a 21-year-old UF public relations senior, said she had to take her own initiative to find resources on campus after personal experiences left her wanting to know more about what makes a healthy relationship.
As president of One Love, a relationship health education nonprofit, Hammock wishes the university put more energy toward partnering with student-run groups.
“Having these conversations now, when we're becoming mature adults, is so important,” she said. “It just sets the stage for moving forward.”
Contact Zoey Thomas at zthomas@alligator.org. Follow her on X @zoeythomas39
This story was updated Sept. 23 to reflect new information.
Zoey Thomas is a media production junior and the Fall 2024 Enterprise Health Reporter for The Alligator. She previously worked on the University and Metro desks. Her most prized assets include her espresso machine, Regal Unlimited movie pass and HOKA running shoes.
