ASU Title IX Coordinator Joins Governor's Sexual Assault Survivors Program

SAN ANGELO, TX -- Angelo State University has announced the university's Title IX Coordinator, Michelle Miller, has been appointed to the Safety Planning Working Group for the Texas Governor’s Sexual Assault Survivors’ Task Force.

ASU's Title IX Office and has the primary responsibility of coordinating the university’s compliance with state and federal laws that address sexual misconduct and gender equity.

The SASTF was formed in 2019 and its mission is to establish a collaborative and coordinated response to sexual violence experienced by adults and children in Texas.

The SASTF Safety Planning Working Group is made up of experts in the areas of sexual assault, interpersonal violence, and child abuse. Members include attorneys, law enforcement, and advocates from organizations such as Safe Austin, Respond Against Violence, Voice of Hope, the Women’s Center of Tarrant County, Bay Area Turning Point, the Alliance for Children, and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Texas. 

Miller and the other members of the group will focus on achieving the following goals:

• Creating and/or adapting working guidelines for effective trauma-informed, survivor-centered safety planning processes for children, adolescents, and adult survivors of sexual violence
• Making recommendations to enhance information related to effective safety planning in training, procedures, and protocols utilized by law enforcement, advocates, SANEs, medical professionals, and others who respond to survivors’ needs after a sexual assault

“The safety planning process plays a vital role in ensuring that survivors receive the services they need,” said Miller. “If a person’s basic safety needs cannot be addressed early in the reporting process, it is likely they will cease to seek help or proceed in that process. While safety planning is an individualized process, the wide range of knowledge and experience this group brings to the table allows us to consider all the variables that go into the process, such as age, location, access to services, socio-economic status, various barriers, etc. Our goal is to develop a set of principles that can be applied in that individualized process.” 

“The safety planning process on a college campus is certainly unique,” she added. “So I hope to not only provide insight as to the issues college students face but engage in conversations about how we apply this process on a college campus.”

As ASU’s Title IX coordinator, Miller heads the Title IX Office and has the primary responsibility for coordinating the university’s compliance with state and federal laws that address sexual misconduct and gender equity. As such, she receives and investigates reports of violations of ASU’s Title IX and Sexual Misconduct Policy, including gender discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, interpersonal violence, stalking, and all forms of sexual violence.