Cryptic times and campus crimes

Hi, reporters! I talked with some intrepid journalists at Kent State University recently about covering crimes on campus, especially sexual assaults. I wrote a guide for this, so if you’re interested in this topic, you might want to go ahead and give that a read.

But I also want to point you to the Title IX Tracker run by the Chronicle for Higher Education.

It’s one of those cool journalism projects that do all the introductory work for you. (Here are a few others.)

If you’re not familiar with Title IX lawsuits, they’re often detailed accusations of mishandled sex offense cases at universities. You can search all the current or past cases by school, state, status, etc. Plus the reporters add lots of context, coverage and even raw documents. It’s incredibly handy.

I signed up for weekly updates, which entitles me me tidy little story ideas, like that the controversial UVA is facing yet another suit, or that the hyper-conservative BYU received its first suit a few months ago. One of these days a case will strike close enough to home that I’ll actually write a story. Til then, I hope you do!