Photo Credit: The City University of New York
By Dwayne McBean
In case you missed the email, York College will begin putting holds on the CUNYFirst accounts of students who fail to complete their online training on sexual harassment and guidelines of consent, officials said.
In order to meet the New York State’s requirement of all colleges, all students must log on to and complete what is called SPARC Training or face the hold which could prevent them from registering for classes, according to Paola Veras, the assistant dean of Student Development.
All students who are admitted for the Fall 2018 semester and Spring 2019 semester are required to complete the course. Title IX training completion is mandatory for students in clubs at York.
The SPARC training is an online course that is available on BlackBoard. This training also includes domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, sexual harassment, gender-based harassment, and sexual violence. The training takes approximately 30 minutes and is structured in four parts. It compounds with the Title IX in-person training that the college offers a few times in a semester.
The City University of New York has been implementing a mandatory Sexual and Interpersonal Violence Prevention and Response Course (SPARC) in compliance with the 2015 “Enough is Enough” law enacted by the state of New York.
The “Enough is Enough” law requires all colleges to adopt a set of comprehensive procedures and guidelines, including a uniform definition of affirmative consent, a statewide amnesty policy, and expanded access to law enforcement. The law also requires all colleges and universities to report the number of sexual assault, stalking, domestic or dating violence complaints made to their Title IX offices. Title IX is part of sweeping federal legislation dealing with sex discrimination on college campuses.
