Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

[Nancy Cantalupo <>]

Dear WRAC-L and SAPC Colleagues,

I write with an update to The Big Comment Catalog project. As always, my apologies for any cross-postings or similar resulting in you getting this email twice.

I am happy to report that The Big Comment Catalog is approximately 75% complete, and we have the finish line in site.  In addition, with particular thanks to Dr. Karen Tani, who pulled me into her and co-author Matthew Cortland's blogging about democratizing the notice and comment process, I can provide you with a short piece on how this project fits into larger struggles within today's administrative state: https://lpeblog.org/2019/08/02/reclaiming-notice-and-comment-part-ii/.  The sample email below also has more information about this project, for those of you who would appreciate a reminder about why I am emailing you!

 

Of course, having the finish line in site is not the same as actually reaching the goal. Therefore, please continue to encourage interested students to catalog comments, including by assigning or allowing student interns, RAs, etc., to spend any "downtime" they have from other projects on cataloging comments.  In addition, now that the academic year is back in session, please consider developing a comment-cataloging service project on your campus.  I am in the process of developing such a project on my campus, so feel free to contact me if you would like more information and resources for developing such a project.
 

Finally, as before, please spread the word to others and consider signing up to catalog comments yourselves. An easily forwarded email is below for you to use for these purposes.

As always, thank you for your attention, and please let me (or the full research team at ) know if you have any questions.

Best,

Nancy

Nancy Chi Cantalupo 甘念齊

See my latest article, And Even More of Us Are Brave: Intersectionality & Sexual Harassment of Women Students of Color, at my SSRN author site: http://ssrn.com/author=884485

---------- Sample email you can send to your networks ---------

Dear Colleagues,

I want to let you know about a "crowd-research" project in which I hope you will personally participate, as well as encourage others in your network to join. This project seeks to catalog the 124,000+ comments (the latest number according to the regulations.gov website) that were filed by members of the public in response to the Title IX Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM).  For a whole host of reasons that are too lengthy to go into here (but, if you'd like more info, many are addressed in this blog and still others in this article), understanding what the public said in response to the NPRM is critical.  However, the sheer number of comments makes it difficult for any single individual or organization to read or track all of the comments.  Therefore, this project is designed to combine the work of many volunteers to create a database that will catalog specific categories of information about the comments so that (hopefully!) those who wish to read some subset of comments will have a better chance to identify which comments they should read.  Once completed, the database also has the potential to serve as a useful source for research on sexual harassment and gender-based violence in U.S. education and beyond.

I hope you will get involved by: (1) signing up to catalog comments yourself at The Big Comment Catalog , (2) spreading the word to your networks to encourage others to volunteer, and (3) if you teach or work directly with students, encouraging them to catalog comments, including by allowing interested Research Assistants, Interns, etc. to catalog comments during their "downtime" or creating a course project or service opportunity in which students catalog comments. (If you would like some resources for developing a class project or a service project, please contact the research team at the email below and one of them will coordinate with you.) 

This project is designed to make the cataloging process as simple and quick as possible in order to allow as wide a group of volunteers to participate in as little time as possible.  The ideal deadline for completion of the catalog is October 31, 2019, but the research team will post updates to the deadline and about its progress with the research on the The Big Comment Catalog website (https://sites.google.com/view/title-ix-comment-count/home?authuser=0).  You can also ask any questions of the research team at . 

Best,

[your name]