This month, Title Mine will mark its one-year anniversary on campus. It is fitting that the anniversary falls within Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The organization started as a movement responding to multiple failures of the Title IX reporting and investigation processes. A year later, it has developed into a consistent force demanding change around campus.

We would love for this editorial to be a strictly laudatory piece about everyone who has been involved in Title Mine. Unfortunately, while progress has been made since the organization’s founding, there are still measures that need to be taken to strengthen our Title IX processes. Now is a time for reflection about both where progress has been made in the last 12 months and where improvement is still necessary.

The University has clearly taken the demands of Title Mine seriously. In response to Title Mine’s requests, the University created a committee to discuss ways to strengthen the Title IX process. A 2018 report commissioned to improve the Title IX response of the University laid out a timeline for what changes they expected to be made over the last year. It is clear that the university has kept to that timeline. Recently, the University announced that it will be training a new Title IX investigator. This is a promising change, as it directly meets one of the requests made by Title Mine. We applaud the University for keeping its word on these demands.

However, other demands, including access to free additional therapy for survivors and on-campus medical care (such as rape kits and emergency contraceptives), have not been satisfied. Continued reforms to Wash. U.’s Title IX policies need to be considered as well. Next week, Title Mine will meet with Dr. Lori White to discuss Title IX policies at the University. We urge Dr. White to approach this discussion with a willingness to listen to student concerns. Furthermore, we urge Wash. U. administration as a whole to outline further steps they intend to take to meet the demands of Title Mine.

A good next step for the University to consider would be releasing an updated commission on its diversity and inclusion report. The University last released a report in December of 2016. It is important that we see what progress has been made since then, especially considering the rise of Title Mine since the release of the last report.

It is the responsibility of students to hold the university accountable. The push for progress is not over just because the Title Mine rally has taken place or because the University has made some progress. And students should still be striving to support survivors of sexual assault in every way we can.

At the Title Mine commemoration panel and rally last Thursday, there was a turnout of about 40 people. This is a stark difference compared to the numbers last year. It is disheartening to see such a decline. Students cannot lose interest in an issue as important as preventing sexual assault. It is easy to check out when there is not a rush of news or opinion pieces around Title Mine, but, when students choose to do so, they do it at the expense of their peers, co-workers and the Wash. U. community. In a staff editorial in Student Life on the eve of the Title Mine rally last year, we stated, “no one goes to college knowing if they will need to report an assault; however, all students should go to a college that supports them in doing so.” We meant those words when we published them a year ago and we stand by them now. Students should continue to support Title Mine and its goals by going to events and staying engaged with the process.