Cornell University Title IX leader finalist to lead MSU's Office of Civil Rights

EAST LANSING — An Ivy League Title IX leader is the second of two finalists to head Michigan State University's Office of Civil Rights and Title IX.

Interim President Teresa Woodruff told the university's community in an internal email obtained by the Lansing State Journal that Laura Rugless will be on campus Thursday and Friday. She'll meet with various people and present her plans for the office at 8:15 a.m. Friday. The event isn't open to the public.

"Each finalist will host a public presentation/open forum where they will share their personal background and experience and how it brought them to this opportunity; what they see as challenges, opportunities and goals in the short and longer terms and their initial vision for accomplishing those goals," Woodruff wrote in the email.

Rugless is Cornell University's associate vice president for the Office of Institutional Equity and Title IX since May 2021. She previously served as the university's Title IX coordinator from January 2020 to May 2021, according to her resume. She is also an attorney and a U.S. Army veteran.

Earlier in the week, Woodruff disclosed that Chandra Bhatnagar was the other finalist to lead MSU's civil rights office, which has been mired in controversy since the Larry Nassar scandal.

Bhatnagar is currently UCLA's assistant vice chancellor of civil rights. Bhatnagar has worked at UCLA since 2017, according to his resume, holding positions at the university's Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Compliance office until 2021, and recently he was the head of the university's civil rights office. He gave a presentation to mostly students and MSU's Chief Diversity Officer Jabbar Bennett on Tuesday. Bennett serves on the search committee for the executive position that former president Samuel Stanley Jr. initiated last fall.

The person selected to run MSU's Office of Civil Rights and Title IX program will report directly to Woodruff, according to the university's search firm Isaacson Miller.

More: UCLA civil rights official named a finalist for Michigan State's OIE vice president position

Rugless leads responses to reports of sexual assault and other civil rights violations and ensures compliance with state, federal and university policies, according to her resume. She's also a member of Cornell's Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition, Institutional Risk Council and several other panels relating to civil rights.

She previously worked at Virginia Commonwealth University as the executive director of Equity and Access Services and Title IX coordinator, for which she formulated a new civil rights operation that had new policies, training, infrastructure and other means in the university's Office of the President, according to her resume. Other jobs included civil rights, human resources and equal employee opportunity within the Commonwealth of Virginia's departments and universities.

Rugless has a bachelor of arts degree in international studies and Russian, and a law degree, both from the College of William and Mary.

The university's Title IX office has been embroiled in controversy for sometimes lengthy investigations beyond a mandated 120-day timeframe, not having an adequate number of case managers and investigators to handle complaints and for the office's high turnover rate.

Sarah Harebo is the MSU acting associate vice president of the department and Nicole Schmidtke is the Title IX coordinator.

"The VP reports to the President of the University and leads the development and implementation of a comprehensive and robust approach to broad-ranging civil rights and Title IX issues with a trauma-informed approach," according to the position description.

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Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at 517-267-1344 or knurse@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @KrystalRNurse.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Cornell Title IX leader finalist to lead MSU's Office of Civil Rights