Continuing our Coppin State 125th Anniversary campus conversations, Title IX Coordinator Katsura Kurita explains the 50-year-old civil rights law, ensuring gender equity in education and sports, and prohibiting sex discrimination in institutions receiving federal funding. She educates Nestor on the prevalence of sexual violence on campuses, with one in four women and one in 12 men experiencing it. And how campuses are handling this important issue.
Nestor Aparicio discusses the return of the Crab Cake Tour and the importance of Title IX on modern college campuses with Katsura Kurita, Coppin State University’s Title IX coordinator. Kurita explains that Title IX, a 50-year-old civil rights law, ensures gender equity in education and sports, and prohibits sex discrimination in institutions receiving federal funding. She highlights the prevalence of sexual violence on campuses, with one in four women and one in 12 men experiencing it. Kurita emphasizes education, support, and resources for victims, and the ongoing efforts to prevent sexual violence. Coppin State University celebrates its 125th anniversary, with Kurita noting its historical focus on teaching and its expansion into other programs.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Title IX, gender equity, sexual violence, educational opportunities, federal funding, student support, sexual harassment, discrimination, Coppin State University, 125th anniversary, higher education, Title IX coordinator, sexual assault, awareness month, resource access.
Coppin State Title IX coordina…men on modern college campuses
Wed, Apr 09, 2025 2:24PM • 17:23
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Title IX, gender equity, sexual violence, educational opportunities, federal funding, student support, sexual harassment, discrimination, Coppin State University, 125th anniversary, higher education, Title IX coordinator, sexual assault, awareness month, resource access.
SPEAKERS
Katsura Kurita, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W N, S T. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We call this Baltimore positive. We’re getting the crab cake tour back out on the road because spring has sprung, even though the weather hasn’t been as good as I want it to be, or the Orioles want it to be for outdoor games. But we’re going to be doing indoor crab cake tour stops. Beginning on Friday, will be a Costas and Dundalk celebrating the life of Mister Costas. Then onward and upward, we’re going to be at the Beaumont on the 17th in Catonsville. The 23rd we’re going to be out in in Timonium, Mays chapel at Coopers north, and then on the 30th, at Cocos pub. I will have the lucky batch of Maryland lottery scratch offs to give away. I’m running low on the magic eight balls. I think we’re going to get to Back to the Future, and we’re going to be talking about all sorts of things around here. We’re through basketball season at Coppin. Many of you know of us, long time Coppin fans and eagles folks, we have been the flagship of COVID state sports for a long, long time. Not so far back to Fang, but almost that far back, and this year, Dr Jenkins and I put together a little program to talk about more important things than just sports on campus and student athletes. A lot of things happen over COVID state, and this is going to be a really interesting conversation, because sometimes I go into these things knowing a lot of things, and sometimes I should know more than I know. Anytime Title Nine comes up in sports and college sports about women athletics and and I think in this area, we know enough about soccer programs and basketball programs and championship programs and even gymnastics programs to know what title nines meant to women’s sports and athletics over the course of my lifetime. And anybody that has a daughter knows how much different it is now than it was then that sir Karina, she is a doctor, but she says, I’m not like Dr J i don’t i can just call her cat Sura carita. It joins us here. She’s been with COVID for four years as the title nine coordinator. And First things first, welcome from West Baltimore. How are you today? Happy Spring. I think I haven’t looked out the window today. Thank
Katsura Kurita 01:59
8you so much for having me. I’m doing well, and I’m happy to be here. All right,
Nestor Aparicio 02:03
it’s the first thing I do in the modern world. Just like the kids on your campus, these kids, I Google it. I ai it. I’m like, What is Title Nine? What should I be talking to the title because I’m like, trying to do a good job in these interviews, in these conversations. Let’s start at the top. I’m sure people ask you all the time, and if you see you on campus, and the title says Title Nine, maybe the men, especially, not knowing enough about it, educate me on the modern state of Title Nine, because from what I understand, there’s a guy down on the White House trying to do away with all sorts of things that have to do with equity and diversity and equality. Absolutely
Katsura Kurita 02:38
well, Title Nine is a civil rights law that was passed about 50 years ago. It was initially passed to allow women to access education, educational opportunities at various schools, from elementary schools all the way up to post secondary education. It’s really morphed, as you say, to include gender equity in sports. But there’s another piece to Title Nine as well, which states that no institution of higher education or any school for that matter, can discriminate against women and other genders when they receive any form of federal funding. So as a result, there are certain laws in place that promote and prohibit any form of sex discrimination, such as sexual assault, dating, domestic violence, stalking and other forms of violence within our educational institutions.
Nestor Aparicio 03:41
It is an amazing topic all these years later to talk about. And I’ve only been a man all my life, that when you go into get a job, men were made 50 years ago. I mean, the amount of misogyny that we’ve all been subjected to in recent times would, I mean, it’s even more amazing as Coppin celebrates this huge 125. That Coppin was founded by a woman involved in education, and even 75 years later, we’ll get to the HBCU side of this. And things are happening. But just the fact that women going to university in the 60s and 70s was still clearly a man’s universe, running a lot of those institutions of higher learning, as well as jobs,
Katsura Kurita 04:29
absolutely and so we really need these rights and discriminatory prohibitions to be in place, because We want to ensure that men and women have equal access to educational opportunities within higher education and other forms of educational institutions as well. So yes, absolutely,
Nestor Aparicio 04:51
with your role at COP and what, what is, what’s the function? How would students interact with you? What are you trying on a daily basis? To try to get done for, I would say half your campus. I’m not sure if you’re 4555 male, female, some people don’t identify. That’s great too. But your your gig for on a daily basis. How does it? How do young people come to you and find you, and especially women and and people that say, I need some help. We
Katsura Kurita 05:22
are predominantly female by a significant amount of percentage. And you know, we do a lot of education from this office to inform students about what their rights are and how to access resources and support if they become a victim of sexual violence, whether it’s on campus or off campus, because we know that about one in four women and about one in 12 men in the higher education institutions experience some form of sexual assault or rape when they’re in college. So we really want to provide those resources and assistance to enable a student to get help and not deter their educational goals and objectives while they’re here. So education is one really large part of my job. The other thing, again, is to provide support and resources for students as well as employees. We cover employee harassment, sexual harassment, and other forms of sexual violence as well, if they occur within our educational environment. And then we offer a grievance process where individuals can get justice or redress for Institute, for in or for actions that are happening on our campus, and then we just provide additional education throughout the campus, ongoing throughout the year. So this is April, which is sexual assault prevention and awareness month, and we have a whole load of other additional programs and activities that we offer to our campus community to continue the discussion to prevent these type of sexual violence incidents on our campus and off campus as well.
Nestor Aparicio 07:06
Just as I get older and I see the technology expand, and I had Dr Kirby on a couple weeks ago talking about Internet safety, and I would think so much of this is in a phone these days for young people, in regard to whatever threats might be made, evidence that may be put forward, and obviously very difficult circumstance on a college campus, he said, she said, they said groups, you know, all sorts of things that can come to your to your office, to help people, I’m Not sure that existed when I went to college 30 years ago at UB. I don’t know. And I’m not sure there were all sorts of boys and girls, and I would have interest in a girl or a girl, whatever, and how that could be in the modern world, very, very destructive, just in a general sense of trying to educate yourself where the classroom is a professional environment. And I don’t know that the world saw that we made a lot of movies about it back in the 60s and 70s that were comedies and whatnot about that sort of thing that just can’t be acceptable in modern life.
Katsura Kurita 08:13
That’s correct. I think that, you know, technology is a double edged sword, so it allows for access to information. And you know, our policies and procedures are on our COVID website, so students who have experienced these type of things can get instant access to resources, to procedures, to policies, to, you know, other things, but at the same time, it could also be a source of conflict and stalking and other things that might happen on social media, for example, which can cause a great deal of distress for victims who are experiencing those type of
Nestor Aparicio 08:50
things that sir Karina is our guest. She is the title nine person over at COP and state. She runs the she’s the coordinator. That’s the official title over cop and we’re featuring everything they’re doing at 125 and we’re proudly their flagship. But there’s so much more going on at Coppin. I find this out all the time. I find this out when I try to come over for big celebrations and I can’t park because it’s so crowded, and there’s just such a great support system for things going on over there, I would just say, at a campus where we talk so much about diversity in this city and what’s going on in this country and where the leadership is, why is Title Nine important in 2025 and why should certainly a person in your position at a university like yours have your eyes wide open to what’s going on right now in regard to all sorts of things politically, that whatever day this airs something offensive probably will happen, in regard to trying to tear down the walls of everything that you and people have been trying to build here for five decades.
Katsura Kurita 09:58
You know, I’m really lucky that I. To work at COVID State University under the leadership of Dr Anthony Jenkins. He is a strong supporter in the rights of every person on our campus, including those that are covered under Title Nine. Title Nine is a federal law that we are required to comply with in all aspects in order to maintain our federal funding. So there are a lot of things that are important about Title Nine, as well as other laws that we have to adhere to as well. But in particular, you know, we really want to create an environment with where every person, whether they are male or female or have other identities, sexual identities, they feel comfortable and included in our community, and if they don’t, then we really want to help them to get the resources, services, support that they can receive in order to be successful here, whether they’re students or whether they’re employees at the University, what
Nestor Aparicio 10:58
do you see on a daily basis, and I hope it’s not sexual assault or things of that that you see on a daily basis. What do you see on a daily basis that is the number one need that comes to a title nine coordinators office on a modern university campus.
Katsura Kurita 11:13
I think really what I see is that the education, knowing where to go for support, knowing who I am, because I’m one person at a university. Many schools have are required to have a title, IX, coordinator. They may have other people to support that particular office, but oftentimes people are not educated about what resources, services and support we can provide. So the number one thing for me is that people here, employees and students, know where I am, what I do, and how I can support them.
Nestor Aparicio 11:49
Well, the cop in 125 is a is a big deal. Okay, I see you smiling a little bit, and it’s been brought out. I, I threw myself on the mercy of the First Lady, a cop in two weeks ago, and said, You know, I’ve been on that campus going back to Fang Mitchell when they put in the little gym, you know, down on North Avenue. I’m talking back last century, when I worked at the newspaper in the late 80s. And I knew Fang that long, and they had the big basketball thing in 98 and I said the word stop and state probably more on the radio than almost anybody here over 35 years without knowing about Fanny, Jackson, Cobb and a toll like the last month, I’m embarrassed. You know about it? Um, you’ve worked there a couple years. Maybe it came to your desk. I think it’s in front of me now. And certainly the 125 that, if I’ve learned nothing else, really cool story about how COVID state became to be COVID state?
Katsura Kurita 12:41
Yes, absolutely. You know, Fanny Jackson is really a wonderful person. She came up through the ranks really was a teacher. You know, we were really focused on teaching here more than anything else, but now we have expanded to offer an excellent nursing program that we have here, as well as other majors and minors that we have for our campus community. So I really do encourage everyone to come, come to celebrate our 125, anniversary. And you know, we can’t thank you enough for helping us to share this message with the rest of the Baltimore City community, of course, and nationally as well. So well, we always
Nestor Aparicio 13:22
say everybody on campus is like, will you come over to campus? We’re going to treat you like you belong here and your family. That’s been that way from the beginning. So I’ve always encouraged folks to go over hit comp and state, always be thinking about them, be talking about the people that are anchor institutions and people that lift the community. And I would say this, and I tell Dr Jenkins, this and everybody, it’s y’all running from the we’re a teacher school. Towson, the same thing we’re running. Like nothing wrong with being a teacher school, that’s a and it’s good to have nursing and all the other cool things that are going on on campus. But I think when you say we were teaching, we were a teacher school, that kind of tells you that the the integrity that sort of leads with it, doesn’t it?
Katsura Kurita 14:00
Yes, absolutely. I mean, we really need to educate all of the folks here, and not only just for you know, academic sake, but for to develop leaders that can promote and, you know, bring on the values that we have from our institution to the community and then to the world as well. We really want to transform lives here, and we want them to transform lives after they graduate from Coppin State University. It’s always about learning, growing and really trying to do better, making the world a better place. I
Nestor Aparicio 14:35
accidentally made a reference last week to back to school, the movie in the 80s, instead of Back to the Future, which is the new lottery promotion. And I, you know, and I think of myself every time I have someone like you on, even when I have basketball coaches that live in the world of young people, I think to myself, if I had to go back to school for one day or one week and do it all over again and declare a major and come in and navigate it, how different it would be. Than my experience. And I think that that’s the respect I always have for all of you that are on campuses serving young people every day and saying this is an evolving thing, modern education in America in so many ways. And thanks for coming on. You keep me young again. All of you over cop, and even though we’re celebrating 125 years, catcher Karina, she is a doctor, but she’s allowed me to not officially give her her formal title of official nine. Title Nine, coordinator over cop. And hey, we’re getting up on graduation, getting to be that time of year, right? Exciting over on campus? Right? Yes,
Katsura Kurita 15:33
absolutely. That is a very exciting time in May, and we are always happy to graduate and get future alums here at the university to do again, spreading the good word of COVID State University.
Nestor Aparicio 15:45
Well, I’ll continue to fight for Title Nine as someone that’s had many, many ladies in my world affected by that such positive way and and the more I talk people like you, the more I learn about it, because I always had to know about it in regard to like the Maryland women’s basketball team or something like that, because it’s always been a big topic, part of sports, but not understanding the bigger picture of the law. And I appreciate your educational wisdom today. Thanks for coming on and joining
Katsura Kurita 16:11
me. Thank you, Nestor. Have a great day, and thanks for having me. Ketzer
Nestor Aparicio 16:14
Karina, joining us from the legendary West Baltimore campus COVID State University, nestled in between Madame and mall and and North Avenue, just off i 83 just south of the zoo that I’ve been talking so much about the new giraffe that my wife needs to get over brew in the zoo and see. We’re gonna be doing the Maryland crab cake tour all over town. I promise to have the Maryland lottery scratch offs. I have a handful of magic eight balls. Acosta this week, we’re going to be at Beaumont in Catonsville next week, on the 17th, 23rd we moved to Coopers, north, up in the mace chapel, Timonium, and then on the 30th, we’re back down in the city near Morgan State University. The other HBCU in Baltimore City will be over at Cocos on the 30th of the month. I’m really looking forward. Senator McCray is going to join us that day. Jamie Costello going to be coming out of retirement, probably talk orial baseball. We might still need pitching by the time we get there at the end of the month, I am Nestor, celebrating 125 years with our partners at Coppin State University, more than just flagship. We like talking about them too. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore. Positive. You.
