Published on: October 5, 2026
An ATIXA Tip of the Week by Christina Graziano, J.D.
Small Title IX offices rarely have the luxury of a deep bench. For an office of one or two, developing a reliable pool of trained hearing panelists and decision-makers can be essential to building capacity and avoiding overreliance on the same handful of institutional partners.
The challenge is not simply finding people who can serve. It is persuading busy faculty and staff members to take on demanding, high-stakes work outside their ordinary responsibilities—and to continue doing so after they understand how much time, attention, and stress the role requires.
Stipends can help, but not every institution offers financial incentives. If additional compensation is not an option, look for other ways to make the service worthwhile. The strongest incentives often connect Title IX service to benefits, professional opportunities, and forms of recognition the institution already provides.
Here are five strategies for higher education practitioners to recruit and retain dedicated volunteers while demonstrating the institution’s appreciation for their service.
1. Count Service Toward Tenure and Promotion
For faculty, one of the strongest incentives may already exist within the institution’s tenure and promotion system. Many colleges and universities consider “service to the institution” as part of faculty evaluation, tenure, and promotion criteria.
Work with the provost, academic deans, and faculty leadership to determine whether service as a hearing panelist or decision-maker can be formally recognized as institutional service. Work with academic leadership to explore whether faculty can identify the role in annual community activity reports, self-evaluations, and in their tenure and promotion materials.
The goal is straightforward: substantial service to the Title IX process should not become invisible additional work. Formal recognition gives faculty a concrete professional reason to participate while acknowledging the significance of the role they are performing for the institution.
And a broader piece of advice: if you are not already friends with the people in your provost’s office, make that a goal for this semester! Faculty and academic administrators are overlooked allies in stopping, preventing, and remedying harassment and discrimination on your campuses.
2. Partner with HR to Offer Time and Flexibility
Serving as a hearing panelist or decision-maker can require significant time for training, reviewing evidence, participating in hearings, deliberating, and preparing or reviewing written determinations. If the institution cannot compensate employees financially, consider whether it can give some of that time back in other ways.
Partner with Human Resources to explore options available under existing employment policies, such as flex time, administrative leave, a floating day, schedule flexibility, release time, or other workload adjustments appropriate to the employee’s position.
Even modest flexibility signals that the institution recognizes this work as an additional responsibility rather than simply expecting employees to absorb it into an already full workload.
3. Leverage Existing Volunteer or Service Programs
Before creating a new service program, consider what already exists at your institution. Many colleges and universities already encourage volunteerism or institutional service through employee recognition programs. Some institutions, for example, offer a dedicated volunteer day for employees to support a particular charity or cause. Rather than creating an incentive from scratch, explore whether service as a hearing panelist or decision-maker could fit within an existing program. Connecting Title IX service to established volunteer or service initiatives can make participation more attractive while reinforcing its value to the institution.
4. Treat the Role as Professional Development
When asking a colleague to volunteer their time for decision-making work, do not ask them simply to “help the Title IX office.” Explain what they will learn and how those skills will benefit them in their current and future roles.
Participants gain experience evaluating evidence, conducting interviews, assessing credibility, applying policy, making well-reasoned decisions, writing clearly, and communicating effectively in difficult situations. Those skills are valuable to supervisors, administrators, faculty leaders, student affairs professionals, HR personnel, attorneys, and employees interested in advancing into leadership positions. Look to your less experienced colleagues who express interest in holding Cabinet-level positions later in their careers: how can this experience transfer well beyond the Title IX process? Service on a hearing panel or as a decision-maker can be a substantive professional development experience, particularly when the institution provides high-quality training and gives participants opportunities to build their skills over time.
Frame participation as a professional development opportunity and help employees to understand how the skills they develop can benefit them in their current positions and throughout their careers.
5. Articulate the Value and Purpose
When asking institutional partners to take on additional responsibilities, be prepared to answer a simple question: What’s in it for me? Whether the benefit is one of the tangible examples described above, such as service credit, additional flexibility, recognition from leadership, or an opportunity to develop new professional skills, communicate it from the beginning. Clarifying the value of participation can strengthen recruitment efforts and give volunteers another reason to stay engaged.
But there is another value proposition worth articulating. Hearing panelists and decision-makers perform an essential institutional function. ATIXA often frames Title IX work around three objectives: stop, prevent, and remedy sex discrimination. A fair, thorough, and reliable decision-making process is part of how an institution fulfills that responsibility.
Help prospective panelists understand where they fit within that greater effort. Their role is not simply to fill an empty seat at a hearing or take another task off the Title IX Coordinator’s plate. They help the institution to evaluate allegations fairly, reach sound and defensible decisions, and determine what response is appropriate when policy violations occur. In doing so, they contribute directly to the institution’s ability to address misconduct, prevent its recurrence, remedy its effects, and preserve or restore access to the educational environment.
That sense of purpose will not substitute for recognizing the significant time these roles require, nor should institutions rely on mission alone to persuade employees to take on more work. But it can be a meaningful part of the value proposition. People are more likely to invest in difficult work when they understand why the work is important and how their contribution advances the institution’s responsibilities to its community.
Articulate both parts of the equation clearly from the beginning: what the employee gains from serving and what the institution gains because they agreed to serve.
Get Creative With Your Own Ideas
Non-monetary incentives will not eliminate every recruitment challenge, and the right combination will differ from institution to institution. The starting point, however, need not be a new program or a new budget line.
Look first at the structures already available: tenure and promotion criteria, HR flexibility, employee recognition programs, professional development opportunities, leadership initiatives, and performance evaluation processes. Then work with academic leadership, HR, and other institutional partners to identify where Title IX and related civil rights service can appropriately fit.
A little creativity and meaningful institutional recognition of the extra work being asked of hearing panelists and decision-makers can go a long way toward building and maintaining a pool of qualified candidates.
Want to strengthen your Title IX program? ATIXA members have access to an exclusive listserv, practical resources, and expert guidance for navigating Title IX challenges. Explore ATIXA Membership.