Title IX Investigation Extension

Dear Moody Family:

Since our February 8 update about Grand River Solutions completing their review related to our Title IX office and related practices for responding to reports of sexual misconduct, we have heard from some in our community that they have not had an opportunity to share their experience.

As a reminder, we retained Grand River Solutions in November 2020 to:

• Gain an understanding of the concerns raised in an October 2020 letter to Dr. Mark Jobe about a Change.org petition related to Moody’s response to past reports of sexual misconduct.
• Evaluate Moody’s response to past reports of sexual misconduct.
• Strengthen our policies and practices, and our community’s approach to these issues.

In an effort to preserve the integrity of the review and to respect the confidential nature of it, Moody leadership has done its best to refrain from communicating directly with those individuals who we believed had information that would be helpful to the reviewers’ understanding of Moody’s practices for responding to sexual misconduct. Instead, Moody asked that Grand River Solutions serve as the primary point of contact for anyone wishing to share their experiences or concerns. This was communicated to the Moody community in a message dated November 5, 2020.

Additionally, at Moody’s request, the Grand River Solutions team reached out to all of those with complaints or allegations who identified themselves by name (we are unable to contact individuals who remain anonymous) in the initial Change.org position, offered those individuals the opportunity to share their experiences, and met with those who wanted to share.

We understand that during the fact-finding phase of their review, Grand River Solutions has spoken with more than 25 former and current members of the Moody community. We further understand that Grand River Solutions has provided updates on the status of their review to each person who participated in an interview.

In an effort to ensure that anyone else who would like to confidentially speak with the Grand River Solutions team as a part of the current review is able to do so we have asked them to extend the fact-gathering phase of their review until Sunday, February 28, 2021. If you would like to be interviewed in connection with the pending review, please email Grand River Solutions at MBIcontact@grandriversolutions.com by February 28, 2021, to schedule a time to share your experience and concerns.

We recognize that extending the fact-gathering phase of the current Grand River Solutions’ review will likely delay their final report, given that they may need to conduct additional interviews. Once these additional interviews are concluded, Grand River Solutions remains committed to completing its review as promptly as possible.

If for some reason you are not able to contact Grand River Solutions prior to the February 28 deadline and you still want to share your personal experience in regards to either Title IX or how Moody handled a sexual misconduct matter, you can contact our Title IX Coordinator at titleix@moody.edu.  

At each stage of the review, the Moody team has worked with Grand River Solutions to provide updates to the community. We commit to sharing with you Grand River Solutions recommendations to Moody resulting from the review. Our hope is to share these recommendations within a month following completion of the additional interviews. We will update you further about the timing of sharing these recommendations once Grand River Solutions completes the additional interviews.  

Thank you for your prayerful posture during this time as they conduct their important work.

Humbly,

Dr. Mark Jobe
President

Dr. Dwight Perry
Provost