Butler’s Title IX Coordinator Azure Swinford strives to support all students on campus. Photo by Natalie Goo.
ISABELLA AMBROSE | STAFF REPORTER | iambrose@butler.edu
Azure Swinford is Butler University’s new director of institutional equity and Title IX coordinator. She worked in a human resources role for Indianapolis Public Schools before making the switch to Butler.
Swinford started working on campus as a civil rights investigator in July 2023, but she was reassigned in October 2023 as the acting Title IX coordinator. In February, Swinford officially assumed the role.
The Butler Collegian: What are you most excited about in your position as Title IX coordinator?
Azure Swinford: I’m excited about educating everyone about prevention efforts; that’s my biggest goal. If we have the tools in the toolbox and the prevention understanding, then everybody on campus is going to be better suited to live their best life and their best pathway to graduation.
I’m really excited about the efforts to support our pregnant students. [It] is not well known [that] the Title IX Law … protects pregnant students. I’m super excited about that because I want anybody who might be here at Butler [that] is pregnant to be able to continue their education and reach their goals. When you’re working in this [field] you need the wins, and the support for pregnant students is just such a great win. [It’s] such a feel-good area, and I really love that.
TBC: What kind of experience do you have that pertains to your role as Title IX Coordinator?
AS: I started in [human resources] at Indianapolis Public Schools, and I worked in the employee relations area. We did a lot of work [with] Title VI and Title VII, which is bias and discrimination, and through that, I started learning about Title IX. Specifically, we had an awesome Title IX coordinator there who was spearheading everything for Indianapolis Public Schools — which was a big lift because it’s a large school district. She and I began working together, just as the bridge between employee relations and the Title IX areas. Then, she had offered me [a position] to work for her as a deputy coordinator. From 2020 to when I came over to Butler in 2023, I was the deputy coordinator for Indianapolis Public Schools.
What I love about this work is that students and staff — or any parties who are involved — have a chance to tell their story and be heard, and [they] get a chance to go through the processes that make them feel like what has happened is valid and important, to not only them but everybody else.
TBC: What kind of skills do you see yourself bringing into this role?
AS: I love to interview people. I believe I have a very non-biased view, so I think that that lends itself well to the role — to be able to see past the specific incident or behavior, recognize the person as a whole, and pass no judgment. I bring that [to the role], and I have several years of education in the Title IX area.
I like to make sure that the people who are sitting in my office know that this doesn’t define you, and the main goal is to figure out how to get you from here to graduation; we will support you all the way. I think my greatest skill is just to keep that focus.
TBC: What is different between working in a K-12 environment and at the college level?
AS: A lot of the issues in a K-12 environment start in middle school; the complaints and the behaviors are different, of course.
With the influence of technology in interpersonal relationships, and then the developmental years in middle school, there is a huge gap for young people on how to interact with people when they’re feeling romantic. They’re really unclear on how to share that in a healthy way. [That] really shows in middle school. Anything that [happened] in high school was also a little bit different, just because [students are] still minors.
That’s the biggest difference between higher education and K-12: we are working with young adults. [They are] going to make [their] own decisions.
The main difference between K-12 and on-campus is that [higher education has] live hearings. Whereas [in] the K-12 environment, you have an option of offering hearings or not.
[K-12 and higher education are] very similar in the prevention efforts and remediation. We do have a great team here, though. We have great prevention teams like our Student Advocate office and the Dean’s office and collaborative efforts between divisions.
TBC: How do you plan on supporting Butler students?
AS: We have been working on a speaker series — we have a lot of speaker series on campus — and so it’s really cool. For [the Title IX office] specifically, we’re looking at bringing in a group called A Call to Men. We’re looking at bringing them in to speak to campus about healthy relationships … and about how boys and men are raised, toxic masculinity and how that’s affecting all of us.
I want to bring in specific speakers to talk about the day-to-day environment, and what it looks like and how to do better. We are also trying to eliminate barriers to reporting [incidents to the Title IX office].
[We want our interns to] spearhead our social media posts so that there would be just more information around campus about what we’re doing over here because a lot of what we do is actually support rather than adjudication or punitive. I want to make sure that gets well known so that we can really help support students in a better way.
TBC: What are some challenges you’re expecting to face as Title IX coordinator?
AS: It’s hard work; there’s always going to be challenges, just in making sure anybody who is involved in a serious matter has the support they need. We do connect with a lot of community resources and campus resources, but I am always concerned. It’s always in the forefront of my mind.
I don’t know if a lot of people know about the political landscape and how it connects with Title IX. There is a chance that every four to eight years, the law gets updated because Title IX covers gender identity, sexual orientation, harassment and also athletics. It’s very political. It’s used as a political tool, unfortunately. We could get a whole new set of laws, and then everything that we know on campus [changes].
[Another challenge is] making sure that we connect with all the people [on campus] so that they understand that we’re here. It’s not a punitive office; we’re not here to get anybody in trouble or anything. It really is a supportive office. That’s always a challenge, but otherwise, it’s been really great because we have a lot of support on campus. We have a lot of people who are working towards the same goal.
Above all, Swinford stresses that the Office of Institutional Equity strives to serve students. Despite the challenges that come with being a Title IX coordinator, Swinford is excited to support the well-being of students on campus.
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Swinford worked as deputy coordinator of Indianapolis Public Schools from 2022 to 2023. Swinford served in the role from 2020 to 2023, and this correction has been amended above.
