Getting to Know: Jonathan Cook

June 22, 2022

In our newest segment, "Getting to Know," we profile recent hires at CCRI and provide an in-depth look at their role at the college, their background prior to joining our community, and how their work reflects CCRI's guiding principles. Email [email protected] to nominate a co-worker. 

As the Community College of Rhode Island’s new Assistant Director of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, Jonathan Cook serves as the college’s Title IX Coordinator and ADA/504 Coordinator, ensuring employees and students alike are able to learn and work in an environment free from discrimination of any kind. In addition, Cook is responsible for CCRI’s affirmative action plan to achieve equity in hiring across underrepresented protected classes.

Cook’s years of experience in the legal field have prepared him for his new role in higher education. A Washington, D.C., native and current Newport, RI, resident, Cook is one of the most experienced Title IX and higher education attorneys in the United States. Since 2013, he has advised students and educators, both complainants and the accused, in more than 200 university disciplinary proceedings nationwide. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

His accomplishments include numerous successful outcomes for clients in Title IX sexual misconduct proceedings at several different universities. A graduate of Radford University with a bachelor’s in Communication and Media Studies and Roger Williams University School of Law alumnus, Cook is an exceptionally well-rounded advocate who is equally skilled in independent investigations, in the university hearing room, in the appeals process, and at the negotiating table with university administrators as well as in the criminal courts.

Today, we check in with our new Assistant Director of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity to find out what motivated him to work in higher education and whether or not he believes the work being done by coordinators like himself is making an impact on reducing the number of incidents at colleges nationwide.

You’ve been a Title IX and higher education attorney for nearly a decade. How did you develop a passion for this specific field?

When I first began practicing law in Washington, D.C., I was primarily working on whistle blower actions pursuant to the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act, criminal law, high profile white-collar crime, and served as outside general counsel for a charter school in D.C. Shortly after I started, my managing partner, CNN Legal Analyst Shan Wu, began to receive requests for representation in campus sexual assault investigations and hearings from both complainants and the accused.

As we started taking on clients involved in campus disciplinary proceedings it became clear that the investigators’ and decision-maker(s)’ lack of legal training was having a chilling effect on the rights of all parties to have a prompt, fair, and impartial process. With little to no evidentiary safeguards, cases could be won and lost based solely on unreliable hearsay, the admission of irrelevant and prejudicial evidence, and rampant confirmation bias among appellate reviewers. With so much at stake, including life and future-altering findings of guilt, a Title IX sexual misconduct outcome can be just as devastating as a criminal conviction.

The free-for-all approach was at times gut-wrenchingly unjust and I became more determined than ever to fight for students and professors facing the often complex and confusing Title IX disciplinary procedures. Our student rights practice exploded and I represented hundreds of clients in less than five years-- securing successful outcomes for students and professors on campuses across the country from UVA, Yale and Georgetown to Stanford and the University of Chicago, as well as Oxford and institutions in Canada.

In addition to Title IX sexual assault, I also handled domestic violence and stalking cases. Aside from gender related discrimination cases, I handled discrimination cases based on race and age, plagiarism at the doctoral level, and drug and alcohol cases.  My passion grew with each “win” because I was truly felt like I was protecting and saving people’s futures.

What motivated you to work in higher education after spending many years in private practice?

I decided that to make real change, I would need to oversee the discrimination resolution process, including Title IX, rather than advocate for one party going through it. When the opportunity presented itself to make positive change by implementing affirmative action polices and to ensure Title IX and other discrimination complaints were solved equitably, I jumped at the opportunity.

Studies show there has been a decrease in unwanted sexual contact and an increase in student awareness of sexual misconduct resources since 2017. Has some of that been related to the pandemic, or do you think it speaks to the work being done by people like yourself in this area of expertise?

I would have to read the studies, but I think it’s generally difficult to trust studies on the frequency of unwanted sexual contact because sexual assaults are often unreported.

I actually saw a massive increase in complaints of sexual assault in 2017, corresponding with the “Me Too” movement, which took off in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers coming out publicly paired with Time Magazine awarding Person of the Year to the women who spoke up against sexual abuse, dubbing them “The silence breakers”. I did not witness any slow-down at all in campus sexual assault cases until COVID.

I do believe student awareness of sexual misconduct resources has steadily increased in the wake of President Obama’s 2011 Dear Colleague Letter and as a by-product of a renewed focus on sexual harassment, but any substantial decrease that I could see as an on-the-ground practitioner was not until COVID, which was expected given schools, dorms and many off-campus apartments were empty.

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