Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Spotlight on EOIRS: Commitment to Equal Opportunity

Thursday, March 16, 2017, By Kelly Homan Rodoski
Share

Syracuse University is committed to non-discrimination and providing equal opportunity and access to all students, faculty and staff. The Office of Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services (EOIRS) is tasked with ensuring that happens.

Led by Sheila Johnson-Willis, the University’s interim chief, equal opportunity and Title IX officer, EOIRS oversees institutional compliance with state and federal laws pertaining to the Americans with Disabilities Act; the Family and Medical Leave Act; Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, which protects individuals from discrimination based on gender; and Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws discrimination in access to programs and employment (See related infographic).

The office also leads investigations into reports of sexual and relationship violence, harassment, bias and misconduct, and coordinates all faculty/staff leaves and accommodations.

It is a large and critical task. Syracuse University is home to thousands of faculty, staff and students, and it prohibits discrimination in admissions, treatment, employment and/or access to its programs and activities because of creed, ethnic or national origin, sex, gender, pregnancy, disability, marital status, age, race, color, veteran status, military status, religion, sexual orientation, domestic violence status, gender identity, gender expression or perceived gender.

“Ensuring and maintaining University compliance with these important and vital laws and regulations not only safeguard equal access to University benefits and services for all of our constituents, but it also directly impacts our entire community by creating a welcoming, diverseand inclusive place to live, learn, work and achieve,” says Johnson-Willis.

EOIRS was established in August 2012 with two staff members. The office now includes seven staff members, including Johnson-Willis; Bernerd Jacobson, equal opportunity and Title IX investigator; Aaron Hodukavich, director and ADA/503/504 coordinator; Dana Butler, leaves and disabilities accommodations coordinator; Christina Percoski, training and development specialist; Andréa Carter, office coordinator; and, graduate student assistant Taylor Hamilton.

“Our office collaborates across all divisions of the University to build community and cultivate a culture of respect, safety and equity that recognizes the value of diversity in all its forms,” says Johnson-Willis. “We train and educate the campus community around diversity and inclusion and work with all colleges and business units to complete the University’s Affirmative Action Plan.”

Current trainings include new employee orientation, sexual harassment prevention, being a responsible employee under Title IX, sexual and relationship violence prevention, and topics on diversity and inclusion.

For more information on EOIRS, visit http://inclusion.syr.edu or follow on social media using @sueoirs.

  • Author

Kelly Rodoski

  • Recent
  • 2 Whitman Students Earn Prestigious AWESOME Scholarship
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By News Staff
  • Whitman’s Johan Wiklund Named a Top Scholar Globally for Business Research Publications
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By Caroline K. Reff
  • Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore ’26 Receives Prestigious Udall Scholarship
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By Jen Plummer
  • WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By News Staff
  • Inaugural Meredith Professor Faculty Fellows Announced
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By Wendy S. Loughlin

More In Campus & Community

2 Whitman Students Earn Prestigious AWESOME Scholarship

For the first time in the 12-year history of the program, both nominees from the Whitman School of Management have been selected as recipients of the 2025 AWESOME Excellence in Education Scholarship, a prestigious honor awarded to top-performing undergraduate women…

Whitman’s Johan Wiklund Named a Top Scholar Globally for Business Research Publications

The Whitman School of Management’s Distinguished Professor Johan Wiklund was recently listed as one of the most prolific business and economic research scholars globally, according to “What We Know About the Science of Science in Business and Economics? Insights From…

Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore ’26 Receives Prestigious Udall Scholarship

Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore, a rising senior communication and rhetorical studies major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and political science major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences (with a…

Inaugural Meredith Professor Faculty Fellows Announced

Three professors have been named Meredith Professor Faculty Fellows. Part of the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professorship Program, the Faculty Fellows program was launched this year. Fellows will work in partnership with the Center for Teaching and Learning…

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go Orange! Faculty and Staff at the Syracuse WorkForce Run (Gallery)

The Syracuse WorkForce Run was held at Onondaga Lake Parkway Tuesday, bringing together workers from across Central New York for a night of food, fun, fitness and friendly competition among area employers. This year’s event, which raised funds for Ronald…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.