The DePauw sat down with Renee Madison, DePauw University’s senior advisor to the president for diversity and inclusion and Title IX coordinator, to get to know her, as well as her roles and future goals.
The DePauw: Where did you go to school?
Renee Madison: For my undergrad I went here (DePauw) and graduated in 1995, and for law school I went to Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.
TDP: What was your favorite course at DePauw?
Madison: I had a goddess course and it was I think 7-10 p.m. on a Friday night, which I think was a terrible time to have a class, but it was my favorite class.
TDP: What was your major?
Madison: Sociology
TDP: Do you have a favorite DePauw memory?
Madison: I think probably my favorite memories are times that I spent hanging out with my friends. Whether it was playing spades at the AAAS house, or watching TV in the common space at Lucy or Hogate. Being able to connect and solve the world’s problems with my friends.
TDP: Why did you decide to go to law school?
Madison: One of my winter terms that I had here was in the prosecutor's office in Marion County in Indianapolis and it was at the family advocacy center, that division of the prosecutor's office, and they prosecuted child molestation, sex crimes and domestic violence cases. And when I did my internship I thought that it's important to me that I do meaningful work and that I make a difference in my community and I was interested in doing that as a prosecutor. And so since you have to go to law school to be a prosecutor I figured I better do that.
TDP: How long were you a practicing prosecutor?
Madison: I had kind of two parts in my life at the prosecutor's office because I worked there full time while I went to law school, so I went to law school in the evening. I was a sex crimes victim advocate and after a few years and then I was a paralegal and then I was for two years a domestic violence prosecutor. I spent a total of about eight years at the prosecutor's office.
TDP: And then you came to DePauw?
Madison: No. So after, I left the prosecutor's office, I went to the NCAA and worked in the enforcement division at the NCAA. And so my job was to conduct investigations in regards to violations of NCAA rules, and then if the investigation resulted in the violation of those rules then making those charging allegations and presenting all of the evidence that supported or potentially contradicted those allegations. I was at the NCAA for 10 years and then I came to DePauw in September of 2014; so just a little more than two years ago.
TDP: Can you talk about the importance of Title IX?