The Faces That Make Us: CL Lindsay

CL Lindsay’s career in academia all started with a phone call. He was practicing law in New York City in his late 20s when a professor friend needed help.

“He was having an academic freedom problem, and he didn’t know what to do,” says Lindsay, DeSales’ Title IX coordinator. “So I took a couple of weeks off work and I went back and talked to him. I figured I would call around and find out whoever was an expert in academic freedom. There wasn’t anybody.”

The experience led Lindsay to quit his job and start a nonprofit called the Coalition for Student and Academic Rights. Since then, he’s become a leading expert in student discipline and higher education law, and the author of two books. 

1. You’ve had a successful career consulting and giving lectures at schools across the country. What led you to DeSales?

I have been speaking here at Orientation for about 15 years. And having been at so many campuses, I can get a feel really quickly for whether it’s a good place or a bad place, and if the students are happy. And this is one of those places that as soon as I walked on campus, I got a good feeling.

When the opening came up, I applied. And everything I thought has been true: it is a good group of students, one of the best I’ve ever worked with. And it’s a great university that cares in a really different way than a lot of schools.

2. Describe your position as Title IX coordinator and what that entails?

I am in charge of making sure that we comply with Title IX. If anybody complains about harassment or discrimination or any level of gender-based assault, it will come to my desk. I will investigate and help the complainant work through the problem.

3. Name one thing that you want students, faculty, and staff to know about your office.

Talking to the Title IX office rarely means that a full investigation or a police report or anything like that will happen. If somebody on campus has a problem and they come to me, my first questions are, “Are you okay and how can I help you?”

That person will have so much control. If they don’t want to go through any kind of process, except in rare circumstances, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to help them work through the problem.

4. What’s the most interesting item in your office?

There’s a picture of me with Congressman Peter Kostmayer when I was 20. I worked for him in Congress for a summer. So there’s a picture of a very young CL Lindsay shaking the hand of our Democratic congressman.

5. Favorite thing to do or favorite place to go in the region?

I grew up in New Hope, Bucks County. It’s absolutely beautiful, and I absolutely love spending time in New Hope and Lambertville, New Jersey. Those are my hometowns, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to spend my free time there. There are great restaurants, the Bucks County Playhouse, the Michener Art Museum. It’s great culture.