Anti-Harassment Policy

The university attempts to provide all students and employees with an environment free from any form of harassment, including that due to the student’s race, gender, gender identity and expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship status, or disability.

Included in this policy is a commitment to provide an academic environment free of sexual discrimination or sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes but is not limited to:

• Unwelcome verbal comments, jokes, physical gestures, or actions of a sexual nature toward another student (for example: leering or ogling, touching, patting, pinching, indecent exposure, telling vulgar jokes, and making sexually related comments);
• Inappropriate display of sexually oriented materials or objects where such items are visible to others
• Unwelcome demands or requests for sexual favors (explicit and implicit);
• The promise of special treatment with regard to an individual’s academic program or work in exchange for sexual favors or sexual activity; and/or
• Any sexual-related comments or conduct that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a student’s academic performance.

If you believe you are being subjected to conduct or comments that violate this policy, you are encouraged to, and have a responsibility to, immediately report these matters to your dean, the associate vice president-student services, or Safety & Security. Retaliation against any person submitting reports of harassment in good faith or cooperating in an investigation is strictly prohibited. All students are assured that action will be taken to investigate and resolve complaints and that the university is firm in its commitment to eliminate such conduct from the academic environment. Investigations will be handled discreetly and confidentially with facts made available only to those who need to know in order to investigate and resolve the matter.

Investigations on reports of any type of harassment will consider the following factors:

• Degree to which a person or group is affected
• Type, frequency, and duration of alleged conduct
• Relationship between alleged harasser and subject of the alleged harassment
• Location and context in which the alleged conduct occurs
• Other or corroborating incidents

It is the expectation that the complainant show reasonable proof of harassment and actively provide information that will support the complaint in a timely manner and where deemed necessary in cooperation with the university investigation. Failure to cooperate with the investigation process in a timely manner may negate the university’s obligation to continue with the investigation. Likewise, any individual accused of harassment is expected to cooperate with a university’s investigation and comply with any temporary or permanent requests or sanctions rendered as a result of the investigation.

All members of management (i.e. deans, directors, etc.) are held accountable for the effective administration of this policy. When a manager or supervisor is advised of an infraction of this policy, or has knowledge of a potential infraction, the manager should immediately report the matter to the department of human resources when employees are accused and/or to the associate vice president-student services when students are involved. Failure to report conduct or comments that may be deemed an infraction of this policy will subject the manager to disciplinary action up to and including discharge.

The university will not tolerate harassment or any other discriminatory conduct from students, faculty, or staff. Forms of harassment may include but are not limited to the following forms: verbal, written, texts, and social media posts. Such conduct will result in disciplinary action up to and including dismissal from the university.