Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination: FAQ

University of California, San Diego

  • Speech Code Rating
    Yellow
  • Speech Code Category
    Harassment Policies
  • Last updated
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Relevant Excerpt

Here is the definition of prohibited harassment that applies to students:

  • Unwelcome physical, verbal, written or visual conduct that
    • is so “severe” and/or “pervasive”; and
    • objectively offensive; and that
    • so substantially impairs a person’s access to university programs or activities that the person is effectively denied equal access to the university’s resources and opportunities; and
    • is motivated on the basis of a protected category (e.g., race, color, national origin, sex, disability, age).

...

The following examples of harassment would likely violate UC policy if found to be sufficiently “severe” and/or “pervasive”:

  • Name calling, teasing or making other derogatory or dehumanizing remarks based on a person’s race (or other protected category).
  • Physical assaults targeting individuals of a particular religion (or other protected category).
  • Repeatedly sending unwelcome emails, text messages or photos of a sexual nature.
  • Anti-Semitic or Islamaphobic graffiti scrawled on the door of a student’s room.
  • Targeted display of racially charged images, such as nooses and Confederate flags.
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