Policy on Discrimination, Harassment, and Retaliation: Sexual/Gender Harassment and Sexual Misconduct

Relevant Excerpt

One form of prohibited harassment is sexual harassment.  For purposes of this Policy, sexual harassment may be either “quid pro quo” harassment, ... or “environmental ” harassment, where the individual is subjected to a hostile or intimidating environment, in which verbal or physical conduct, because of its severity and/or persistence, is likely to interfere with an individual’s work or education, or to affect adversely an individual’s living conditions.

Sexual harassment includes harassment based on gender, gender identity, or gender expression, which may include acts of aggression, intimidation, or hostility, whether verbal, physical, graphic, or otherwise.  To qualify as gender-based harassment, the conduct need not involve conduct of a sexual nature.

Examples of sexual harassment may include such conduct as: direct or implied threats that submission to sexual advances will be a condition of employment, work status, promotion, grades, or letters of recommendation; direct unwelcome propositions of a sexual nature; unwelcome subtle pressure for sexual activity, an element of which may be repeated requests for private meetings without an academic or employment purpose; and patterns of conduct which would cause discomfort to and/or humiliate a reasonable person at whom the conduct was directed and which include one or more of the following: (i) unnecessary touching, patting, hugging, or brushing against a person’s body; (ii) remarks of a sexual nature about a person’s clothing or body, whether or not intended to be complimentary; (iii) remarks about sexual activity or speculations about previous sexual experience; or (iv) other unwelcome offensive comments of a sexual nature, including sexually explicit statements, questions, jokes or anecdotes or certain unwelcome and offensive visual displays of sexually oriented images outside the educational context, including letters, notes, or electronic mail.