Student Code of Conduct - 10. Sexual Misconduct & Harassment Violations
The following actions are considered violations of the Student Code of Conduct and are subject to sanctions imposed under the Non-Academic Disciplinary Procedures of the University or the Title IX Procedures. The full University Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Prohibited Relationships, Title IX and Non-Title IX Sexual Harassment and Misconduct can be found on the Title IX website.
- Harassment
a. Discriminatory Harassment
Discriminatory harassment is unwelcome conduct that creates an intimidating, hostile or abusive work, academic, student residential or co-curricular environment; alters the conditions of employment or education or unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work or academic performance on the basis of the individual’s actual or perceived membership in a protected class. Harassment may include, but is not limited to:
- verbal abuse, epithets, slurs, or negative stereotyping
- threatening, intimidating or hostile acts
- denigrating jokes
- obscene comments or gestures
- offensive or derogatory displays or circulations (including electronic) in the work, academic or student residential environment
- written or graphic material that disparages or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group
Determinations of whether conduct is intimidating, abusive or hostile will be based on objective and subjective factors, including the totality of the circumstances, as well as the nature of the conduct. A reasonable person in the complainant’s position is the standard that determines whether the conduct created a hostile environment.
b. Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is a form of discrimination that includes harassment on the basis of sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation or the status of being transgender. Sexual harassment includes unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature or which is directed at an individual because of that individual’s sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation or the status of being transgender. It includes visual, verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct and when:
- Submission to such conduct is implicitly or explicitly a term or condition of the individual’s academic, co-curricular, student life or employment status or used as a basis for academic, co-curricular, student life or employment decisions affecting the individual (“quid pro quo”), or
- The conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual’s academic, social, student residential or work performance by creating a hostile environment, regardless of whether the conduct is directed toward that or any specific individual, or
- Such conduct is intentional, serves no legitimate purpose and involves contact with parts of another person’s body and which causes the person to feel degraded or abused or is committed for the purpose of gratifying the other person’s sexual desire.
c. Hostile Environment
A hostile environment occurs when the unwanted and objectionable conduct is based upon the individual’s actual or perceived membership in a protected class and limits or denies or unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work or academic experience (including student residential, campus life or co-curricular). A single or isolated incident of harassment or discrimination may create a hostile environment.
Examples of conduct that can constitute harassment include but are not limited to:
- Verbal or non-verbal unwelcome sexual advances, innuendos or propositions, racial or sexual epithets, derogatory slurs, offensive or denigrating jokes.
- Derogatory visual posters, cartoons or drawings, suggestive objects or pictures, graphic commentary, leering or obscene gestures.
- Threatening, intimidating or causing physical harm or other conduct that threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person on the basis of their actual or perceived membership in a protected class.
- Bullying, defined as repeated and/or aggressive conduct, including speech, likely to intimidate, humiliate or intentionally hurt, control or diminish another person physically or mentally, regardless of whether that conduct is based on their actual or perceived membership in a protected class.
- Sexual Harassment and Misconducts
- Sexual Assault
Sexual assault is sexual activity, including sexual acts and/or sexual contact, which occurs without affirmative consent (defined within) to engage in the activity.
Sexual Act
- Contact, however slight, between the penis and vagina or the penis and the anus without affirmative consent, or
- Contact between the mouth and the penis, the mouth and the vagina, the mouth and the anus or genital to genital contact without affirmative consent, or
- Penetration, however slight, of the anal or genital opening of another by hand, finger or any object, with the intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade or gratify the sexual desire of any person and without affirmative consent.
Sexual Contact
- The intentional touching, either directly or through clothing, of the genitals, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh or buttocks of any person without affirmative consent and with the intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade or gratify the sexual desire of any person.
b. Sexual Exploitation
Sexual exploitation is non-consensual abuse or exploitation of another person’s sexuality for the purpose of sexual gratification, financial gain, personal benefit or advantage, humiliation, harassment or any illicit purpose.
- Relationship Violence
- Dating Violence
Dating violence is the use of physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation or other forms of emotional, psychological or sexual abuse directed toward an individual, who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the accused. It includes behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, coerce, threaten or physically injure the individual. A romantic or intimate relationship may exist whether the relationship is sexual or not. Dating violence can be a single act or a pattern of behavior, depending upon the severity of the conduct. The existence of a dating relationship shall be determined based upon the complainant’s statement, as well as such factors as the length of the relationship, the type of the relationship and the frequency of interactions between the parties involved in the relationship
b. Domestic Violence
Domestic violence is the use of physical violence, coercion, threats, intimidation or other forms of emotional, psychological or sexual abuse directed toward a current or former spouse, intimate partner, person with whom one shares a child or a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the complainant as a spouse or intimate partner, or anyone protected from the accused’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of New York. To categorize as domestic violence, the relationship between the complainant and the accused must be more than two people living together as roommates and must be the type of relationship as noted above. Domestic violence includes behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, coerce, threaten or physically injure the individual. Domestic violence can be a single act or a pattern of behavior, depending upon the severity of the conduct.
c. Stalking
Stalking is a course of unwanted and repeated conduct directed at an individual or group of individuals, designed for no legitimate purpose and which causes a reasonable person to be in fear for their safety or the safety of others or to suffer substantial emotional distress. Stalking can take many forms and may include conduct where the stalker directly, indirectly or through third parties, by any action, method, device or means, follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens or communicates to or about a person or interferes with a person’s property.
Return to the Student Code of Conduct.