Sexual Harassment Policy

Sexual harassment of a student, an employee or any other person in the college is unacceptable, impermissible, and intolerable.

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. It occurs in a variety of situations which share a common element: the inappropriate introduction of sexual activities or comments into the work or learning situation. Often, sexual harassment involves relationships of unequal power and contains elements of coercion as when compliance with requests for sexual favors become a criterion for granting work, study or grading benefits. However, sexual harassment may also involve relationships among equals, as when repeated sexual advances or demeaning verbal behaviors have a harmful effect on a person’s ability to study or work in the academic setting.

For general purposes, sexual harassment may be described as unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other physical conduct and expressive behavior of a sexual nature when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or education; (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic or employment decisions affecting that individual; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual’s academic or professional performance by creating an intimidating, hostile, or demeaning employment or educational environment.

Such behavior is expressly forbidden by federal and state regulations and recent action by the federal government has established that such behaviors are actionable under provisions of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the provisions of Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments.