Examples of Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment may take different forms. Using a person’s response to a request for sexual favors as a basis for an academic or employment decision is one form of sexual harassment. Examples of this type of sexual harassment include, but are not limited to, the following:
- requesting or demanding sexual favors in exchange for employment or academic opportunities (such as hiring, promotions, favorable grades, or recommendations);
- submitting unfair or inaccurate job or academic evaluations or grades, or denying training, promotion, or access to any other employment or academic opportunity, because sexual advances have been rejected.
Other types of unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature can also constitute sexual harassment, if sufficiently severe or pervasive that the target finds, and a reasonable person would find, that an intimidating, hostile or abusive work or academic environment has been created. Examples of this kind of sexual harassment include, but are not limited to, the following:
- sexual comments, teasing, or jokes;
- sexual slurs, demeaning epithets, derogatory statements, or other verbal abuse of a sexual nature;
- graphic or sexually suggestive comments about an individual’s attire or body;
- graphic or sexually suggestive gestures;
- inquiries or discussions about sexual activities;
- pressure to accept social invitations, to meet privately, to date, or to have sexual relations;
- sexual touching, brushing up against another in a sexual manner, cornering, pinching, grabbing, kissing, or fondling;
- coerced sexual intercourse or sexual assault;
- Consensual, Intimate Relationships;
- Relationships between faculty or employees and students.
Amorous, dating or sexual activity or relationships (“intimate relationships”), even when apparently consensual, are inappropriate when they occur between a faculty member or employee and any student for whom he or she has a professional responsibility. Those relationships are inappropriate because of the unequal power dynamic between students and faculty members and between students and employees who advise or evaluate them, such as athletic coaches or workplace supervisors. Such relationships necessarily involve issues of student vulnerability and have the potential for coercion. In addition, conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest may arise when a faculty member or employee is required to evaluate the work or make personnel or academic decisions with respect to a student with whom he or she is having an intimate relationship. Finally, if the relationship ends in a way that is not amicable, the relationship may lead to charges of and possible liability for sexual harassment.
Therefore, faculty members and other employees are prohibited from engaging in intimate relationships with students for whom they have a professional responsibility, including undergraduates, graduate and professional students and postdoctoral fellows.
For purposes of this section, professional responsibility for a student means responsibility over academic matters, including teaching, counseling, grading, advising for a formal project such as a thesis or research, evaluating, hiring, supervising, coaching, making decisions or recommendations that confer benefits such as admissions, registration, financial aid, other awards, remuneration, or fellowships, or performing any other function that might affect teaching, research, or other academic opportunities.