Definitions

The University encourages students to immediately bring any concerning behavior to the University's attention even if such behavior does not constitute sexual misconduct or retaliation as defined below.

Sexual Misconduct

Sexual misconduct includes sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking. Sexual misconduct can be committed by men or women, and it can occur between people of the same or different sex.

Sex Discrimination

Unlawful sex discrimination occurs when an individual is treated less favorably with respect to the administration of the University's educational programs and activities, admissions, financial aid, or on-campus housing, based upon that individual's sex.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. It includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature that is sufficiently serious that it interferes with or limits a student's ability to participate in or benefit from the University's educational programs and activities or their living environment. Sexual harassment also includes gender-based harassment, which may include acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on sex or sex-stereotyping, even if those acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature. This definition will be interpreted and applied in a manner consistent with the accepted standards of mature behavior, academic freedom, and the mission of the University.

Examples of sexual harassment include, but are not limited to:

1. A student repeatedly contacts another student to go out on a date after the student has made it clear that such contact is unwelcome.
2. A male professor makes several comments to a female student suggesting that if they have a sexual relationship he will give her a better grade in his class.
3. A lesbian student is called a "dyke" by a male classmate, who also makes sexually explicit remarks.
4. A male staff assistant in a biology lab repeatedly makes disparaging comments about women such as "science is a man's field" and "women don't have the capacity to understand."
5. A student worker tells her supervisor that she is not comfortable with him massaging her shoulders, but he continues to do so and also makes comments about her attractiveness.

Sexual Assault

Sexual assault is a general term that covers a broad range of inappropriate and/or unlawful conduct, including rape, sexual battery, and sexual coercion. As defined under California law, rape is nonconsensual sexual intercourse that involves the use or threat of force, violence, or immediate and unlawful bodily injury or threats of future retaliation and duress. Other examples of sexual assault include the following nonconsensual acts: oral copulation, anal intercourse, and penetration of the anal or vaginal area with a foreign object, including a finger. Sexual battery includes the nonconsensual touching of a person's intimate parts, or the clothing covering the immediate area of those parts, or forcing a person to touch another's intimate parts. Sexual coercion is the act of using pressure (including physical, verbal, or emotional pressure), alcohol, medications, drugs or force to have sexual contact against someone's will or with someone who has already refused.

Consent

Consent means affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. It is the responsibility of each person involved in the sexual activity to ensure that he or she has the affirmative consent of the other or others to engage in sexual activity. Lack of protest or resistance does not mean consent, nor does silence mean consent. Affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout a sexual activity and can be revoked at any time. The existence of a dating relationship between the persons involved, or the fact of past sexual relations between them, should never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent. An individual is also unable to provide consent to engage in sexual activity when the individual: 1) is a minor (age 17 or under); 2) has a mental disorder or developmental or physical disability that renders her or him incapable of giving knowing consent; 3) is asleep or unconscious; or 4) is incapacitated from alcohol or other drugs, and this condition was known, or reasonably should have been known or recognized by the accused. "Incapacitated" means intoxicated to the point that the person is incapable of exercising the judgment required to decide whether to consent.

Domestic Violence

Felony or misdemeanor crimes of violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or partner, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of California, or by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person's acts under the domestic or family violence laws of California.

Dating Violence

Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim. The existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on the reporting party's statement and with consideration of the length of the relationship, the type of relationship and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship. For the purposes of this definition: 1) dating violence includes but is not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse and 2) dating violence does not include acts covered under the definition of domestic violence.

Stalking

Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to: 1) fear for his or her safety or the safety of others; or 2) suffer substantial emotional distress. For the purposes of this definition: 1) Course of conduct means two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which 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, 2) Substantial emotional distress means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling, and 3) Reasonable person means a reasonable person under similar circumstances and with similar identities to the victim.

Retaliation

Retaliation is any form of sanction or adverse treatment against a person because that person has asserted a good faith complaint of sexual misconduct, or assists in providing information regarding a complaint of sexual misconduct. Retaliation may consist of intentional disparagement, harassment, negative remarks, or other treatment that creates a hostile environment.