Key Definitions

Complainant means: 

1. A student or employee who is alleged to have been subjected to conduct that could constitute discrimination (including sex discrimination under Title IX or its regulations); or 
2. A person other than a student or employee who is alleged to have been subjected to conduct that could constitute discrimination (including sex discrimination under Title IX or its regulations) and who was participating or attempting to participate in the university’s education program or activity at the time of the alleged discrimination. 

Complaint means an oral or written request to the University that objectively can be understood as a request for the University to investigate and make a determination about alleged discrimination (including sex discrimination under Title IX or its regulations). 

Confidential Employee means: 

1. An employee of the University whose communications are privileged or confidential under federal or state law. The employee’s confidential status, for purposes of this policy, is only with respect to information received while the employee is functioning within the scope of their duties to which privilege or confidentiality applies; 
2. An employee of the University whom the University has designated as confidential under this policy for the purpose of providing services to persons related to sex discrimination. If the employee also has a duty not associated with providing those services, the employee’s confidential status is only with respect to information received about sex discrimination in connection with providing those services; or 
3. An employee of the University who is conducting an Institutional Review Board-approved human-subjects research study designed to gather information about sex discrimination—but the employee’s confidential status is only with respect to information received while conducting the study. 

Consent means a clear, knowing, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. Clear, knowing, and voluntary consent to sexual activity requires that, at the time of the act, and throughout the sexual contact, all parties actively express words or conduct that a reasonable person would conclude demonstrate clear permission regarding willingness to engage in sexual activity and the conditions of that activity. Consent is active; silence or passivity is not consent. Even if words or conduct alone seem to imply consent, sexual activity is not consensual when: 

1. Force or coercion is threatened or used to procure compliance with sexual activity.
   1. Force is the use of physical violence, physical force, threat, or intimidation to overcome resistance or gain consent to sexual activity. 
   2. Coercion is unreasonable pressure for sexual activity. When an individual makes it clear through words or actions that the individual does not want to engage in sexual contact, wants to stop, or does not want to go past a certain point of sexual interaction, continued pressure beyond that point may be coercive. Other examples of coercion may include using blackmail or extortion to overcome resistance or gain consent to sexual activity.
2. The person is asleep, unconscious, or physically unable to communicate his or her unwillingness to engage in sexual activity.
3. A reasonable person would or should know that the other person lacks the mental capacity at the time of the sexual activity to be able to understand the nature or consequences of the act, whether that incapacity is produced by illness, defect, the influence of alcohol or other substance, or some other cause. When alcohol or drugs are involved, a person is considered incapacitated or unable to give valid consent if the individual cannot fully understand the details of the sexual interaction (that is, who, what, when, where, why, and how), or the individual lacks the capacity to reasonably understand the situation and to make rational, reasonable decisions.
4. The person is under 16 years of age. 

Dating Violence means violence committed by a person: 

1. Who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and 
2. Where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors: 
   1. The length of the relationship; 
   2. The type of relationship; and 
   3. The frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship. 

Discrimination means unfavorable treatment because of the person’s legally protected characteristic, such as race, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, or genetic information. Harassment is a form of discrimination, and sex-based harassment is a form of sex discrimination.

Domestic Violence means felony or misdemeanor crimes committed by a person who: 

1. Is a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim under the family or domestic violence laws of the jurisdiction of the University, or a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim; 
2. Is cohabitating, or has cohabitated, with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner; 
3. Shares a child in common with the victim; or 
4. Commits acts against a youth or adult victim who is protected from those acts under the family or domestic violence laws of the jurisdiction. 

Education Program or Activity means all of the University’s operations and includes all locations, events, or circumstances over which the University exercises substantial control over both the respondent and the context in which the discrimination, harassment and/or retaliation occurred. The University’s locations include both on-campus locations and off-campus buildings owned or controlled by the University. University locations also include any building owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the University. 

Harassment means unwelcome conduct based on a person’s legally protected characteristic when enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of the work or academic environment, or when the conduct is severe, persistent, or pervasive enough to create a work or academic environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive. Offensive conduct may include offensive jokes, slurs, epithets or name calling, physical assaults, threats, intimidation, ridicule or mockery, insults, offensive objects or pictures, interference with work or academic performance, or any other conduct that may be harmful or humiliating. The harasser may be anyone, including the victim’s supervisor, professor, co-worker, fellow student; a campus visitor; an employee of an outside vendor; or any other non-employee or non-student. The victim of Harassment does not have to be the person harassed but may be anyone affected by the offensive conduct. Harassment does not have to include an intent to harm. Harassment need not necessarily involve repeated incidents, depending on the severity of the harassment. Petty slights, annoyances, and isolated incidents (unless sufficiently severe) do not rise to the level of illegal conduct. 

Party means a complainant or a respondent. 

Pregnancy or Related Conditions, considering our religious exemption, to the University pregnancy or related conditions means: (1) Pregnancy, childbirth, loss of pregnancy, or lactation; (2) Medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, loss of pregnancy, or lactation; or (3) Recovery from pregnancy, childbirth, loss of pregnancy, lactation, or related medical conditions. 

Respondent means a person who is alleged to have violated the University’s prohibition on discrimination. 

Retaliation is defined differently depending on whether actions relate to allegations of sex discrimination or allegations of other types of discrimination. 

1. When used in connection with allegations of sex discrimination, retaliation means intimidation, threats, coercion, or discrimination against any person by the University, a student, or an employee or other person authorized by the University to provide aid, benefit, or service under the University’s education program or activity, for the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by Title IX or the Title IX Regulations, or because the person has reported information, made a complaint, testified, assisted, or participated or refused to participate in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under Title IX or the Title IX Regulations, including in an informal resolution  process, in grievance procedures, and in any other actions taken by the University when responding to notice of conduct that reasonably may constitute sex discrimination under Title IX or the Title IX Regulations. 
2. When used in connection with allegations of discrimination other than sex discrimination, retaliation means any unjustifiable adverse action by any person that might dissuade or deter a reasonable person from making or supporting a complaint of discrimination, as well as any adverse action taken by an employer against an employee for engaging in legally protected activity. 

Sexual Assault means an offense classified as a forcible or nonforcible sex offense under the uniform crime reporting system of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sexual assault includes fondling, incest, rape, and statutory rape. Sexual assault also includes any sexual contact with another person without that person’s consent. 

Sex-based Harassment means sexual harassment and other harassment on the basis of sex, including on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity, that is: 

1. Quid pro quo Harassment: An employee, agent, or other person authorized by the University to provide an aid, benefit, or service under the University’s education program or activity explicitly or impliedly conditioning the provision of such an aid, benefit, or service on a person’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct;
2. Hostile Environment Harassment: Unwelcome sex-based conduct that, based on the totality of the circumstances, is subjectively and objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the University’s education program or activity (i.e., creates a hostile environment). Whether a hostile environment has been created is a fact-specific inquiry that includes consideration of the following:
   1. The degree to which the conduct affected the complainant’s ability to access the University’s education program or activity;
   2. The type, frequency, and duration of the conduct;
   3. The parties’ ages, roles within the University’s education program or activity, previous interactions, and other factors about each party that may be relevant to evaluating the effects of the conduct;
   4. The location of the conduct and the context in which the conduct occurred; and
   5. Other sex-based harassment in the University’s education program or activity; or 
3. Specific Offenses: As used in this policy, “Specific Offenses” means sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking. 

Stalking means engaging in a course of conduct (two or more acts) directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of others, or to suffer substantial emotional distress. Both in-person and electronic stalking are prohibited by the University. 

Supportive Measures means individualized measures offered as appropriate, as reasonably available, without unreasonably burdening a complainant or respondent, not for punitive or disciplinary reasons, and without fee or charge to the complainant or respondent to: 

1. Restore or preserve that party’s access to the University’s education program or activity, including measures that are designed to protect the safety of the parties or the University’s educational environment; or
2. Provide support during the University’s grievance procedures or during the informal resolution process. 

Title IX Coordinator means the person authorized by the University to coordinate the University’s efforts to comply with its responsibilities under Title IX and to institute corrective measures on behalf of the University. 

Title IX Regulations means the regulations issued under Title IX in 34 CFR Part 106.