Sexual Harassment of a Student by a Faculty/Staff/Campus Visitor

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature by a faculty or staff member or by a campus visitor toward a student are held to constitute sexual harassment when:

Submission to such sexual conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of rating an individual’s educational development or performance; or
Such conduct is so severe or pervasive that it unreasonably interferes with or limits a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the college’s educational programs or activities.

While a particular interaction must be offensive to both a reasonable person and to the victim to be defined as harassment, faculty or staff members and other persons of authority should be sensitive to questions about mutuality of consent that may be raised and to the conflict of interests that are inherent in personal relationships that result from professional and educational interactions.

Harassment is particularly damaging when it exploits the educational dependence and trust between students and faculty/staff. When the authority and power inherent in faculty/staff relationships with students, whether overtly, implicitly, or through misinterpretation, is abused in any way, there is potentially great damage to the individual student, to the accused individual, and to the climate of the institution. For example, a professor attempts to coerce an unwilling student into having sex with him/her in exchange for a good grade or some other benefit. This is harassment regardless of whether the student accedes to the request and regardless of the student’s final grade.