Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment occurs when unwanted attention of a sexual nature interferes with a student’s ability to obtain an education, work, or participate in recreational or social activities at UCSB. Sexual harassment is an abuse of informal or formal power or authority. In the few studies that have examined student-to-student harassment at colleges, as many as ninety percent of undergraduate women reported at least one negative experience in interactions with a male student.

Sexual harassment on the part of faculty may be very overt or very subtle. It is a violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct (APM 015) for a faculty member to engage in a romantic or sexual relationship with a student for whom he or she has academic responsibility or should reasonably expect to have such responsibility in the future.

Sexual harassment can include:

• personal jokes or negative comments about a student personally or about him/her as a female or male (gender harassment);
• pressure to spend time with a professor/teaching assistant/staff member/other student outside the academic setting, to get romantically involved or date, or personal questions that make a student feel uncomfortable;
• uninvited or unwelcome touching (including hugging or grabbing, frequently brushing against a student, or asking him or her to sit uncomfortably close);
• asking a student directly for sexual favors in exchange for a better/passing grade, assignment, or a favorable recommendation.

Students who are sexually harassed are often so confused, worried, or angry that they don’t know what to do. They are often afraid of retaliation. Many are worried that they are to blame for the situation. When dealing with a student who is complaining of sexual harassment:

DO

1. Take the report seriously.
2. Validate the student’s feelings and experience.
3. Listen and sympathize, but don’t judge.
4. Assure the student that the institution takes sexual harassment seriously and will not tolerate it.
5. Respond to the student’s concerns. Assure the student that the institution will do everything in its power to ensure confidentiality as far as possible (but make no promises), to prevent retaliation and stop further harassment.
6. Refer the student to either a sexual harassment advisor (list available on-line at http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/women'scenter/sexualharassment/index.asp) or the Sexual Harassment/Title IX Complaint Resolution Office, 2121 Cheadle Hall, 893-2546.
7. Check with the complainant the next day to ensure that he or she is getting needed assistance.

DON’T

1. Ignore the student.
2. Minimize the situation.
3. Judge whether the behavior is or is not sexual harassment.
4. Assure the student that you can ensure confidentiality. Once an agent of the University knows about the existence of potential sexual harassment, our institution is officially “on notice.”
5. Delay referring the student to a sexual harassment advisor or the Sexual Harassment/Title IX Complaint Resolution Office. Delays of even a few days can make it more difficult to resolve the situation or send a signal to the complainant that the institution is not taking the complaint or problem seriously.

On-line sexual harassment training is available to the entire campus community. It is easily accessible at www.sa.ucsb.edu/women'scenter/sexualharassment/ucsbonlinetrainingcourse.asp or http://shpe.sa.ucsb.edu/. For more information about the Sexual Harassment Prevention Education Program, contact the coordinator at 893-3778 or e-mail sheila.johnson@sa.ucsb.edu.

Also, the University of California recently issued a new systemwide sexual harassment policy, as well as a new procedure for handling complaints. These documents are available at the following two web sites:

• Policy: http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/policy/PP021006Policy.pdf
• Procedures: http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/policy/PP121404.pdf