This Policy sets forth conduct expectations for our community and provides a process for the reporting, investigation, and adjudication of alleged violations. This Policy applies to alleged conduct violative of Title IX and also applies to a broader range of contexts and behaviors inconsistent with the Institute’s commitment to equal opportunity. Pursuant to Title IX, the Institute is required to address sex discrimination occurring within its education program or activity in the United States. The Institute will address a sex-based hostile environment in its education program or activity even when some conduct alleged to be contributing to the hostile environment occurred outside the Institute’s program or activity or outside the United States. Thus, where an individual experiences a sex-based hostile environment within its educational programs and activities and some of the conduct that contributes to the hostile environment occurred outside of the Institute’s educational programs or activities or outside of the United States, the Institute will take steps to address the hostile environment. Conduct that occurs under the Institute’s program or activity includes, but is not limited to, conduct that occurs in any building owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by the Institute and conduct that is subject to the Institute’s disciplinary authority.
The conduct prohibited under this Policy is not limited to the scope of conduct covered by Title IX. Munson and the College prohibit the below conduct even if the conduct occurs off-campus or outside the United States. However, the Institute retains discretion to not respond to, investigate, or adjudicate circumstances in which no Institute interest is implicated.
This Policy prohibits the following conduct defined below. The acts referenced below shall also be referred to as “Prohibited Conduct” under this policy.
Sex Discrimination: Different treatment that disadvantages a person and that occurs because of or on the basis of the affected individual’s sex. For purposes of this Policy, discrimination “on the basis of sex” includes discrimination based on sex, sex stereotypes, gender, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions, and gender identity. Examples of sex discrimination include, but are not limited to, denying a student a research opportunity because of the student’s gender, giving a student a lower grade than they deserved because or on the basis of the student’s sex, or denying an employee a raise or promotion on the basis of the employee’s sex.
Sex-Based Harassment: A form of sex discrimination and means sexual harassment and other harassment on the basis of sex, including on the basis of sex, sex stereotypes, gender, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, and gender identity. Sex-based harassment includes the following:
- Quid pro quo harassment: An employee, agent, or other person authorized by the Institute to provide an aid, benefit, or service under its 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.
- 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 Institute’s education programs or activities (i.e., creates a hostile environment).
Whether a hostile environment has been created is a fact-specific inquiry that includes consideration of the following:
- The degree to which the conduct affected the complainant’s ability to access the Institute’s education program or activity;
- The type, frequency, and duration of the conduct;
- The parties’ ages, roles within the Institute’s education program or activity, previous interactions, and other factors about a party that may be relevant to evaluating the effects of the conduct;
- The location of the conduct and the context in which the conduct occurred; and
- Other sex-based harassment in the education program or activity.
Sexual harassment and other forms of sex-based hostile environment harassment can be verbal, written, visual, electronic or physical. The fact that a person was personally offended by a statement or incident does not alone constitute a violation. Instead, the determination is based on a “reasonable person” standard and takes into account the totality of the circumstances. The Institute considers the context of a communication or incident, the relationship of the individuals involved in the communication or incident, whether an incident was an isolated incident or part of a broader pattern or course of offensive conduct, the seriousness of the incident, the intent of the individual who engaged in the allegedly offensive conduct, and its effect or impact on the individual and the learning community. Sex-Based Harassment also includes gender-based harassment, which may include acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression or hostility based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions, or sex- or gender-stereotyping, even if those acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature.
- Sexual Assault: 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 any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or without consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving affirmative consent. Sexual assault consists of the following specific acts:
- Rape: The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.
- Nonconsensual Sexual Contact: The intentional touching of the private body parts (including genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks) of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification or with sexual intent, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of their age or because of their temporary or permanent mental incapacity. Acts of non-consensual sexual contact may include but are not limited to intentional contact (directly or over clothing), for sexual gratification or with sexual intent, with another person’s breasts, buttocks, groin, genitals, inner thigh, or touching another with any of these body parts without consent.
- Incest: Sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law.
- Statutory Rape: Sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent. The statutory age of consent in New York is 17.
- Dating violence: Violence (including, but not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse) committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim; and where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors: i) the length of the relationship; ii) the type of relationship; and iii) the frequency of interaction between the people involved in the relationship. Dating violence can include behavior such as coercion, isolation or other forms of emotional, verbal or economic abuse if it reflects a threat of sexual or physical abuse as described above.
- Domestic violence: Domestic violence refers to a felony or misdemeanor crime 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 intimate partner, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction where the Institute is located, 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 the jurisdiction. To categorize an incident as Domestic Violence, the relationship between the responding party and the reporting party/complainant must be more than just two people living together as roommates. The people cohabitating must be current or former spouses or have an intimate relationship as described above.
- Stalking: Engaging in a course of conduct, on the basis of sex, directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or suffer substantial emotional distress. “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.
- Sexual Exploitation: The abuse or exploitation of another person’s sexuality without consent, for the perpetrators own advantage or benefit, or for the benefit or advantage of anyone other than the one being exploited. Sexual Exploitation includes, without limitation, causing or attempting to cause the incapacitation of another person in order to gain a sexual advantage over that person; causing the prostitution of another person; electronically recording, photographing, or transmitting intimate or sexual utterances, sounds or images of another person; allowing third parties to observe sexual acts; exposing one’s genitals in non-consensual circumstances or nonconsensual disrobing of another person so as to expose the other person’s private body parts; engaging in sexual voyeurism (such as observing or allowing others to observe a person undressing or using the bathroom or engaging in sexual acts, without the consent of the person being observed); distributing intimate or sexual information about another person; and/or knowingly transmitting a sexually transmitted infection, including HIV, to another person.
- Retaliation: An adverse act perpetrated to “get back” at a person because the person reported misconduct under this policy, filed a complaint, or participated in an investigation or proceeding conducted pursuant to this Policy by the Institute or by an external agency. Retaliation includes intimidation, threats, coercion, or discrimination against any person for the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by Title IX or this Policy 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 this Policy, including an informal resolution process. Peer retaliation, defined as retaliation, by one student against another student, is also prohibited under this Policy. An act of retaliation may be anything that would tend to discourage an individual from reporting sex discrimination, pursuing a complaint, or from participating in an investigation or adjudication as a party or a witness. Nothing in these definitions precludes the Institute from requiring an employee or other person authorized by the Institute to provide aid, benefit, or service under the Institute’s education program or activity to participate as a witness in, or otherwise assist with, an investigation, proceeding or hearing. A person who acts in good faith is protected from retaliation. The fact that a statement is not determined to be proven or established following investigation and adjudication does not mean that the statement lacked good-faith; a person may provide inaccurate information believing it is accurate, which is still good-faith. If a person makes a statement knowing that it is false, the person has acted without good faith. Retaliation should be reported promptly to Title IX Coordinator and may result in disciplinary action independent of the sanction or interim measures imposed in response to the underlying allegations of sex discrimination
