Sexual Harassment is unwanted sexual attention. The University defines Sexual Harassment as follows: The unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when:
- submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment or academic status;
- submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for an employment decision or an academic decision affecting the individual;
Academic Sexual Harassment Advisors for the School are the Dean and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
The primary responsibilities of the Sexual Harassment Advisor are to listen and to make you aware of the options available and to assist you in implementing that which you choose. The choice, however, of which avenue to pursue, remains yours. Advisors are appointed to counsel anyone wishing to discuss perceptions of sexual harassment. All discussions are strictly confidential unless you explicitly give the Advisor permission to pursue the matter further.
There are a variety of procedures, formal and informal, when dealing with cases of Sexual Harassment, depending on the severity of the situation and the institutional affiliation of those involved. An informal, but often effective, procedure can be as simple as sending a letter to the individual you perceive as a harasser, describing the incident in question and asking that it cease. Usually sexual harassment can be stopped by taking this direct action.
However, more formal procedures do exist to protect all students, Faculty, and staff. Copies of the Grievance Procedures are available to members of the University's community through the Harassment Advisors or directly through the Office of Equal Opportunity, 234 Day Hall, 255-3976.
In the President's Statement on Sexual Harassment University President Hunter R. Rawlings III says: "....Deans, Directors, and Vice Presidents should use their authority to take appropriate action when cases of this kind come to their attention. There must be no mistake about our determination to remove sexual harassment from our campus as we strengthen our resolve to make Cornell University a more civil and a more humane community."
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