Student Handbook - Sexual Misconduct

Campus Sexual Misconduct Bill of Rights

The College provides a number of rights to victims of a sexual misconduct and to those accused of sexual misconduct including, but not limited to the following:

As a survivor of sexual misconduct, you have the right:

To be assisted by a SART advocate throughout the Code of Conduct process.
To have any allegation of sexual misconduct treated seriously and to be treated with respect.
To have information on existing medical, counseling, mental health, or student services for victims of sexual assault, both on the campus and in the community, whether or not the crime is reported to campus or civil authorities.
To have any allegation of sexual misconduct investigated and adjudicated by the appropriate criminal and civil authorities of the jurisdiction in which the crime occurred.
To full and prompt cooperation and assistance of campus personnel in notifying the proper authorities.
To be free from any suggestion that the victim is responsible for the commission of the crime.
To be free from any suggestion that the victim was negligent or assumed the risk of being assaulted.
To be free from any suggestion that the victim must report the crime to be assured of any other right guaranteed under the policy.
To be free from any suggestion that the victim should refrain from reporting crimes in order to avoid unwanted personal publicity.
To request that the hearing proceedings occur in such a fashion that you and the accused are never in the same room together.
To have an advocate present, in any campus disciplinary proceeding that the College permits to the accused.
To be notified of the outcome of any disciplinary proceeding against the accused.
To full, prompt, and victim-sensitive cooperation of campus personnel in obtaining, securing, and maintaining evidence, including a medical examination if it is necessary to preserve evidence of the assault.
To be informed of, and assisting in, exercising any rights that may be provided by law to compel the disclosure of the results of testing of sexual assault suspects for communicable diseases.
To be informed of, and assisted in, exercising any rights to be confidentially, or anonymously, tested for sexually transmitted disease or immunodeficiency virus.
To have access to counseling, under the terms and conditions as apply to other students seeking such counseling, from appropriate campus mental health service entities, or by other sexual misconduct victims, at the election of the victim.
To require campus personnel to take reasonable and necessary action to prevent further unwanted contact between a victim and his/her alleged assailant including, but not limited to, the immediate relocation of the victim to safe alternate housing and transfer of classes, if requested, if such changes are reasonably available. To request a campus “no contact order” against the alleged assailant who has engaged in, or threatens to engage in, an act of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment which presents a danger to the welfare of the victim or campus.

As a student accused of sexual misconduct you are entitled:

To be treated with respect by College officials.
To take advantage of campus support resources (Counseling Services, the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, and Health Services).
To have an advisor during a the Conduct Code hearing
To have access to counseling.
To be heard in accordance with the Student Conduct Code.

The Rights of Both the Complainant and Accused:

The right to present relevant witnesses to the hearing.
The right to be notified of the witnesses of the other party at least *** hours prior to the hearing.
The right to make a request of the Conduct Code Hearing Officer for witnesses to testify on their behalf. The Conduct Code Hearing Officer shall decide which witnesses shall testify based on the relevancy of their testimony.