Student Handbook - Sexual Misconduct
Sexual
discrimination includes all forms of sexual harassment and/or sexual violence
by employees, students, or third parties again employees, students, or third
parties.
Definition
of Sexual Misconduct and Related Terms
State
law defines various violent or non-consensual sexual acts as crimes.
Additionally, Union has defined categories of sexual misconduct, as stated
below, for which College disciplinary action may be imposed. Generally
speaking, Union considers sexual assault violations to be the most serious, and
therefore imposes the most severe sanctions, up to and including suspension or
expulsion. However, Union reserves the right to impose any level of discipline,
up to and including suspension or expulsion, for any act of sexual misconduct
or sexual exploitation.
Acts
of sexual misconduct may be committed by men against women, women against men,
men against men, and women against women. The issue in any case is not the
gender of the persons involved but the acts.
Sexual Discrimination
Sexual discrimination includes all forms of sexual harassment and/or sexual violence by employees, students, or third parties again employees, students, or third parties.
Sexual
Assault
Sexual
assault refers to any sexual penetration (anal, oral, or vaginal), however
slight, with any object, or sexual intercourse by a man or woman upon a man a
or woman without consent. Sexual penetration includes vaginal or anal
penetration by a penis, tongue, finger, or object or oral copulation by mount
to genital contact or genital to mouth contact.
Sexual
Misconduct
Sexual
misconduct refers to any intentional sexual touching, however slight, with any
object by a man or woman upon a man or woman without consent. Sexual touching
includes any bodily contact with the breasts, groin, genitals, mouth, or other
bodily orifice of another individual, or any other bodily contact in a sexual
manner. Sexual misconduct also includes any disrobing of another or exposure to
another by a man or woman without effective consent.
Sexual
Exploitation
Sexual
Exploitation refers to a situation in which a person takes non-consensual or
abusive sexual advantage of another, and situations in which the conduct does
not fall within the definitions of sexual assault or sexual misconduct.
Sanctions for sexual exploitation can vary greatly depend on the severity of the
violation. Severe cases can involve suspension or expulsion. Examples of sexual
exploitation include, but are not limited to:
- Sexual voyeurism (such as watching a person undressing, using the bathroom or
engaged in sexual acts without the consent of the person observed).
- Taking pictures or video or audio recording another in a sexual act, or in any
other private activity without the consent of all involved in the activity, or
exceeding the boundaries of consent (such as allowing another person to hide in
a closet and observe sexual activity, or disseminating sexual pictures without
the photographed person’s consent).
- Prostitution (such as selling or exchanging sexual acts for money or something
else of value or benefit).
- Engaging in sexual activity with another person while knowingly infected with a
sexually transmitted disease (STD) and without informing the other person of
the infection.
- Administering drugs (such as “date rape” drugs) to another person without his
or her knowledge or effective consent.
- Compelling or inducing another person to engage in a sexual act by means of:
(i) pressuring, cajoling, or arguing with the individual; (ii) instilling a
fear of dire consequences (e.g., by exposure of a secret, fact, or falsity as
fact), such as ridicule, if a demand is not complied with; and/or (iii) plying
the individual with alcohol.
Consent
Consent
is permission, freely given by word or action, by all participants to an
activity. Since individuals may experience the same interaction in different
ways, it is the responsibility of all parties to make certain that the other
has consented before engaging in the activity. For consent to be valid, there
must be an expression in words or actions that the other individual consented
to that particular sexual conduct.
A
person cannot consent if he or she is unable to understand what is happening or
is disoriented, helpless, asleep, or unconscious for any reason, including due
to alcohol or drugs. A student who engages in sexual activity when the student
knows, or should know, that the other person is physically or mentally
incompetent has violated this Policy. It is not an excuse that the student
accused of sexual misconduct was intoxicated and, therefore, did not realize
the incapacity of the other.
Consent
to some sexual contact (such as kissing or fondling) cannot be presumed to be
consent for other sexual activity (such as intercourse). A current or previous
dating relationship is not sufficient to constitute consent. The existence of
consent is based on the totality of the circumstances, including the context in
which the alleged incident occurred. Silence or the absence of resistance alone
is not consent. A person can withdraw consent at any time during sexual
activity by expressing in words or actions that he or she no longer wants the
act to continue, and, if that happens, the other person must stop immediately.
In
New York State, a minor (meaning a person under the age of 17 years) cannot
consent to sexual activity. This means that sexual contact with a person less
than 17 years old is a crime as well as a violation of this policy even if the
minor wanted to engage in the sexual act.
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