WHAT IS SEXUAL HARASSMENT?
Old Dominion University’s Discrimination Policy defines it as follows:
Unwelcome and unsolicited conduct of a sexual nature, physical or verbal, by
a member of the University community when:
1. Submission to such conduct is made explicitly or implicitly a term or
condition of the employee’s work performance or the student’s academic
performance;
2. Submission to, or rejection of, such conduct is used as a basis for an
employment decision or an academic decision affecting the individual; or
3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of interfering with such person’s
work or academic performance or participation in extracurricular activities
by creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or educational
environment.
Several types of sexual conduct directed at another university community
member may be considered sexual harassment, including but not limited to:
• Comments
of a sexual nature including sexually explicit statements,
questions, jokes or anecdotes.
• R emarks of a sexual nature about a person’s body or clothing, whistling in
a suggestive manner, obscene gestures.
• Uninvited
physical contact or touching such as pinching or intentional
brushing against the body.
• Solicitation
of sexual favors through implicit or explicit promises of
workplace or academic rewards or threats of punishment.
In short, sexual harassment is unwanted sexual attention. It is behavior which
creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working or learning environment.
Students, staff, and faculty can be both the victims and the perpetrators of
sexual harassment and it can occur between students. Although women are
more often sexually harassed by men, the reverse can occur.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS NOT:
• A relationship of mutual consent
• A hug between friends
• Mutual flirtation
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