Sexual Harassment Defined
Sexual harassment consists of unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
- submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or academic standing;
- submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for employment or academic decisions affecting such individual; or
- such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or abusive work or academic environment.
Sexual harassment can occur between individuals of different sexes or of the same sex. Although sexual harassment most often exploits a relationship between individuals of unequal power (such as between a faculty member and student, supervisor and employee, or tenured and untenured faculty members), it may also occur between individuals of equal power (such as between fellow students or co-workers), or in some circumstances even where it appears that the harasser has less power than the individual harassed (such as a student sexually harassing a faculty member).