Rutgers Title IX Policy

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct, or communication of a sexual nature when:

• submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s education, educational or campus life activities; or
• submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic or student life decisions affecting that individual; or
• such conduct has the effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s education or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, demeaning, or offensive campus, work or living environmen

Sexual harassment may be committed by anyone regardless of gender identity and may occur between members of the same or different sex.

Gender-based Harassment

Gender-based harassment refers to acts of aggression, intimidation, stalking, or hostility based on gender, gender identity, or gender-stereotyping. Gender-based harassment can occur if students are harassed either for exhibiting what is perceived as a stereotypical characteristic of their sex, or for failing to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity. To constitute harassment, the conduct must unreasonably interfere with an individual’s education or academic activities or create an intimidating, hostile, demeaning, or offensive academic or living environment.

Sexual Intimidation

Sexual intimidation refers to threatening behavior of a sexual nature directed at another person or group that reasonably leads the target(s) to fear for their physical well-being or to engage in sexual conduct for self-protection, such as threatening to sexually assault another person or engaging in indecent exposure.

Sexual Exploitation

Sexual exploitation refers to non-consensual abuse or exploitation of another person’s sexuality for the purpose of sexual gratification, financial gain, personal benefit or advantage, or any other non-legitimate purpose. Examples of sexual exploitation include, but are not limited to:

• observing another individual’s nudity or sexual activity or allowing another to observe nudity or sexual activity without the knowledge and consent of all participants;
• non-consensual streaming of images, photography, video or audio recording of sexual activity or nudity, or distribution of such without the knowledge and consent of all participants;
• exposing one’s genitals in non-consensual circumstances; or
• inducing incapacitation for the purpose of making another person vulnerable to non- consensual sexual activity.

Depending on the circumstances of a particular case, sexual exploitation may also violate the provision of the Code of Student Conduct prohibiting Invasion of Privacy.

Sexual Assault or Non-Consensual Sexual Contact

Sexual assault or non-consensual sexual contact refers to any one or more of the following acts:

• Touching of an unwilling or non-consenting person’s intimate parts (such as genitalia, groin, breast, buttocks, or mouth under or over a person’s clothes).
• Touching an unwilling person or non-consenting person with one’s own intimate parts.
• Forcing an unwilling person to touch another’s intimate parts.
• Penetrating an unwilling person orally, anally, or vaginally with any object or body par This includes, but is not limited to, penetration of a bodily opening without consent, through the use of coercion, or through exploitation of another’s inability to give consent.
• Penetrating an unwilling person orally, anally, or vaginally with any object or body part by use of force, threat, and/or intimidation.

Relationship Violence

Relationship violence refers to any act of physical, sexual, and/or psychological harm against an individual by a current or former intimate or romantic partner, or by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common. Intimate or romantic partners may be dating, cohabitating, married, separate or divorced, and may be of the same or different sex. Dating violence and domestic violence are both considered “relationship violence” under this Policy.

Stalking

Stalking refers to any course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to be fearful of serious harm or danger to themselves or to individuals close to them. Examples of stalking include non-consensual communication and physical contact; following or pursuing the other person; waiting or showing up at locations visited by the other person; spying on a person; trespassing; vandalism; gathering of information about a person from others; or manipulating and controlling behaviors such as threats to harm oneself or threats to harm someone close to the victim.

Retaliation

Retaliation refers to any act of intimidation against individuals who, in good faith, assert their rights to bring a complaint under this Policy, including individuals who file a third- person report, or participate in an investigation, or protest the alleged conduct or retaliation. Retaliation can take many forms, including sustained abuse or violence, threats, and intimidation. Any individual or group of individuals, not just a Respondent or Complainant, can be responsible for retaliation. Retaliation is considered a separate offense from the original complaint, and will be considered independently from the merits of the underlying complaint.

Depending on the nature of the allegations, additional charges under the Code of Student Conduct may also apply. The Title IX Coordinator and the person responsible for addressing student conduct at a particular Rutgers Institution will determine whether those additional charges will be dealt with under this Policy, or under the Code of Student Conduct.