Title IX Definitions

Sexual harassment is a type of sex discrimination and is prohibited by Title IX and by Brunswick Community College policy. Sexual harassment may include unwelcome sexual advances, requests to engage in sexual conduct or for sexual favors, and other behavior of a sexual nature where:

  1. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s education or employment;
  2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic or employment decisions affecting the individual; and/or
  3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s academic or work performance, or of creating an intimidating, hostile or demeaning educational or employment environment.

Sexual harassment can be verbal, visual or physical and can occur regardless of the relationship, position, gender, or sexual orientation of the parties involved. It can be overt (e.g., in a suggestion that a person can get a higher grade by submitting to sexual advances), or implied from conduct or circumstances.

Sexual harassment can also consist of unwelcome attempts to make an educational or professional relationship into a personal one. It may include severe, persistent and pervasive unwelcome sexual flirtation or inappropriate or derogatory language, including jokes involving individuals or classes of people, or persistent requests for dates. A single incident or few incidents may not necessarily amount to harassment, but a single extreme incident could constitute prohibited discrimination or harassment. Sexual harassment can also include the display of offensive materials, unwelcome physical contact, or serious physical abuse such as sexual assault or rape.

Sexual Assault is any non-consensual, intentional physical contact of a sexual nature, such as unwelcome contact with a person’s genitals, buttocks or breasts, or any form of sexual intercourse without consent. Rape is a form of sexual assault.

Forcible sex offense is defined as any sexual act directed against another person, forcibly and/or against that person’s will; or not forcibly or against the person’s will where the victim is incapable of giving consent. They include rape, sodomy, sexual assault, and forcible fondling.

Non-forcible sex offense includes incest and statutory rape.

Consent is voluntary and sober. It requires words or actions that show a voluntary willingness or agreement to engage in a mutually agreed upon sexual activity. Consent is not present when one is incapable of consent, by reason of intoxication or incapacitation due to drugs or alcohol, when subject to coercion or threat of coercion, or subject to force. Consent to conduct does not occur when a person is incapable of evaluating the nature of the conduct, incapable of declining participation in, or communicating unwillingness to engage in, a sexual act or other acts. Submission to conduct does not mean the conduct was welcome or consensual; in other words, the absence of “no” does not mean “yes.”

Just because someone has consented to certain sexual activities in the past does not mean that that person is consenting to sexual activity at present. Further, even if someone consents to certain types of sexual contact that does not mean that person also wants to engage in sexual intercourse or other sexual activities.

Domestic Violence may include violent acts by a current or former spouse; by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common; by a person who is or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse; by a person similarly situated to a spouse; between a parent and child; between members of the same household in an intimate relationship; or by any other person similarly situated. Domestic violence can be physical, sexual, emotional or economic in nature.

Dating Violence can be violence or abusive behavior used by one partner to gain or maintain control over another partner. It can be violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social, romantic or intimate relationship with the victim. The existence of such a relationship will be determined by factors such as the length of the relationship, the type of relationship, and the frequency of interaction between the persons involved.

Stalking is unwanted or obsessive attention by an individual or group toward a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety or the safety of others or to suffer substantial emotional distress. Stalking may include the monitoring of an individual online or involve the use of social media, email or other technology. It may also include unwanted observation or surveillance.