The following are provided as examples of the kinds of actions that may constitute harassment under College policy:

• Hostile, intimidating remarks spoken or written (including jokes) or physical gestures directed at a person because of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national or ethnic origin, or disability.
• Sexual contact or pressure that is not freely and explicitly agreed to by both parties. A stranger does not always perpetrate rape. Date or acquaintance rape and pressured sex are more common than many realize. No circumstance, including excessive drinking, is an acceptable excuse for such behavior.
• Any unwanted attention of a sexual nature (e.g., physical contact, written or verbal comments, lewd or suggestive looks and/or gestures).
• Implied or expressed threat of reprisal for failure to comply with a request for sexual contact.
• Any conduct of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably or substantially interfering with an individual’s working or educational environment, or of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or educational environment.

Defining harassment in the classroom poses some difficult problems. The tradition of academic freedom is a long and honored one. Instructors have wide latitude to conduct classroom sessions in creative and intellectually stimulating ways. In the classroom, texts, ideas, values, and objects should be presented so as to elicit the fullest possible critical and emotional response. It seems unlikely that any student could pass through the educational process without confronting uncomfortable moments and ideas that are disquieting. While students must expect to be challenged, they also have the right to participate in the classroom without being harassed or intimidated. Students should not be singled out in any way by race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.

It is incumbent upon faculty members not to abuse, or seem to abuse, the power with which they are entrusted. Instructors have the special responsibility to explain to their students, when necessary, the educational purpose of any classroom technique or practice.