An adviser is an individual of the Complainant’s or Respondent’s choosing, including an attorney, to provide support during the complaint process. More on the role and responsibility of an adviser can be found in the Title IX Grievance Procedure.

Administrative leave is the process where the institution places an Employee on an interim work, supervision, leadership, or teaching suspension after the filing of a Formal Complaint against the Employee.

Coercion is verbal and/or physical conduct, including intimidation, unwanted contact, and express or implied threats of physical, emotional, or other harm, that would reasonably place an individual in fear of immediate harm and that is employed to compel someone to engage in sexual contact.

A Complainant is the individual(s) who is alleged to be the victim of behavior that could constitute Prohibited Conduct. A Complainant seeking to use the Title IX Grievance Procedure associated with this policy must have been participating in or attempting to participate in an educational program, employment, or activity of Brown at the time the formal complaint is submitted. 

Consent is an affirmative and willing agreement to engage in specific forms of sexual contact with another person. Consent requires an outward demonstration, through mutually understandable words or actions, indicating that an individual has freely and affirmatively chosen to engage in sexual contact. Consent cannot be obtained through: (1) the use of coercion or force or (2) by taking advantage of the incapacitation of another individual.

Silence, passivity, incapacitation from alcohol or drugs, or the absence of resistance does not imply consent. It is important not to make assumptions; if confusion or ambiguity arises during a sexual interaction, it is essential that each participant stops and clarifies the other’s willingness to continue.

Consent can be withdrawn at any time. When consent is withdrawn, sexual activity must cease.  Prior consent does not imply current or future consent; even in the context of an ongoing relationship, consent must be sought and freely given for each instance of sexual contact. An essential element of consent is that it be freely given. Freely given consent might not be present, or may not even be possible, in relationships of a sexual or intimate nature between individuals where one individual has power, supervision, or authority over another.

In evaluating whether consent was given, consideration will be given to the totality of the facts and circumstances, including but not limited to the extent to which a Complainant or reporting party affirmatively uses words or actions indicating a willingness to engage in sexual contact, free from coercion; whether a reasonable person in the Respondent’s position would have understood such person’s words and acts as an expression of consent; and whether there are any circumstances, known or reasonably apparent to the Respondent, demonstrating incapacitation.

• Applicants: Individuals who have expressed an interest in applying or have submitted an application for employment or enrollment as a student.
• Contractors: Independent contractors, vendors, or other third parties contractually obligated to perform services for Brown University.
• Employees: Individuals employed by Brown University, including faculty, affiliates, visiting faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and all staff (including all exempt and non-exempt, bargaining unit, and senior administrative positions), as well as those physicians and health scientists who are not employed by Brown University but have Brown University faculty, affiliate, postdoctoral, or house staff appointments for the purpose of teaching and/or research in the Division of Biology and Medicine.
• Invitees: Visitors or guests of Brown University.
• Students: Individuals enrolled in the College, the Graduate School, the Warren Alpert Medical School, the School of Public Health, the School of Engineering, and/or the School of Professional Studies.

Discipline is a consequence, punishment, or penalty rendered as a result of a finding of responsibility for a policy violation.

Emergency removal is the process where the institution places a Respondent on an interim suspension, interim leave of absence, and/or interim removal from campus. The Title IX Program Officer will bring reports that may necessitate an emergency removal to the Threat Assessment Team in the case involving Student Respondents, or convene a risk assessment group for cases involving Employee Respondents to determine whether there is reasonable cause to believe that the Prohibited Conduct is likely to continue and/or the Respondent poses a significant threat of harm to the health, safety, and welfare of others or the University community.

If the Threat Assessment Team determines that an emergency removal of a student is warranted, it will recommend that action to the Associate Vice President for Campus Life and Dean of Students who will decide whether to implement the emergency removal. Emergency removals of a student can be appealed to the Vice President of Campus Life. Brown may remove a student on an emergency basis with or without the completion of a complaint resolution process.

Force is the use or threat of physical violence to overcome an individual’s freedom of will to choose whether or not to participate in sexual contact.

A written and signed document submitted by a Complainant (or the Title IX Program Officer in lieu of a Complainant) alleging that a Covered Person has engaged in conduct prohibited by this policy. A Formal Complaint should include identities of the parties involved (if known), the Prohibited Conduct alleged, the date and location of the alleged incident (if known), and the details of the incident. The Formal Complaint will be shared the Respondent and the investigator upon the initiation of an investigation.

An individual who is incapacitated lacks the ability to make informed judgments and cannot consent to sexual contact. Incapacitation is the inability, temporarily or permanently, to give consent because an individual is mentally and/or physically helpless, asleep, unconscious, or unaware that sexual activity is occurring. Mentally helpless means a person is rendered temporarily incapable of appraising or controlling one’s own conduct. Physically helpless means a person is physically unable to verbally or otherwise communicate consent or unwillingness to an act.

Where alcohol or other drugs are involved, incapacitation is a state beyond impairment or intoxication. Where alcohol or other drugs are involved, evaluating incapacitation requires an assessment of how the consumption of alcohol and/or drugs affects a person’s: decision-making ability; awareness of consequences; ability to make informed, rational judgments; capacity to appreciate the nature and quality of the act; or level of consciousness. The assessment is based on objectively and reasonably apparent indications of incapacitation when viewed from the perspective of a sober, reasonable person.

A course of action taken by the University in response to a report of Prohibited Conduct. These measures may be both restorative (designed to address a Complainant’s safety and well-being and continued access to educational opportunities) and remedial (involving action against a Respondent without unreasonably burdening a Respondent.) Interim actions may include housing relocation, on-campus housing restriction, change in work location or modification of work hours, restricted access to certain buildings or locations of campus, course reassignment or shift to remote course access, interim suspension and/or interim removal from campus, or interim administrative leave of absence. Interim action may be taken with or without a formal complaint or the implementation of a complaint resolution process and are individualized to protect the safety of all parties, the broader campus community, and/or prevent future Prohibited Conduct.

Includes Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, Gender-Based Harassment, Prohibited Intimate Relationships, Sexual Assault (Rape, Fondling, Incest, Statutory Rape), Sexual Harassment, Retaliation and Stalking.

• Dating Violence: Dating violence is violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim. Dating violence includes, but is not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse. Dating violence does not include acts covered under the definition of domestic violence. This definition is prescribed by the 2014 Violence Against Women’s Act as defined in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
• Domestic Violence: Domestic violence is violence committed (i.) by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim; (ii.) by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common; (iii.) by a person who is cohabitating with, or has cohabitated with, the victim as a spouse or intimate partner; (iv.) by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred, or (v.) by any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred.

  Domestic violence includes, but is not limited to, physical, sexual, emotional, economic, and/or psychological actions or threats of action, including threatening to reveal personal or confidential information (including, but not limited, to information regarding one’s gender identity and/or sexual orientation), that are intimidating, frightening, terrorizing, or threatening. Prohibited Conduct under this definition includes threats of violence or harm to one’s self, one’s family member(s) or friends, and/or one’s pet. This definition is prescribed by the 2014 Violence Against Women’s Act as defined in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

• Gender-Based Harassment: Unwelcome action based on actual or perceived sex or gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, whether verbal or non-verbal, graphic, physical, or otherwise that has the purpose of unreasonably interfering with the learning, working, or living environment; in other words, the behavior is sufficiently severe or pervasive and objectively offensive that it denies the target(s) equal access to the programs and activities of Brown (Hostile Environment).
  • Hostile Environment: A hostile environment is one that denies or interferes with an individual or group’s access to the programs and activities of Brown. A hostile environment is created when (i.) enduring the hostile conduct based on gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation that becomes a condition of the continued living, working, or social environment, or (ii.) the conduct is sufficiently severe and pervasive, and objectively offensive to create an environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive.

    Slights, offensive comments, and isolated incidents (unless extremely serious) typically do not rise to the level of a policy violation unless the effects associated with the offensive comment go beyond being uncomfortable, embarrassed, or offended.

    In evaluating whether a hostile environment exists, the University will consider the totality of known circumstances, including but not limited to:

    • The frequency, nature, and severity of the conduct;
    • Public nature of the conduct;
    • Whether the conduct was physically threatening;
    • The effect of the conduct on the Complainant’s mental and emotional state;
    • Whether the conduct was directed at more than one person;
    • Whether the conduct arose in the context of other unlawful discriminatory conduct; and 
    • Whether the conduct implicates concerns related to academic freedom or protected speech.

• Prohibited Intimate Relationships: No Employee shall request or accept sexual favors from or engage in a romantic, sexual, or intimate relationship with any Brown University undergraduate Student. This prohibition includes intimate relationships between student supervisors and supervisees, and undergraduate, graduate, or medical student teaching or research assistant, teaching fellow, or proctor and any undergraduate student who is enrolled in a course or section taught by that individual or otherwise subject to that individual’s academic supervision. 

  Relationships of a sexual or intimate nature between Employees and graduate and medical Students where the Employee has power, supervision, or authority over the student is prohibited. No faculty, graduate or medical Student, medical resident or fellow, postdoctoral fellow or associate, teaching or research assistant or fellow, proctor shall request or accept sexual favors from or engage in a romantic, sexual, or intimate relationship with any graduate or medical Student who is enrolled in a course or section taught by that individual or otherwise subject to that individual’s academic supervision.

  Academic supervision includes teaching, advising, supervising research, serving on a dissertation or other academic committee, grading, and/or having influence upon funding and/or academic progress, and/or otherwise occupying a position of influence or power over a Student’s academic program.

  Even when both parties have consented at the outset to the development of such a relationship, it is the person in the position of greater authority who may be investigated for or charged with Prohibited Conduct.

  Pre-existing relationships of a sexual or intimate nature with a Student or relationships between individuals who are faculty and staff must be disclosed on the Conflict of Interest Form and may require a Management Plan.

• Retaliation: Retaliation is any action, statement, or behavior meant as reprisal or retribution against an individual in response to the individual’s good-faith report or participation in a proceeding related to this policy. Any retaliatory action taken directly or indirectly against a person who has made a report, filed a complaint, or participated in an investigation is prohibited. 

  Retaliation includes, but is not limited to, intimidation, threats, harassment, and other conduct that would discourage a reasonable person from engaging in activity protected under this policy, such as seeking services, receiving protective measures and accommodations, and/or reporting Prohibited Conduct. This prohibition against retaliation protects Complainants, Respondents, reporting parties, witnesses, hearing panelists, decision-makers, advisors, investigators, and other individuals who provide information relating to a Title IX investigation or participate in a complaint process associated with this policy.

• Sexual Assault: Sexual assault is defined as a sexual act directed against another person, without the consent of the other person, including instances where the target is incapable of giving consent due to age or temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. Sexual Assault is the umbrella term for actions that constitute rape, fondling, incest, and statutory rape. This definition is prescribed by the 2014 Violence Against Women’s Act as defined in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
  • Fondling: Forcible or non-forcible touching of the private body part (breast, buttocks, groin, genital, or other intimate part) of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification without consent.
  • Incest: Sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law. This definition is prescribed by the 2014 Violence Against Women’s Act as defined in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).
  • Rape: Attempted or completed anal or vaginal penetration of another person, no matter how slight, by a body part or object without consent and/or completed or attempted oral penetration by a sex organ of another person.
  • Statutory Rape: Non-forcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.
     
• Sexual Harassment: Conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following: 
  
  (i.) An employee conditions the provision of an aid, benefit, or service on an individual’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct (quid pro quo); and/or 

  (ii.) Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe and pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the programs and activities of Brown (Hostile Environment).

• Stalking: Stalking is a course of conduct on the basis of sex or gender directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to (i.) fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others; or (ii.) suffer substantial emotional distress.

  For the purposes of this policy, Stalking refers to actions “on the basis of sex or gender” that would constitute Sexual or Gender-Based Harassment such as surveillance of a former intimate partner.

  Course of conduct means two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means, follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about a person, or interferes with a person’s property. Substantial emotional distress means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily require, medical or other professional treatment or counseling.

  Stalking includes the concepts of cyber-stalking, a form of stalking through electronic media such as the internet, social networks, blogs, cell phones, texts, or other similar devices or forms of contact. This definition is prescribed by the 2014 Violence Against Women’s Act as defined in the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS).

An individual(s) who has been reported to be the perpetrator of behavior that could constitute Prohibited Conduct.

Information shared with the Title IX Office that includes details of alleged Prohibited Conduct. A report is made when a Complainant, reporting party, or third party seeks information, support measures, or informs the University of Prohibited Conduct, but such party is not making a Formal Complaint or pursuing a complaint resolution process to address the alleged Prohibited Conduct.

Non-disciplinary, non-punitive measures provided to a Complainant or Respondent designed to restore or preserve equal access to Brown’s programs and activities without unreasonably burdening the other party, including measures designed to protect the safety of all parties and deter future prohibited conduct. The Title IX Program Officer will oversee the implementation of support measures that are individualized to respond to the effects of the Prohibited Conduct, and that are appropriate, reasonably available, and free of charge. Support measures may include a no-contact order, counseling, extensions of deadlines or other course-related adjustments, modifications of work or class schedules, campus escort services, changes in work or housing locations, leave of absence, increased security and monitoring of certain areas of the campus, and other similar measures. Use of support measures is private and is available with or without a Formal Complaint.

Brown will also provide reasonably available support measures for third-party reporters, provided that the accommodations are within the scope of that individual’s relationship to Brown University.