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Glossary of Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Terms

We have compiled this glossary of sexual and gender-based misconduct terms. 

 

    A person chosen by a Complainant or Respondent or appointed by the institution who may accompany the Complainant or Respondent to all meetings related to the resolution process and advise the Party on that process.

    The improper use of pressure to compel another individual to initiate or continue sexual activity against the individual’s will. Coercion may include intimidation, manipulation, threats, and blackmail. Words or conduct may constitute coercion if they wrongfully impair another individual’s freedom of will and ability to choose whether to engage in sexual activity.

    A student or employee who is alleged to have been subjected to conduct that could constitute sex or gender-based discrimination, harassment, or retaliation under CMU’s Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy;

    or a person other than a student or employee who is alleged to have been subjected to conduct that could constitute sex and gender-based discrimination under CMU’s Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy and who was participating or attempting to participate in CMU’s education program or activity at the time of the alleged sex and gender-based discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.

    An oral or written request to CMU that objectively can be understood as a request for CMU to investigate and make a determination about alleged violation(s) of CMU’s Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy. 

    An affirmative, conscious decision by a participant to engage in sexual activity. Consent must be freely and voluntarily given with knowledge of the nature of the act or transaction involved and can be revoked at anytime. CMU will consider the following when evaluating whether the Complainant has given Consent:

  • Level of mutual understanding of the nature and scope of the act to which the individual Consented and a willingness to do the same thing, at the same time, in the same way;
  • Whether Consent was obtained through the use of force, coercion, threats, or intimidation or by taking advantage of the Incapacitation of another individual;
  • Whether communication regarding Consent used mutually understandable words and/or actions that indicated an unambiguous willingness to engage in sexual activity. If there is no evidence of clear communication or outward demonstration, CMU will find that Consent was not given;
  • Whether Complainant withdrew Consent; and/or
  • Whether, once withdrawn, the sexual activity ceased immediately and/or all parties received mutually expressed or clearly stated Consent before continuing further sexual activity.
  • CMU will not consider Consent to one form of sexual contact as Consent to all forms of sexual contact; nor will it consider Consent to sexual activity with one person as Consent to activity with any other person. Each participant in a sexual encounter must Consent to each form of sexual contact with each participant.
  • Even in the context of a current or previous intimate relationship, CMU will evaluate whether each party Consented to each instance of sexual contact each time.
  • Complainant need not resist the sexual advance or request to demonstrate a lack of Consent; however, CMU will view Complainant’s resistance as a clear demonstration of non-consent.

    • Violence, or threat of violence, by a person who has been in a romantic or intimate relationship with the Complainant. Whether there was such a relationship will be gauged by the length, type, and frequency of interaction.

    A felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the Complainant, by a person with whom the Complainant shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the Complainant as a spouse, by a person similarly situated to a spouse of the Complainant under the domestic or family violence laws of the applicable jurisdiction or by any other person against a Complainant who is protected from that person’s acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the applicable jurisdiction.  To constitute Domestic Violence or Intimate Partner Violence under this Policy, the relationship between the Respondent and the Complainant must be more than just two people living together as roommates. 

    The Michigan law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of “religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status” in employment, housing, education, and access to public accommodations.

    The use of threat or physical violence, restraint, or intimidation to overcome an individual’s choice of whether to participate in sexual activity.

    A state in which an individual cannot make the informed and rational decision to engage in sexual activity because the individual lacks conscious knowledge of the nature of the act (e.g., cannot understand the who, what, when, where, why or how of the sexual interaction) and/or is physically helpless.

  • An incapacitated person is unable to give consent. An individual is incapacitated when asleep, unconscious, or otherwise unaware that sexual activity is occurring. This includes an individual incapable of giving consent because of their age or their temporary or permanent mental incapacity. Incapacitation may result from the use of alcohol and/or other drugs.
  • Because the impact of alcohol and drugs varies from person to person, CMU will not find an individual incapacitated solely based on that person’s consumption of alcohol or other drugs, impairment, inebriation or intoxication. Instead, it will conduct a case-by-case evaluation to assess how the consumption of alcohol and/or drugs impacts an individual’s decision-making ability, awareness of consequences, ability to make informed judgments, or capacity to appreciate the nature and the quality of the behavior.
  • In any claim, CMU will evaluate whether Respondent knew or should have known that Complainant was incapacitated when viewed from the position of a sober, reasonable person.
  • CMU will not accept being intoxicated or impaired by drugs or alcohol as an excuse for Covered Behavior; nor will it consider intoxication or such impairment to diminish a Respondent’s responsibility to obtain consent.

    • A person who is, or has been involved in, a sexual, dating, domestic, or other intimate relationship with the initiating individual within the past twelve (12) months.

    To unlawfully place another person in reasonable fear of bodily harm through the use of threatening words and/or other conduct, but without displaying a weapon or subjecting the person to actual physical attack.

    A CMU employee who is obligated by CMU’s Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy to share knowledge, notice, and/or reports of discrimination, harassment, and/or retaliation with the Title IX Coordinator. All CMU employees except those designated as Confidential Resources/Confidential Employees are considered Mandatory Reporters.

    Retaliation and/or Peer Retaliation means acts, words, or attempts to take adverse action against the Complainant, Respondent, or any individual or group of individuals because of their good faith Complaint or participation in an investigation and/or resolution of a Complaint. Retaliation may be committed by any individual or group of individuals including by other students.

    • retaliation may take many forms, including threats, intimidation, coercion, or discrimination, pressuring, continued abuse, violence, other forms of harm to others.
    • retaliation may also occur by moving someone to a less desirable workspace, altering work hours, removing or limiting privileges. All forms of Retaliation are prohibited under this Policy as well as under state and federal law.

    The following activities, as defined in CMU’s Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Policy: Dating Violence; Domestic or Intimate Partner Violence; Sex or Gender-Based Discrimination; Sexual Assault; Sexual Exploitation; Sexual Harassment; Stalking; Retaliation; and other covered behaviors and actions where such behavior is based on an individual’s gender, gender identity. sex, sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, or pregnancy or related conditions.

    Different treatment with respect to an individual’s employment or participation in an education program or activity, based in whole or in part, upon the individual’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity. sex, sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, or pregnancy or related conditions.

    Touching of a sexual nature without Consent, including, but not limited to, any of the following acts: 

  • penetration, no matter how slight, of a person’s vagina or anus with any body part or object without the Complainant’s Consent;
  • penetration, no matter how slight, of a person’s mouth by another person’s sex organ without the Complainant’s Consent;
  • intentional touching, without the Complainant’s Consent, of a person’s intimate body parts, or any material, such as clothing, covering the immediate area of a person’s intimate body parts, including, but not limited to, that person’s breasts, buttock, groin, or mouth, for the purposes of sexual arousal or gratification, a sexual purpose, or in a sexual manner.

    • Conduct involving a person taking, or attempting to take, non-consensual or abusive sexual advantage of a Complainant when such conduct would not otherwise be defined as sexual harassment or sexual assault including, but not limited to:                         

  • benefiting, promoting, or earning money from the prostitution of another individual;
  • producing, distributing, receiving, or possessing an image of child pornography, regardless of whether or not the image is physical or digital;
  • engaging in sexual voyeurism or knowingly allowing another individual to engage in sexual voyeurism, either in person or through electronic means;
  • producing, distributing, receiving, possessing, or taking pictures or otherwise creating a record or recording of a sexual nature without the Complainant’s Consent or exceeding the boundaries of that Consent;
  • distributing, or otherwise making available, materials, whether physical or digital, of a sexual nature beyond the Consent of all of the individuals depicted in the materials;
  • exposing one's genitals or inducing another to expose their own genitals in non- consensual circumstances;
  • knowingly exposing another individual to a sexually transmitted disease or virus without their knowledge;
  • sex-based bullying; or
  • inducing incapacitation for the purpose of making another person vulnerable to non-consensual sexual activity.

    • Any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favors, or other unwelcome verbal, electronic or physical conduct of a sexual nature, including on the basis gender, gender identity. sex, sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, sexual orientation, or pregnancy or related conditions when:

    • submission to or rejection of such conduct is made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual's employment, evaluation of academic work, or participation in any aspect of a University program or activity (e.g., quid pro quo);
    • submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for decisions affecting the individual (e.g., quid pro quo);or
    • such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or academic performance; i.e. it is sufficiently serious, pervasive or persistent as to create an intimidating, hostile, humiliating, demanding, or sexually offensive working, academic, residential, or social environment under both a subjective and an objective standard (e.g. hostile environment).

    A single isolated incident of Sexual Harassment may jeopardize equal access to employment, a program or activity if it is sufficiently severe. The more severe the conduct the less need there is to show a repetitive series of incidents to be found responsible for a Policy violation, particularly if the behavior is physical.

    A course of conduct, typically two or more incidents, directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for that person’s own or someone else’s safety, or to suffer substantial emotional distress.  Substantial emotional distress means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling. 

    Individualized measures offered as appropriate, as reasonably available, without unreasonably burdening a complainant or respondent, not for punitive or disciplinary reasons, and without fee or charge to the complainant or respondent to:

  • Restore or preserve that party’s access to CMU’s education program or activity, including measures that are designed to protect the safety of the parties or the university’s educational environment; or
  • Provide support during the university’s grievance procedures or during the alternate resolution process.

    • Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that protects people from sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding. It applies to all people, regardless of their sex, gender identity, or gender expression, and protects students, employees, and applicants.

    The person designated by CMU to coordinate ultimate oversight of compliance with Title IX and CMU’s Title IX program. 

     

    CMU’s Title IX Coordinator is:

    Mary Martinez

    Assistant to the President for Institutional Equity

     

    Physical and Mailing Address:

    103 W. Preston St.

    Bovee University Center, 306

    Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859

                                                                                                       

    Phone:

    989-774-3253