Glossary of Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct Terms
We have compiled this glossary of sexual and gender-based misconduct terms.
Advisor
A person chosen by a party or provided by the institution who accompanies the Complainant or Respondent throughout the duration of a Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct claim to provide them with support and advice.
The Advisor’s role is to support and advise the party, and the Advisor cannot actively participate in the process on their advisee’s behalf, except at a hearing for a Title IX Complaint. In a Title IX hearing, the Advisor’s role is limited to cross-examination of the other Party and witnesses only.
The Advisor cannot make opening or closing statements, ask questions of their own advisees, object to questions, or engage in advocacy other than to cross-examine the other Party or Witnesses.
In a non-Title IX hearing, the Advisor’s role is limited to providing support and advice to their advisee only, and the Advisor may not actively participate in the hearing.
Coercion
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.
Complainant
A person allegedly subjected to either Covered Behavior or Retaliation or an individual who is alleged
to be the victim of conduct that could constitute sexual harassment.
Formal Complaint
A written statement endorsed by a Complainant or the Title IX Coordinator alleging sexual
harassment or other Covered Behavior against a Respondent requesting an investigation of the alleged behavior.
Consent
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:
Dating Violence
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.
Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence
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.
Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act
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.
Force
The use of threat or physical violence, restraint, or intimidation to overcome an individual’s choice of whether to participate in sexual activity.
Incapacitation
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.
Intimate Partner
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.
Intimidation
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.
Mandated Reporter
An individual designated by the Michigan Child Protection Law as one who must report
suspected child abuse or neglect.
Retaliation
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.
- 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.
Sex and Gender-Based Misconduct or Covered Behavior
Sex and Gender-Based Misconduct or Covered Behavior means the following activities, as defined herein and in the Definition section of this Policy: Dating Violence; Domestic or Intimate Partner Violence; Gender-Based Harassment; Sexual Assault; Sexual Exploitation; Sexual Harassment; Stalking; Retaliation; and other covered behaviors and actions where such behavior is based on an individual’s sex, gender, or gender identity.
Sexual Assault
Touching of a sexual nature without Consent, including, but not limited to, any of the following acts:
Sexual Exploitation
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:
Sexual Harassment
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.
- A single isolated incident of Sexual Harassment may jeopardize equal access to 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.
Stalking
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.
Supportive Measures
Means those support services, accommodations, and interventions available to a Complainant, a Respondent, or University Community Members experiencing the effects of Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct that aim to mitigate the effects of the alleged misconduct and otherwise promote the safety of University Community Members.
Title IX
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.
Title IX Coordinator
The person designated by CMU to receive all Reports of Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct and oversee CMU’s centralized review and resolution of those Reports in compliance with the law and this Policy and who advises the CMU Community about the Grievance Procedures and courses of action in the broader community. The Title IX Coordinator has the responsibility for taking steps to ensure compliance with CMU’s policies regarding allegations of Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct. The Title IX Coordinator may designate someone (Designee) to assist with carrying out these responsibilities.
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
Title IX Sexual Harassment
Title IX Sexual Harassment means conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following:
1. A CMU employee conditioning the provision of an aid, benefit, or service of the University on an individual’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct;
2. Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity; or
3. "Sexual assault" as defined in 20 U.S.C. 1092(f)(6)(A)(v), "dating violence" as defined in 34 U.S.C. 12291(a)(10), "domestic violence" as defined in 34 U.S.C. 12291(a)(8), or ‘‘stalking’’ as defined in 34 U.S.C. 12291(a)(30). The University’s definition of Sexual and Gender-Based Misconduct is broader than the behavior covered solely by Title IX. For Title IX to apply, the incident must be reported while the Parties are all associated with the University (as current students or employees) and must have occurred on property owned or operated by the University, in the United States.