Sexual Respect and Title IX

As a public institution, NICC cannot promise complete confidentiality. Each situation is resolved as discreetly as possible, maintaining confidentiality to the extent allowed under state and federal laws. Complaints about faculty and staff may be subject to public records requests. In addition, there may be situations that mandate reporting, such as child or elder abuse. Complaints against students are protected under federal law, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Information can only be shared within the College if there is a "legitimate educational need." In order for information to be shared outside of the College, a survivor would need to give explicit permission, that information would need to be subpoenaed or one of the other exceptions occurred. You may share information confidentially with the counselor on the Calmar campus or the Peosta campus. However, all other NICC employees (staff and faculty) must report information related to sexual violence to someone who works with Title IX issues. If you have any questions about what will happen if you share information with an NICC employee, it is important to ask that employee prior to telling him/her anything about the situation.

NICC is obligated by policy and law to follow up on all reports of sexual violence. There are times when a one-to-one conversation between an NICC staff member and the alleged harasser can resolve the situation without revealing the complainant’s identity. If this doesn’t work or if the situation is not appropriate for this kind of resolution, then it may be necessary to reveal the complainant’s identity with a small number of staff in order to conduct an investigation.

You may make an anonymous complaint via the web; however, without the identity and contact information of the complainant and the ability to obtain additional information, the College's ability to investigate and resolve the situation may be limited.

• Board Policies
• Complaint Policy and Procedure
• Equal Opportunity, Harassment, and Nondiscrimination Policy
• Student Conduct Code
• Title IX Program Statement
• Pregnancy and Parenting Policy

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Title IX, as a landmark civil rights law, profoundly affects all aspects of schooling by requiring equal opportunity for females and males. By extension, it also affects equity in the labor market. The following highlights suggest many of the significant developments in gender equity that can be linked to Title IX.

Since its passage, Title IX has had a profound impact on helping to change attitudes, assumptions and behavior and consequently, our understanding about how sexual stereotypes can limit educational opportunities. We now know, for example, that gender is a poor predictor of one's interests, proficiency in academic subjects or athletic ability. As the First Circuit Court of Appeals noted in a recent Title IX case, "interest and ability rarely develop in a vacuum; they evolve as a function of opportunity and experience." Decision making in schools and in the labor market that relies on gender to assess what students and employees know and are able to do is both archaic and ineffective.

Title IX prohibits institutions that receive federal funding from practicing gender discrimination in educational programs or  activities. Because almost all schools receive federal funds, Title IX applies to nearly everyone. The Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education is charged with enforcing the civil rights and regulations in education, extending protection to:

• about 51.7 million elementary and secondary school students;
• about 14.4 million college and university students;
• almost 15,000 school districts;
• more than 3,600 colleges and universities;
• more than 5,000 proprietary schools; and
• thousands of libraries, museums, vocational rehabilitation

Source: http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/TitleIX/title.html

• Intimate Partner Violence (Dating Violence, Domestic Violence): A pattern of abusive behaviors used to exert power and control over a current or former partner. It can include emotional, sexual, verbal or economic actions, or physical threats of violence. Acts may include any behaviors that intimidate, isolate, manipulate, humiliate, coerce, frighten, blame or hurt someone. It can happen to anyone, regardless of race, sexual orientation, age, education, religion, etc.
  
  
• Stalking: A pattern of unwanted conduct directed at another person that threatens or endangers the safety, physical or mental health, or life or property of that person, or creates a reasonable fear of such a threat or action.
  
  
• Sexual Harassment: Includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature when it meets any of the following:
  • Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or academic status.
  • Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment or academic decisions affecting such individual.
  • Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment for working, learning, or living on campus. Sexual harassment can occur between any individuals associated with the University, e.g., an employee and a supervisor; coworkers; faculty members; a faculty, staff member, or student and a customer, vendor, or contractor; students; or a student and a faculty member.
    
    
• Gender-Based Harassment: Title IX also prohibits gender-based harassment, which may include acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on sex or sex-stereotyping, even if those acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature.
  
  
• Sexual Violence: Physical acts (such as rape, attempted rape, sexual touching and sexual battery) perpetrated against an individual without consent or who does not have the capacity to give knowing consent due to alcohol, drugs or disability.

In cases of alleged harassment, the protections of the First Amendment must be considered if issues of speech or expression are involved. Free speech rights apply in the classroom (e.g., classroom lectures and discussions) and in all other education programs and activities of public schools (e.g., public meetings and speakers on campus; campus debates, school plays and other cultural events; and student newspapers, journals, and other publications). In addition, First Amendment rights apply to the speech of students and teachers.

Title IX is intended to protect students from sex discrimination, not to regulate the content of speech. The Office for Civil Rights recognizes that the offensiveness of a particular expression as perceived by some students, standing alone, is not a legally sufficient basis to establish a sexually hostile environment under Title IX. In order to establish a violation of Title IX, the harassment must be sufficiently serious to deny or limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the education program.

Moreover, in regulating the conduct of its students and its faculty to prevent or redress discrimination prohibited by Title IX (e.g., in responding to harassment that is sufficiently serious as to create a hostile environment), a school must formulate, interpret, and apply its rules so as to protect academic freedom and free speech rights. For instance, while the First Amendment may prohibit a school from restricting the right of students to express opinions about one sex that may be considered derogatory, the school can take steps to denounce those opinions and ensure that competing views are heard.

Source: http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OCR/archives/pdf/shguide.pdf