Prohibited Consensual Relationships: Sexual and Related Misconduct Policy

Prohibited Consensual Relationships: When individuals are involved in a consensual romantic or sexual relationship and they are in positions of unequal authority or power, there is the potential for a conflict of interest, favoritism, or exploitation of power that impacts the integrity of the University’s living, working, and learning environments. For this reason, this policy prohibits the following consensual romantic or sexual relationships between and among faculty, staff, administrators, and students:

1. Regardless of consent by all parties involved, anyone with supervisory, evaluative, or mentoring authority who controls or influences another person’s employment, academic advancement, extracurricular or athletic team participation, scholarship or financial support, grades, recommendations, wage status, or promotion at the University is prohibited from engaging in a romantic or sexual relationship with the person they control or influence.
2. Regardless of consent by all parties involved, faculty members, staff members, and administrators are prohibited from engaging in a romantic or sexual relationship with any undergraduate student, regardless of whether the faculty member, staff member, or administrator currently exercises, or expects to have, any pedagogical or supervisory responsibility over the undergraduate student.
3. Regardless of consent by all parties involved, if a graduate student teaches a course to any undergraduate students for a semester, then starting the semester in which the graduate student begins teaching any undergraduate students, that graduate student is prohibited from engaging in a romantic or sexual relationship with any undergraduate student. This prohibition applies to that graduate student for as long as the graduate student is enrolled at the University, even if that graduate student is no longer instructing undergraduates.
4. Any individual who is promoted into a position or has a change of circumstances that results in a conflict with this section on prohibited consensual relationships must report this change in circumstances to their supervisor, their Vice President, or to the Vice President of Human Resources, who will contact the Director of Gender Equity/Title IX Coordinator for assistance in resolving the conflict.