SUUSI Anti-Harassment Policy

Excerpted from SUUSI Policy, Section 11

  1. SUUSI affirms its commitment to maintaining a welcoming environment, free of discrimination, harassment, bullying, intimidation, and violence. SUUSI expects its Board, staff, and participants to conduct themselves in a respectful manner with concern and care for their colleagues, SUUSI staff, host staff, participants, and surrounding community.
  2. To help ensure a safe environment at SUUSI, the Core Staff will take responsibility for including information on staff behavior into their pre-SUUSI orientations and training, and providing opportunity for discussion on the topic.
  3. Any harassment regarding sex, race, color, ethnicity, religion, national origin, age, disability, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, class, family status, gender, gender identity or expression, or affectional orientation will not be tolerated. Such harassment includes but is not limited to harassing remarks, gestures or physical contact, derogatory remarks, jokes, innuendo or taunts, and display or circulation of written materials or derogatory pictures directed at any of these categories.   

Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral reasonableness. In the legal sense, these are behaviors that appear to be disturbing, upsetting or threatening. 

In addition, sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when:

  1. Submission to such conduct or communication is made a term or condition either explicitly or implicitly to obtain a position on the staff or Board or to participate in SUUSI; or
  2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct or communication by an individual is used as a factor in decisions affecting such individual's position on the staff or Board or participation in SUUSI; or
  3. Such conduct or communication has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual's position on the staff or Board or participation in SUUSI or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment; or
  4. Such conduct or communication, which is not welcome, is personally offensive or debilitates morale, and therefore interferes with a positive SUUSI experience.