Confidentiality, Privacy, Responsible Employees, and Clery Act Reporting
Issues of privacy and confidentiality play important roles in matters involving reported Prohibited Conduct, and those issues may affect individuals differently.
Confidentiality and Privacy of Reports
The Equity Office is not under any legal obligation to ensure confidentiality of Complaints and cannot promise to do so. The Equity Office does attempt to maintain the privacy of Complaints to the extent consistent with its obligation to enforce this Policy. Information related to a Complaint of Prohibited Conduct will be shared with a limited number of University employees who need to know in order to assist in the assessment, investigation, and resolution of the Complaint and related issues. During an investigation, information may be disclosed to participants as necessary to facilitate the thoroughness and integrity of the investigation.
A Complainant may request that their name or other personally-identifiable information not be shared with a Respondent, that no investigation be pursued, or that no disciplinary action be taken In these instances, before taking any further investigative steps, a member of the Equity Office will discuss any concerns with the Complainant and, to the extent reasonable and practicable under the circumstances, seek to address and remedy barriers to reporting and/or participation based upon concerns about Retaliation or other lack of clarity in understanding procedural options and potential outcomes In order to protect the safety of the campus community, the AVP for Equity may decide to initiate or continue Investigative Resolution even if a Complainant specifically requests that the matter not be pursued.
Responsible Employees
All supervisors and Equity Staff are required to report immediately to the Equity Office any information they know about suspected or potential violations of this Policy Student-employees who have supervisory responsibility or responsibility for the welfare of other students and learn of potential violations of this policy in the scope of their employment are considered Mandatory Reporters Failure by a Supervisor or Mandatory Reporter to report suspected or potential violations of this Policy in a timely manner may subject them to discipline, up to and including termination of employment.
Supervisors must take immediate and appropriate corrective action when they know or should know Discrimination or Harassment is occurring. This can take various forms of intervention and, depending upon the circumstance, will involve the Equity Office and the Office of Human Resources. All faculty, staff, and students who are not supervisors are strongly encouraged to report to the Equity Office any information they know about suspected or potential violations of this Policy. Complaints may be made anonymously, including through Report It or Ethics Point.
Clery Act Reporting
Pursuant to the Clery Act, the University includes statistics about certain offenses in its annual security report and provides those statistics to the United States Department of Education in a manner that does not include any personally-identifying information about individuals involved in an incident. The Clery Act also requires the University to issue timely warnings to the University community about certain crimes that have been reported and may continue to pose a serious or continuing threat to campus safety. Consistent with the Clery Act, the University withholds the names and other personally-identifying information of Complainants when issuing timely warnings to the University community.