Sexual Harassment Policy

READ FULL POLICY: Title IX Formal Grievance Policy

Sacred Heart University is firmly committed to maintaining a learning, living, and working environment for members of the University community, guests and visitors, free from all forms of gender-based sexual harassment (hereinafter referred to as “harassment”), including acts of sexual violence, sexual harassment, domestic violence, intimate partner violence, and stalking.

This Formal Grievance Policy will apply to “sexual harassment” in a SHU “education program or activity” against a person in the United States, per USDOE Regulations, effective August 14, 2020.

“Sexual harassment” is defined in the Regulations (§ 106.30) to be conduct on the basis of sex that satisfies one or more of the following:

  1. A SHU employee conditioning the provision of an aid, benefit, or service on an individual’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct (“quid pro quo”);
  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 SHU’s education program or activity; or
  3. Sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking. These terms are defined in the Definitions section.

An “education program or activity” includes locations, events, or circumstances over which SHU exercises substantial control over both the respondent and the context in which the sexual harassment occurs, and also includes any building owned or controlled by a student organization that is officially recognized by SHU. The Title IX Policy Regulations exclude any “education program or activity” that does not occur in the United States.

If alleged sexual misconduct does not satisfy the USDOE’s definitional or jurisdictional requirements, such as off-campus sexual misconduct alleged to have an on-campus effect, then SHU has discretion to address it outside of this Policy.

Anyone looking to file a complaint may submit a report to the University's Title IX Coordinator.