|
...standard liability of institutions where students are harassed. This shift in law, plus recent legal imperatives indicating that training is an important prevention tool, has encouraged institutions to strengthen their anti-harassment training. This article discusses the educational program at Hostos Community College, a program that utilizes a multimedia approach coupled with discussion. This blended approach successfully meets both the current legal prevention requirements and satisfies the needs of a complex environment of a metropolitan college.
**********
We think of sexual harassment as a problem unique to the business environment, but this unlawful behavior is commonly found on our nation's college and university campuses. Most studies have found that 20% to 40% of female college students, employees, and professors report some form of sexual harassment (Kelley & Parsons, 2000). According to various studies, 20% to 30% of women students report being sexually harassed (Dziech & Weiner, 1990). Harassment can have a devastating impact financially, personally, and professionally on staff, faculty, and students. (Dziech & Weiner, 1990, Fitzgerald et al., 1988). Educational institutions had been shielded from liability for sexual harassment until the late 1990s, when two landmark Supreme Court decisions set forth a new standard of liability for educational institutions where students are harassed. This shift in law, in addition to the indication by recent legal imperatives that training is an important prevention tool, has encouraged educational institutions to attend more vigorously to this issue and to strengthen their anti-harassment training.
This article will discuss the educational program crafted by Hostos Community College, a program that utilizes a multimedia approach coupled with discussion to educate its academic community about sexual harassment. This blended approach has been successful in both meeting the prevention requirements under current law and satisfying the needs associated with the complex environment of a metropolitan college. While recognizing that a college community is composed of many different constituencies, including faculty, staff, and students, this article focuses on the program's success at educating and sensitizing the faculty, composed of men and women of various ethnicities.
Hostos Community College (Hostos) is a two-year college in the City University of New York (CUNY) system. CUNY, the largest urban university campus in the United States serving more than 400,000 students per year, is composed of 19 colleges, including senior, community and technical colleges, a graduate center, a law school, and a medical program. A majority of the student population and much of the staff and faculty at CUNY are minorities, most predominately African-American and Latino. The student population at Hostos, notably, has the highest number of minorities and women of all the CUNY colleges.
Legal Background
Sexual harassment law is governed by our country's most significant federal civil rights legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits sex discrimination by employers. A 1986 Supreme Court case, Meritor Savings Bank FSB v. Vinson, defined sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 extends this same protection to students and other academic community members at public and private educational institutions and training programs that receive federal funding. Academic institutions must adhere to both employment and academic laws relating to sexual harassment since their communities are composed of both employees and students.
The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) implements Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by issuing interpretative regulations, by handling workplace sexual harassment cases, and by providing legal guidance. The EEOC issued regulations in 1980 that were amended in 1990, implementing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, entitled Guidelines on Discrimination Because of Sex. The workplace regulations in this document (29 C.F.R. [section] 1604.11) spell out two types of behavior that constitute sexual harassment. Each type involves an abuse of power in which physical, verbal, or non-verbal conduct relating to sex is unwelcome by the victim. The first type of sexual harassment is quid pro quo, a Latin term meaning "this for that." Quid pro quo harassment generally occurs when a person with more authority exerts power over a subordinate or person of less power by making sexual advances, by requesting sexual favors, or by engaging in other conduct of a sexual nature. With quid pro quo sexual harassment, an exchange is set up whereby submission to the conduct is made a term or condition of employment or academic evaluation, or whereby submission or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for an employment or academic evaluation. This situation might occur when a faculty member repeatedly asks a student out to dinner even after the student has declined the invitation. A claim for quid pro quo may be made.
The second and more common type of sexual harassment is hostile environment sexual harassment. This type occurs between or among individuals of equal power. The conduct unreasonably interferes with the victim's work or academic performance or has the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or academic environment. This conduct could occur when a group of faculty members consistently joke about women's anatomy during departmental meetings, causing a female professor to avoid...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
