Revised Sexual Misconduct Policy Serves as a Unified Campus Policy

As part of a comprehensive effort to enhance the health, safety and well-being of our community, the university recently revised its policies on sexual misconduct. This comprehensive focus includes a close partnership with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Since signing an agreement with this federal agency in September 2014, the university has been working closely with them to ensure our policies align with national best practices for campus and community safety.

We are a community that expects civility, looks out for one another and encourages all members to do the right thing. Therefore, the Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment, and Relationship Violence policy will serve as a unified campus policy. Effective September 1, in interim status, this policy will apply to the entire Ohio State community, including faculty, staff, students, student employees, graduate associates, appointees, volunteers, vendors and visitors.

The Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment, and Relationship Violence policy will serve as an umbrella policy for issues of sexual misconduct of any kind. It will replace the current Sexual Harassment policy. In addition to broadening the scope to all sexual misconduct, the policy provides appropriate guidance for handling allegations. It also provides additional definitions, details and expanded reporting requirements for faculty and staff, as well as contact information.

Under the revised policy, all university employees, except those exempted by legal privilege of confidentiality or expressly identified as a confidential reporter, have an obligation to report incidents of sexual assault. Any university employee who becomes aware of information that would lead a reasonable person to believe that sexual assault may have occurred involving anyone covered under this policy must report such information immediately.

Faculty and staff may make such reports in a few ways:

1. To report any information regarding sexual misconduct, contact the Title IX coordinator by emailing titleix@osu.edu.
2. To report allegations of employee sexual misconduct, contact the Employee and Labor Relations team in the Office of Human Resources by calling 614-292-2800 (OSUWMC employees contact 614-293-4988), filing a Discrimination and Harassment Complaint form, or emailing sexualharassment@osu.edu.
3. To report allegations of student sexual misconduct, contact the deputy Title IX coordinator in the Office of Student Conduct by calling 614-292-0748 or emailing studentconduct@osu.edu.

If you have any questions or concerns related to these policy changes, please contact the Office of Human Resources Employee and Labor Relations team at 614-292-2800 or hr-elr@osu.edu.