Adjudication: Process of deciding or resolving a dispute between two parties.
ASCA: Association for Student Conduct Administration, whose mission is to support higher education professionals by providing education materials and resources, professional development opportunities, and a network of colleagues.
Campus: Any UC location (e.g., campus, medical center, Office of the President) or the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Campus SaVE Act: Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act; an amendment to the Clery Act that requires higher education institutions to report crime statistics involving domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, provide for standards in institutional student conduct proceedings, and provide campus community wide prevention educational programming.
CARE : Advocacy Office for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Misconduct (CARE) This office provides advice and assistance to complainants concerning sexual misconduct. CARE provides confidential assistance and advocacy, participating in case management of reported complaints, assisting with providing training in coordination with key stakeholders, and provides input regarding policy creation and revision.
CARE serves as the primary point of contact for all complainants choosing to use its services concerning sexual misconduct. Members of the University community who receive reports of sexual misconduct are expected to take proactive steps to refer the complainants to CARE.
Complainant: A person who may have experienced harm and participates in the Title IX process.
Clery: Act The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act; Federal law that requires colleges and universities that participate in federal student financial aid programs, to disclose information about certain crime statistics on and around their campuses.
Clery Coordinator: A campus officer responsible for ensuring compliance with the Clery Act, including collecting, maintaining, and reporting campus crime statistics to the Department of Education.
Confidential Resource: The following employees who receive information about Prohibited Conduct in their confidential capacity:
a. CARE Advocates,
b. Office of Ombuds,
c. Licensed counselor in student counseling centers and in employee assistance programs,
d. Any persons with professional license requiring confidentiality
Consent is affirmative, conscious, voluntary, and revocable. Consent to sexual activity requires of each person an affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. It is the responsibility of each person to ensure they have the affirmative consent of the other to engage in the sexual activity. Lack of protest, lack of resistance, or silence do not, alone, constitute consent. Affirmative consent must be ongoing and can be revoked at any time during sexual activity.
The existence of a dating relationship or past sexual relations between the Complainant and Respondent will never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent (nor will subsequent sexual relations or dating relationship alone suffice as evidence of consent to prior conduct).
The Respondent's belief that the Complainant consented will not provide a valid defense unless the belief was actual and reasonable. In making this determination, the factfinder will consider all of the facts and circumstances the Respondent knew, or reasonable should have known, at the time. In particular, the Respondent's belief is not a valid defense where:
1. The Respondent’s belief arose from the Respondent’s own intoxication or recklessness;
2. The Respondent did not take reasonable steps, in the circumstances known to the Respondent at the time, to ascertain whether the Complainant affirmatively consented; or
3. The Respondent knew or a reasonable person should have known that the Complainant was unable to consent because the Complainant was incapacitated, in that the Complainant was:
a. asleep or unconscious;
b. unable to understand the fact, nature, or extent of the sexual activity due to the influence of drugs, alcohol, or medication; or
c. unable to communicate due to a mental or physical condition.
Domestic Violence Abuse committed against an adult or a minor who is a spouse or former spouse, cohabitant or former cohabitant, or someone with whom the abuser has a child, has an existing dating or engagement relationship, or has had a former dating or engagement relationship. It can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological.
Incapacitation: The physical and/or mental inability to make informed, rational judgments. States of incapacitation include, but are not limited to, unconsciousness, sleep, and blackouts. Where alcohol, drugs or other medication are involved, incapacitation is defined with respect to how the alcohol or other drugs consumed affects a person’s decision-making capacity, awareness of consequences, ability to make fully informed judgments, and inability to communicate.
Being intoxicated by drugs, alcohol or other medication does not absolve one’s responsibility to obtain consent. The factors to be considered when determining whether consent was given include whether the respondent knew, or whether a reasonable person should have known, that the complainant was incapacitated.
Location: “Location” is any University campus, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Medical Centers, the Office of the President, and Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Ombuds: The Office of the Ombudsman provides a safe and comfortable environment to discuss complaints, concerns or problems confidentially. When appropriate, the office initiates an informal intervention with the goal of facilitating a resolution that is acceptable to all parties involved. The ombudsman acts as an independent, impartial resource. If a matter cannot be resolved through our office, a referral will be made. When appropriate, the office can make recommendations regarding policy review and change.
The Office of the Ombudsman serves all students, faculty, staff, and administrators of the campus community.
Preponderance of Evidence : A standard of proof that requires that a fact be found when its occurrence, based on evidence, is more likely than not.
Relationship Violence:
physical violence toward the Complainant or a person who has a close relationship with the Complainant (such as a current or former spouse or intimate partner, a child or other relative), or
intentional or reckless physical or non-physical conduct toward the Complainant or someone who has a close relationship with the Complainant (such as a current or former spouse or intimate partner, a child or other relative) that would make a reasonable person in the Complainant’s position fear physical violence toward themselves or toward the person with whom they have the close relationship, that is by a person who is or has been in a spousal, romantic, or intimate relationship with the Complainant, or who shares a child with the Complainant, and that is part of a pattern of abusive behavior by the person toward the Complainant.
Respondent: A person who is alleged to have caused harm.
Responsible Employee: Any University employee who is not a Confidential Resource. If a Responsible Employee learns, in the course of employment, that a student may have experienced Prohibited Conduct, they must promptly notify the Title IX Officer or designee. This includes resident assistants, graduate teaching assistants, and all other student employees, when disclosures are made to them in their capacities as employees.
In addition, if any of the following people learn, in the course of employment, that any other person affiliated with the University may have experienced Prohibited Conduct, they must promptly notify the Title IX Officer or designee:
• Campus Police
• Human Resources Administrators, Academic Personnel Administrators, and Title IX Professionals
• Managers and Supervisors including Deans, Department Chairs, and Directors of Organized Research Units
• Faculty members
Sexual Assault: Occurs when physical sexual activity is engaged without the consent of the other person or when the other person is unable to consent to the activity. The activity or conduct may include physical force, violence, threat, or intimidation, ignoring the objections of the other person, causing the other person’s intoxication or incapacitation through the use of drugs or alcohol, or taking advantage of the other person’s incapacitation (including voluntary intoxication).
Sexual Harassment:
i. Quid Pro Quo: a person’s submission to unwelcome sexual conduct is implicitly or explicitly made the basis for employment decisions, academic evaluation, grades or advancement, or other decisions affecting participation in a University program or activity; or
ii. Hostile Environment: unwelcome sexual or other sex-based conduct is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it unreasonably denies, adversely limits, or interferes with a person’s participation in or benefit from the education, employment or other programs or activities of the University, and creates an environment that a reasonable person would find to be intimidating or offensive.
Sexual conduct includes sexual or romantic advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Other sex-based conduct includes acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex- or gender-stereotyping, or sexual orientation.
Sexual Violence:
a. Sexual Assault - Penetration: Without the consent of the Complainant, penetration, no matter how slight, of:
• the Complainant’s mouth by a penis or other genitalia; or
• the Complainant’s vagina or anus by any body part or object.
b. Sexual Assault - Contact: Without the consent of the Complainant, intentionally:
• touching Complainant’s intimate body part (genitals, anus, groin, breast, or buttocks);
• making the Complainant touch another or themselves on any intimate body part; or
• touching the Complainant with one’s intimate body part,
whether the intimate body part is clothed or unclothed.
Note Sexual Assault —Penetration and Sexual Assault—Contact are aggravated when they include any of the following:
• Overcoming the will of Complainant by:
force (the use of physical force or inducing reasonable fear of immediate or future bodily injury);
violence (the use of physical force to cause harm or injury);
menace (a threat, statement, or act showing intent to injure);
duress (a direct or implied threat of force, violence, danger, hardship, or retribution that is enough to cause a reasonable person of ordinary sensitivity, taking into account all circumstances including age and relationship (including a power imbalance), to do or submit to something that they would not otherwise do); or
deliberately causing the Complainant to be incapacitated (for example, through drugs or alcohol);
• Deliberately taking advantage of the Complainant’s incapacitation (including incapacitation that results from voluntary use of drugs or alcohol); or
• Recording, photographing, transmitting, or distributing intimate or sexual images of Complainant without Complainant’s prior knowledge and consent.
Stalking Repeated conduct directed at a Complainant (for example, following, monitoring, observing, surveilling, threatening, communicating or interfering with property), of a sexual, romantic or other sex based nature or motivation, that would cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety, or the safety of others, or to suffer substantial emotional distress.
Student Advocate A student who has the experience, skills, and knowledge to train students on how to recognize and address sexual misconduct and to provide advice and assistance to complainants of sexual misconduct (dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual violence, and stalking).
Student Conduct Officer University Official responsible for handing resolution meetings or conduct reviews with an individual alleged to have violated the Code of Conduct and to assign or recommend sanctions.
Title IX Coordinator The designated coordinator or agent of the University with the responsibility for coordinating University Title IX compliance efforts.
Trauma-Informed Services: Services designed to acknowledge the impact of violence and trauma on people's lives and the importance of addressing trauma in education. Services are influenced by an understanding of the impact of interpersonal violence and victimization on an individual’s life and development. To provide trauma-informed services, all staff of an organization must understand how violence impacts the lives of the people being served, so that every interaction is consistent with the recovery process and reduces the possibility of re-traumatization.
University of California Policy On Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence : applies to all UC employees and students at its campuses and University programs and activities and furthers the University’s commitment to compliance with the law and to the higher standards of ethical conduct.
VAWA: The Violence Against Women Act, a federal law meant to end violence against women by improving the criminal justice response to violence against women and enhancing services to and resources for victims.