Members of the School of Mines community
value a
global perspective.
As a student at the School of Mines, you are responsible for the decisions you make about how you treat other people. Valuing a global perspective means that you recognize people may be different than you. Learning to understand and respect those differences is an important part of your education. What you may consider a joke or teasing could be cruel, hurtful and demeaning to another person. If you make the decision to treat people with disrespect, hurtfulness, and cruelty, or to ridicule someone because they are different than you, that may be considered harassment and you would be in violation of university and Board of Regent policies.
Additionally, having
an individual do something that can be viewed as unsafe—even if they
consent, even if it’s tradition—because they want to be affiliated with
your group is an abuse of your power over them. If that individual wants
to be a part of your group (a club, organization, circle of friends) and
you set tasks or activities that they believe they must complete that
could hurt them mentally or physically, you are in violation of BOR and
university policy. If the task that is required of that person who wants
to remain with your group involves damaging or removing property, you are
in violation of BOR and university policy.
Example:
under review
Policies that are in
place to assist you with decision making and guide you to value a global
perspective include the following BOR policies listed within the SDSM&T
Student Code of Conduct:
4. Acts of
aggression including threats, intimidation, coercion or other conduct that
threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person.
a. Tampering with
fire and life safety equipment including, without limitation, fire alarms,
sprinkler systems, first aid equipment, and laboratory safety apparatus;
b. Conduct that
threatens or endangers a student’s own health or safety may also violate
this section;
c. “Aggression” means
not only intentional infliction of harm, but also conduct that intentionally
subjects another to unwelcome, offensive, physical contact or that puts
another person in reasonable fear that the actor intends immediately to
subject person to intentional injury or unwelcome, offensive touching.
5. Subjection of
another person to any sexual act against that person’s will or without
consent, including any conduct that would constitute a sex offense, whether
forcible or non-forcible, under SDCL §§ 22-22-1 through 22-22-7.2,
22-22-19.1 or 22-24.1.
a. Persons who are
under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or other illegal controlled
substances at the time that they are subjected to the sexual act shall be
presumed incapable of effective consent.
6. Discriminatory
conduct proscribed under Board Policy 1:18 includes sexual harassment,
racial harassment, harassment on other grounds identified in Board Policy
1:18 or harassment on any other grounds, directed against individuals.
a. Harassment may be
established by showing
i. Conduct toward
another person that has the purpose of creating an intimidating, hostile or
demeaning environment and that interferes with his or her ability to
participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional
activity, employment or resource.
ii. Conduct toward
another person that has the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile or
demeaning environment and that adversely interferes with his or ability to
participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional
activity, employment or resource.
a) Harassment
consists, in most cases, of more than casual or isolated incidents.
(1) Consideration
should be given to the context, nature, scope, frequency, duration and
location of the incidents, whether they are physically threatening or
humiliating as opposed to merely offensive utterances, as well as to the
identity, number and relationships of the persons involved.
b) Harassment shall be
found where, in aggregate, the incidents are sufficiently pervasive or
persistent or severe that a reasonable person with the same characteristics
of the victim of the harassing conduct would be adversely affected to a
degree that interferes with his or her ability to participate in or to
realize the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or
resource.
(1) The reasonable
person standard includes consideration of the perspective of persons of the
alleged victim’s race, gender or other circumstances that relate to the
purpose for which he or she has become the object of allegedly harassing
conduct.
(2) It is not necessary
to show psychological harm to the victim to establish that the conduct would
interfere with the person’s ability to participate in or to realize the
intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or resource.
iii. Other conduct that
is extreme and outrageous exceeding all bounds usually tolerated by polite
society and that has the purpose or the substantial likelihood of
interfering with another person’s ability to participate in or to realize
the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or resource;
b. Sexual harassment
through the creation of an intimidating, hostile or demeaning environment
may be established under section (a) above. Sexual harassment may also be
established by showing that an individual has been subjected to unwelcome
sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical
conduct of a sexual nature where:
i. Submission to such
conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or a condition of an
individual’s participation or use of an institutionally sponsored or
approved activity, employment or resource; or
ii. Submission to or
rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for
educational, employment or similar decisions affecting an individual’s
ability to participate in or use an institutionally sponsored or approved
activity, employment or resource.
10. Hazing, defined as
an act which endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student,
or which destroys or removes public or private property, for the purpose of
initiation, admission into, affiliation with, or as a condition for
continued membership in a group or organization;
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