A. The Dean's Procedure for Student Complaints1
The Dean’s Procedure for Student Complaints may be used in any case in which a student has a complaint, including but not limited to a complaint of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, or disability, against a member of the faculty or administration of Yale College. Teaching fellows and freshman counselors may be named in such a complaint.
1 This procedure may be found here.
B. The Provost's Procedure for Student Complaints
The Provost’s Procedure for Student Complaints is available in any case in which a student has a complaint, including a complaint of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, or disability, against a faculty member who is not a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, or against an employee who is not an administrator in Yale College or who is not subject to discipline by the dean of Yale College. A copy of the complete procedure is available from the Yale College Dean’s Office, 102 SSS. Complaints of sexual misconduct must be pursued in accordance with the Procedures Governing the University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct (UWC) or with a Title IX Coordinator.
C. Complaints of racial or ethnic harassment
Any student in the University who believes that he or she has been harassed on account of race or ethnic origin by any member of the Yale community may bring a complaint through the President’s Procedure for Addressing Student Complaints of Racial or Ethnic Harassment. For the purposes of this procedure, racial or ethnic harassment is considered to occur when any individual is subjected to arbitrary, capricious, or discriminatory treatment on the basis of race or ethnic origin. A student complaint of racial or ethnic harassment against another undergraduate may also be brought to the Yale College Executive Committee;1 such a complaint may be forwarded to the chairman of the Executive Committee only in conjunction with the complainant’s residential college master or residential college dean, a member of the Yale College Dean’s Office, a human relations counselor, or a member of the President’s Committee on Racial and Ethnic Harassment. Copies of the President’s Procedure for Addressing Student Complaints of Racial or Ethnic Harassment are available in the Yale College Dean’s Office, 102 SSS.
D. Complaints of sexual misconduct
The University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct (UWC) is available to hear all student complaints of sexual misconduct and includes provisions for formal and informal resolutions. The UWC provides an accessible representative and trained body to answer internal inquiries and fairly and expeditiously address formal and informal complaints of sexual misconduct. It has sole disciplinary authority over Yale College students charged with sexual misconduct and recommends penalties to the dean of Yale College. The UWC is appointed and authorized to act by the provost.
Yale University Statement on Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is antithetical to academic values and to a work environment free from the fact or appearance of coercion. It is a violation of University policy and may result in serious disciplinary action. Sexual harassment consists of nonconsensual sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature on or off campus, when: (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a condition of an individual's employment or academic standing; or (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions or for academic evaluation, grades, or advancement; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work or academic performance or creating an intimidating or hostile academic or work environment. Sexual harassment may be found in a single episode, as well as in persistent behavior. Conduct that occurs in the process of application for admission to a program or selection for employment is covered by this policy, as well as conduct directed toward University students, faculty, or staff members. In addition, conduct by third parties (i.e., individuals who are neither students nor employees, including but not limited to guests and consultants) is covered by this policy. Both men and women are protected from sexual harassment, and sexual harassment is prohibited regardless of the sex of the harasser. Sexual harassment is a matter of particular concern to an academic community in which students, faculty, and staff are related by strong bonds of intellectual dependence and trust. If members of the faculty, whether professors or teaching fellows, or other Yale employees, introduce sex into a professional relationship with a student, they abuse their position of authority. See the University's Policy of Teacher-Student Consensual Relations.
Questions about these procedures and questions about which procedure is applicable in a given case may be addressed to the dean of Student Affairs at the Yale College Dean’s Office, 102 SSS.
