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Relevant Excerpt

Harassment is unwelcome, offensive conduct that occurs on the basis of race, color, pregnancy, religion, creed, national origin (including ancestry), citizenship status, physical or mental disability, age, marital status, veteran or military status (including special disabled veteran, Vietnam-era veteran, or recently separated veteran), predisposing genetic characteristics, or domestic violence victim status.

Harassing conduct can occur in various forms, including:

• Verbal – Conduct such as unwelcome, demeaning, or graphic comments; using ethnic, racial, religious, or other slurs to refer to a person or group; or jokes or comments that demean a person or a group on the basis of one of the above-referenced Protected Characteristics. 

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• Visual – Conduct such as creating or displaying racially, ethnically, or religiously offensive pictures, symbols, flags, cartoons, or graffiti that disparages another person or group because of one of the above-referenced Protected Characteristics.
• Communication-based – Conduct such as phone calls, e-mails, text messages, chats, blogs or online communications that offend, demean, or intimidate another on the basis of one of the above-referenced Protected Characteristics. Members of the community are expected to be good digital citizens and to refrain from online misconduct, such as feeding anonymous gossip sites, sharing inappropriate content via social media, unwelcome messaging, or otherwise using the ease of transmission and/or anonymity of the Internet or other technology to harm another member of, or group within, the university community.

A determination as to whether harassment occurred depends on the totality of the circumstances, including the context of a communication or incident, the relationship of the individuals involved in the communication or incident, whether an incident was an isolated incident or part of a broader pattern or course of offensive conduct, the seriousness or severity of the incident, the intent of the individual who engaged in the allegedly offensive conduct, and its effect or impact on the individual or group and the learning community. A “hostile environment” is created when the offensive behavior interferes with an individual’s ability to participate in the university’s programs (i.e., to work and to learn) when judged against a reasonable person standard. However, Colgate encourages individuals experiencing or witnessing offensive behavior to make a report as early as possible so as to have the situation corrected before it reaches the level of a hostile environment. Individuals with a concern need not worry about whether the behavior is sufficiently serious to constitute a hostile environment. The University reserves the right to remedy harassment pursuant to this policy even if the behavior in question does not rise to the level of legally recognized or actionable discrimination or harassment.