Title IX & Compliance
Title IX & Compliance Office provides services, resources and education for the Spelman community.
Mission Statement
Spelman College is committed to cultivating a campus community free from sex and gender-based discrimination and harassment, including sexual misconduct and relationship violence. Dedicated to delivering the Spelman Promise, the Title IX & Compliance Office supports this commitment through compliance efforts, promoting community accountability, responding to incidents, education and encouraging student leadership.
Title IX protects all members of the campus community from sex discrimination. Title IX requires an educational institution to respond to sex-based discrimination, including sexual harassment, sexual violence, intimate partner violence and stalking that is sufficiently serious to deny or limit a student’s or employee’s ability to participate in or benefit from the school’s education programs and activities (i.e., creates a hostile environment).
When a school knows of possible sex-based discrimination, it must take immediate and appropriate steps to investigate or otherwise determine what occurred. If an investigation reveals that the discrimination created a hostile environment, the school must take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate the hostile environment, prevent its recurrence, and, as appropriate, remedy its effects.
Sex-based discrimination can take multiple forms, involving a range of issues, such sexual or gender based harassment, sexual violence, and unequal access to educational resources.
What is Sexual Harassment?
Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that is can deny or limit a student’s or employee’s ability to participate in or benefit from the school’s education programs and activities. It can include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
Sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment. Sexual violence, as OCR uses the term, refers to physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent (e.g., due to the student’s age or use of drugs or alcohol, or because an intellectual or other disability prevents the student from having the capacity to give consent). A number of different acts fall into the category of sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse, and sexual coercion.
What is Gender-Based Harassment?
Gender-based harassment is unwelcome conduct based on a person’s actual or perceived sex. It includes slurs, taunts, stereotypes, or name-calling, as well as gender-motivated physical threats, attacks, or other hateful conduct.
Other Relevant Federal Laws and Regulations