Danville Area Community College is committed to providing its students with an educational environment that is free of discrimination. Accordingly, the College will not tolerate harassment of Danville Area Community college students by anyone, including its president, or any administrator, any (full, part-time, and/or visiting) faculty or staff member, including any graduate assistant, any other College student, or any third party.

Harassment consists of unwelcome conduct, whether verbal, physical, or visual, that is based upon a person’s protected status, such as sex, color, race, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, marital status, or legally protected statuses. The College will not tolerate harassing conduct that affects tangible benefits of education, that interferes unreasonably with an individual’s educational performance, or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment. Such harassment may include, for example, jokes about another person’s protected status, kidding, teasing or practical jokes directed at a person based on his or her protected status.

Sexual harassment deserves special mention. Sexual harassment is conduct based on sex, whether directed toward a person of the opposite or same sex, and may include explicit sexual propositions, sexual innuendo, suggestive comments, sexually oriented “kidding” or “teasing”, “practical jokes”, jokes about obscene printed or visual material, and physical contact such as patting, pinching, or brushing against another person’s body. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other physical, verbal, or visual conduct based on sex constitute sexual harassment when:

1. The student’s submission to such conduct is either explicitly or implicitly made a term or condition of receiving an education;

2. The student’s submission to or rejection of such conduct is used to influence the student’s educational development or participation in any College activity or program, including but not limited to: whether the student will be admitted to the College; the educational performance required or expected of the student; the attendance or assignment requirements applicable to the student; the courses, fields of study or programs (including honors and graduate programs) to which the student will be admitted; what placement or course proficiency requirements are applicable to the student; the quality of instruction the student will receive; what tuition or fees are required of the student; what scholarship opportunities are available to the student; what extracurricular teams the student will be a member of or in what competitions the student will participate; any grade the student will receive in any examination, course or program of instruction; the progress of the student toward successful completion of a course or program or graduation; what degree, if any, the student will receive; or

3. The conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s educational performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment.

All College students and employees are responsible to help assure that we avoid harassment regardless of whether the harassment has yet reached a severe or pervasive level that is considered a violation of the law. If any student of the College feels that he/she has experiences or witnessed harassment, he/she is required to notify the College’s Affirmative Action Officer, Jill Cranmore, Vice President of Human Resources, 217.443-8756, the College’s Executive Vice President, Instruction and Student Services, David L. Kietzmann, 217.443-8771, or the President, Dr. Stephen Nacco, 217.443.8748. The College forbids retaliation against anyone for reporting harassment, assisting in reporting harassment or cooperating in a harassment investigation. If any student feels that he/she has been retaliated against, he/she is to notify the College’s Affirmative Action Officer, Jill Cranmore, Vice President of Human Resources, 217.443.8756, or the Executive Vice President, Instruction and Student Services, David L. Kietzmann, 217-443-8771.

The College’s policy is to investigate all harassment complaints made under this policy impartially, thoroughly, and promptly. To the fullest extent possible, the College will keep harassment complaints, records related to harassment complaints, and the terms of the complaint’s resolution confidential. If an investigation confirms that a violation of the policy has occurred, Danville Area Community College will take appropriate corrective action to stop the harassment and to ensure that the harassment does not reoccur. Such corrective action may include training of the harasser, monitoring the harasser, and/or academic or job-related discipline of the harasser proportional to the offense, up to and including expulsion or discharge.