Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct

Title IX Coordinator

Name	Position	Title IX Role	Campus Location	Email	Phone Number
Kara DiPaola	Assistant Director	Title IX Coordinator	Warwick	[email protected]	401-825-1126

 

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Services and Resources

The CCRI administration wants to support victims of sexual assault in any way we can. Below are some on-campus services and resources offered to victims of sexual assault, discrimination, and/or violence.

Supportive Measures

Reasonable measures, assistance, accommodations and resources are available to both the complainant and respondent. A complainant may request accommodations and resources regardless of any decision to pursue an investigation with the college or law enforcement. CCRI will make accommodations and provide protective measures if either party requests them and the accommodations are reasonably available. We encourage parties to seek accommodations that best support them.

• Common supportive measures
  • Academic: Students finding their academic progress affected by an incident or allegation can request assistance from Title IX Coordinator or Dean of Students, who will help arrange appropriate accommodations. These can include incompletes, class changes, additional time for work, and other academic accommodations.
  • No Contact Directive: We will issue No Contact Directives when appropriate including, but not limited to, when it is necessary to minimize interactions between the parties or preserve the safety of the parties and other community members.
  • Financial Aid: If you have questions or concerns about student financial aid-related issues, please contact CCRI’s Office of Financial Aid: [email protected] or 401- 825-2468.
  • Visa and Immigration Assistance: If you have questions or concerns about how your experience and needs may intersect with your visa and/or immigration status, please contact CCRI’s Office of Financial Aid ([email protected] or 401-825-2468) and/or the immigration resources available in the Legal Resources section of this booklet.
  • CCRI Disability Services for Students: DSS coordinators and support staff are available on each of CCRI’s four campuses to meet with students with disabilities and provide the necessary and reasonable accommodations students need to be successful. 401-825-2164 | www.ccri.edu/dss/contacts.html

Additional Measures: Other arrangements, such as work accommodations or transportation options can be made on a case-by-case basis to provide students and employees with additional distance from the other party or to address other needs related to the experience, such as attendance at court dates. We encourage you to share your needs with the Title IX Coordinator so that we can work with you to address them.

External Resources

View the Title IX Handbook for a complete listing of community/external resources offered in Rhode Island.

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Definitions

• Sexual Harassment
• Sexual Violence
• Sexual Assault
• Dating Violence
• Domestic Violence
• Stalking
• Assault
• Battery
• Discrimination
• Harassment
• Threat of Violence
• Violent Act

Sexual Harassment

Defined as unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and any other verbal, non-verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when

• Submission is such conduct is made, either explicitly or implicitly, a term or condition of an individual's education, employment, or participation in programs or activities at the Covered Entity;
• Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as a basis for decisions affecting that individual's education, employment, or participation in programs or activities a the Covered Entity; or
• Such conduct is so severe or pervasive that it has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's education, employment or participation in programs or activities at the Covered Entity, and/or creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive or abusive employment, academic, extracurricular or living or learning environment for the individual at the Covered Entity.

Sexual Violence

Is a form of sexual harassment, and refers to: physical sexual acts perpetrated against a person’s will or where a person is incapable of giving consent due to the victim’s use of drugs or alcohol. An individual also may be unable to give consent due to an intellectual or other disability. A number of different acts fall into the category of sexual violence, including rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, and other forms of sexual coercion.

Sexual Assault

An offense that meets one of the following definitions of rape, fondling, incest or statutory rape used in the FBI's Uniform Crime reporting Program.

• Fondling—The touching of the private parts of another person for the purpose of sexual gratification, without the consent of the victim, including instances where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of his/her age or because of his/her temporary or permanent mental incapacity.
• Incest—Sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by law. 
• Rape—The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part of object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.
• Statutory Rape— Sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent.

Dating Violence

Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim. Dating violence includes, but is not limited to, sexual or physical abuse or the threat of such abuse.

Domestic Violence

A felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed:

• By a current or former spouse or intimate partner of the victim;
• By a person with who the victim shares a child in common;
• By a person who is cohabitating with, or has cohabitated with, the victim as a spouse or intimate partner;
• By a person similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred, or
• By any other person against an adult or youth victim who is protected from that person's acts under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the crime of violence occurred. 

Stalking

Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for the person's safety or the safety of others or suffered substantial emotional distress.

• Course of Conduct means two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parities, by any action, method, device, or means, including social media, follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about a person, or interferes with a person's property.
• Reasonable person means a reasonable person under similar circumstances and with similar identities to the victim.
• Substantial emotional distress means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily require medical or other professional treatment or counseling.

Assault

Any willful attempt to inflict injury upon another when coupled with the apparent ability to do so. Actual touching, striking, or doing bodily harm to another is not required; the mere attempt constitutes an assault.

Battery

The intentional and wrongful physical contact with a person without that person's consent, or without legal authority to do so, that entails some injury or offensive touching. The willful attempt to use force to touch another is an assault; the actual touching is a battery

Discrimination

In the employment sector, discrimination is taking an adverse action against an employee based on that employee's age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, national origin, or disability.

Harassment

Verbal statements or physical acts, which, while neither an assault nor a battery, nevertheless are likely to create tension or hostility, and therefore, may lead to conflict. 

Threat of Violence

A threat of violence is any act of aggression or a statement which objectively could be perceived as intent to cause harm to an employee. Threatening behavior includes any behavior that could be interpreted by a reasonable person as intent to cause physical harm to another individual. Threatening behavior may, or may not, include the actual act of physical force, with or without a weapon, toward another individual. Threatening behavior may be verbal or non-verbal.

Violent Act

Any act that is an assault, a battery, or the destruction/damage of physical property.