Types of Conduct: Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation
The Department of Equity and Civil Rights Compliance investigates complaints of discrimination, discriminatory harassment, and retaliation.
Learn more about discrimination, discriminatory harassment, and retaliation below to determine whether this office can help you. If you are experiencing any of the behavior described below, please consult our how-to guidelines for filing a complaint.
Discrimination
Discrimination is subjecting an individual or group to adverse action – including differential treatment – on the basis of actual or perceived membership in a protected class under this policy. Adverse actions can include (but are not limited to) termination, denial of a promotion, or denial of access to the educational environment.
If you have experienced or are experiencing discrimination by an Emory University or Emory Healthcare faculty or staff member, please consult our how-to guidelines for filing a complaint.
Discriminatory Harassment
Discriminatory Harassment of a Non-Sexual Nature
Harassment is unwelcome conduct on the basis of actual or perceived membership in a protected class that is sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to unreasonably interfere with, limit, or deny the ability of an individual to participate in or benefit from Emory’s programs or activities by creating a hostile environment. This will be evaluated based on the totality of the circumstances and evaluated subjectively and objectively.
Petty slights, annoyances, and isolated incidents (unless extremely serious) will usually not rise to the level of a policy violation. To violate this policy, the conduct must create an academic, work, extracurricular, or residential environment that would be hostile, offensive, or intimidating to a reasonable person. Such conduct can include verbal, oral, written, electronic, graphic, or physical conduct, such as offensive jokes, slurs, epithets, or name-calling, physical assaults or threats, intimidation, ridicule or mockery, insults or put-downs, offensive objects or pictures, and interference with academic, work, or extracurricular performance. Such conduct may also include that which denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group on the basis of protected class. Harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances and includes conduct affecting Emory’s living, learning, and working environments (e.g., an individual’s work performance or a student’s academic performance).
If you have experienced or are experiencing discriminatory harassment of a non-sexual nature by an Emory University faculty, staff member, or student, consult our how-to guidelines for filing a complaint.
Sexual Harassment in Employment
Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex or gender when:
- Submission to such conduct is either made explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment status;
- Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; or
- Such conduct is so severe and/or pervasive it has the purpose or effect of unreasonable interfering with a person’s university employment or creates a working or academic environment that a reasonable person would find intimidating, hostile, or offensive.
Sexual harassment includes, but is not limited to, an attempt to coerce an unwilling person into a sexual relationship; to punish a refusal to comply with a sexual based request; unwanted sexual attention; and discussing or displaying visual depictions of sex acts or sexual remarks in the work environment.
If you have experienced or are experiencing discriminatory harassment of a sexual nature by an Emory University faculty or staff member, consult our how-to guidelines for filing a complaint.
If it is a complaint against a student, refer to Emory's Sex and Gender-Based Harassment and Discrimination Policy 8.2 which governs situations in which a student is alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct.
Retaliation
An adverse action, statement, or conduct directed at an individual by the University, a student, an employee, or any other person authorized by the University to provide aid, benefits, or services, for the purpose of interfering with that individual’s right(s) under this policy, or because the individual has made a good faith report or complaint under this policy; made a report or complaint to an external agency or to law enforcement; or participated or, where permitted, refused to participate in any investigation or other proceeding under this policy.
Retaliation includes retaliation by peers, but also retaliation by a student against an employee, or by an employee against a student, as well as by an employee against another employee — regardless of either employee’s role or stature in the institution. An individual need not be a complainant or respondent to have committed or been affected by retaliation.
It is not retaliation for the University to require an employee to participate as a witness in, or otherwise assist with, any investigation under this policy.
If you have experienced or are experiencing retaliation by an Emory University faculty, staff member or student, consult our how-to guidelines for filing a complaint.
Bias
Bias is distinct from discrimination and discriminatory harassment. Bias refers to language or actions that demonstrate preconceived opinions, attitudes, or prejudices based on an individual’s identity. While bias incidents can impact students’ and employees’ experiences at Emory, bias is not prohibited by Emory policy. Thus, the institution’s response to bias reports is focused on offering support and facilitating connections to ongoing programs and opportunities available on and off campus.