FAQs

Any employee who has significant responsibility for students and campus activities in their role is designated as a responsible employee. In an effort to connect students to Title IX reporting options and supportive resources, a responsible employee should report any instances of potential sexual misconduct. Under Title IX, responsible employees and officials with authority have an obligation to immediately report any information they come to learn regarding suspected sexual harassment or misconduct and cannot agree to maintain privacy or confidentiality regarding these matters. For a comprehensive list of responsible employees, see the Student Handbook, page 72. If you are unsure about who has reporting responsibilities, please contact the Title IX coordinator.

An official with authority is an employee who is designated by Illinois Institute of Technology to have authority to institute corrective measures on behalf of the institution. Those individuals include:

• President, provost, vice presidents, and those designated to serve in the role of associate or assistant vice president/provost
• Title IX coordinator and assistant Title IX coordinators
• Academic deans
• Department chairs
• Student affairs and residential life directors
• Athletic director
• Director and assistant directors of public safety

If a student discloses a possible sexual harassment, some best practices are:

• Thank them for telling you
• Normalize their feelings
• Mirror their language 
• Tell students you are a responsible employee
• Offer options for a confidential advisor
• Tell the student you may need to report the disclosure
• Avoid promising outcomes
• Set expectations for next steps
• Submit an Incident Report or contact the Title IX office

Disclosing sexual assault can be very difficult, and its important to be kind and empathetic while also setting expectations about your reporting responsibilities. By informing students of your reporting responsibilities and offering options for a confidential advisor, you can help them make an informed decision on how they want to proceed and help them maintain agency over the situation.

If a student proceeds to disclose potential sexual harassment or misconduct, a responsible employee or official with authority should promptly report the incident to the university. You can either report directly to Title IX Coordinator Virginia Foster at foster@bang-event.com, or by submitting an incident report online. Please provide as much detail as possible; however, it is not your role to further investigate the incident. You should not be asking the student for more information than they already volunteered to you. After you report the incident, you will likely not receive updates on the situation from the Title IX office; this is to protect the confidentiality of the student.

You should still report the incident. Some students intend to report and then face barriers in doing so. It is better to have duplicate reports rather than an incident go unreported.

Yes. Similar to the way you include a statement on disability and access in your syllabus, you can include a statement on sexual harassment. Faculty interested in including a statement on sexual harassment prohibition may contact Title IX Coordinator Virginia Foster at foster@bang-event.com.