Policy Approval Authority | President |
Responsible Division | Division of Academic Diversity, Equity and Inclusion |
Responsible University Office | Prevention Education and Outreach |
Responsible Officer(s) | Director of Coordinated Education, Training and Outreach Programs |
Contact Person | Rose Henton |
Primary Audience |
Faculty
Staff Student |
Date Submitted to Policy Library | 04-04-2023 |
Status | Active |
Last Review Date | 04-03-2023 |
Policy Category/Categories |
Campus Safety / Security
Ethics & Conduct Human Resources / Employment |
Northern Illinois University (herein, “NIU” or “the university”) educates and supports efforts to empower the campus and community to prevent sexual misconduct and promotes the safety and security of the campus community. At NIU, sexual misconduct includes dating violence, domestic violence, gender harassment, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking.
This policy outlines the university’s compliance with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1092 (f), (herein “the Clery Act”) as it relates to programs to prevent dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The Clery Act is a federal statute which requires institutions of higher education participating in the federal financial aid program to collect certain information with respect to campus crime statistics and campus security policies of that institution.
The university engages in activities, to include programming, initiatives, strategies and campaigns, intended to prevent and end sexual misconduct that are comprehensive; intentional; integrated; culturally relevant and inclusive of diverse communities and identities; sustainable; responsive to community needs; informed by research; assessed for value, effectiveness, or outcome; and consider environmental risk and protective factors as they occur on the individual, relationship, institutional, community and societal levels.
The activities that NIU develops and implements include both primary prevention and awareness programs directed at incoming students and new employees, and ongoing prevention and awareness campaigns directed at students and employees. These activities include, at a minimum, the following:
Primary prevention programs include programming, initiatives, and strategies informed by research or assessed for value, effectiveness, or outcome that are intended to stop dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking before they occur through the promotion of positive and healthy behaviors that foster healthy, mutually respectful relationships and sexuality, encourage safe bystander intervention, and seek to change behavior and social norms in healthy and safe directions.
Awareness programs include community-wide or audience-specific programming, initiatives, and strategies that increase audience knowledge and share information and resources to prevent violence, promote safety, and reduce perpetration.
New employees and incoming students are required to complete sexual misconduct awareness and prevention training upon hire or the beginning of the semester.
The sexual misconduct awareness and prevention training provided to students and employees is compliant with the Illinois Preventing Sexual Violence in Higher Education Act (110 ILCS 155), the Illinois State Officials and Employee Ethics Act (5 ILCS 430), and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (20 U.S.C. § 1681).
Ongoing prevention and awareness campaigns includes programming, initiatives, and strategies that are sustained over time and focus on increasing understanding of topics relevant to and skills for addressing dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking, using a range of strategies with audiences throughout the institution.
Employees are required to complete sexual misconduct awareness and prevention training on an annual basis. Returning students are encouraged to complete this training each year. Employees who are both students and NIU employees complete both student-based and employee-based sexual misconduct awareness and prevention training. The university also conducts ongoing prevention and awareness campaigns throughout the year on topics such as active bystander intervention, sexual assault, consent, domestic and dating violence, and healthy relationships.
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