If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, dating violence, or stalking, contact The Office for Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance to speak with a confidential advocate. Advocates are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 848-932-1181.

What is Sexual Assault or Non-consensual Sexual Contact?

Sexual assault or non-consensual sexual contact refers to any one or more of the following acts:

  • Touching of an unwilling or non-consenting person’s intimate parts (such as genitalia, groin, breast, buttocks, or mouth under or over a person’s clothes).
  • Touching an unwilling person or non-consenting person with one’s own intimate parts.
  • Forcing an unwilling person to touch another’s intimate parts.
  • Penetrating an unwilling person orally, anally, or vaginally with any object or body part. This includes, but is not limited to, penetration of a bodily opening without consent, through the use of coercion, or through exploitation of another’s inability to give consent.
  • Penetrating an unwilling person orally, anally, or vaginally with any object or body part by use of force, threat, and/or intimidation.
  • Stealthing, which is intentionally removing or damaging a prophylactic device (e.g., condom, female condom) when consent has only been given for protected sex.

What is Sexual Harassment?

Sexual harassment refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct, or communication of a sexual nature when:

  • Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s education, educational or campus life activities; or
  • Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic or student life decisions affecting that individual; or
  • Such conduct has the effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s education or academic performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, demeaning, or offensive campus, work or living environment.
  • Sexual harassment may be committed by anyone regardless of gender identity and may occur between members of the same or different sex.

What is Relationship Violence?

Relationship violence refers to any act of physical, sexual, and/or psychological harm against an individual by a current or former intimate or romantic partner, or by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common.  Intimate or romantic partners may be dating, cohabitating, married, separate or divorced, and may be of the same or different sex. Dating violence and domestic violence are both considered “relationship violence” under this Policy.

What is Stalking?

Stalking refers to any course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to be fearful of serious harm or danger to themselves or to individuals close to them. Examples of stalking include non-consensual communication and physical contact; following or pursuing the other person; waiting or showing up at locations visited by the other person; spying on a person; trespassing; vandalism; gathering of information about a person from others; or manipulating and controlling behaviors such as threats to harm oneself or threats to harm someone close to the victim.