COA 09-11 Catalog - Peralta Colleges

202district policies and procedures5. Voluntary Consent Not a DefenseFaculty members and supervisors exercise powerover students and their subordinates, whether ingiving or failing to give praise, criticism, performanceevaluations, promotions or other similar actions. Romanticrelationships between faculty members and students,or between supervisors and subordinates, can destroynecessary professional relationships. Voluntary consentby the student or subordinate is always suspect, giventhe asymmetric nature of the relationship. Moreover,such unprofessional behavior, or even the appearance ofsuch, may affect other students, faculty, and staff, becauseit gives one student or subordinate the appearance,correctly or incorrectly, of power or favor at the expenseof others.F. Harassment and Discrimination ComplaintProceduresIn order to accomplish the task of prohibiting discriminationand harassment, the District’s Equal Opportunity Officer isassigned the responsibilities of overseeing and investigatingany charges or complaints of discrimination or harassment.The District’s Equal Opportunity Officer will maintain adiscrimination and harassment complaint log and completerecords of complaints, investigations and resolutions.The District’s Equal Opportunity Officer will work withthe Vice President of Student Services of each collegefor processing all discrimination and harassmentcomplaints.In compliance with the guidelines established by stateand federal law, the following procedures will beimplemented to investigate and resolve complaints ofunlawful discrimination and harassment:1. Complaints of unlawful discrimination may befiled by a student who has personally suffereddiscrimination or by a person who has knowledge ofsuch discrimination, within one year of the date of thealleged unlawful discrimination or within one yearof the date on which the complainant knew or shouldhave known of the facts underlying the allegation ofunlawful discrimination or harassment.2. Student discrimination or harassment complaints may befiled with the District’s Equal Opportunity Officer (at 333East Eighth Street, Oakland, CA 94606; (510) 466-7230).3. Student discrimination and harassment complaintsmay also be filed with the Vice President of StudentServices as follows:Collegeof Alameda (510)748-2204Building ABerkeley City College (510) 981-28202050 Center St., Berkeley, 2nd FloorLaney College (510)464-3162Tower Building, Room 412Merritt College (510) 436-2478Building P, Room 3114. All complaints not filed directly with the District’sEqual Opportunity Officer should be immediatelyforwarded to that Officer on the approved Districtform.5. Whenever any person brings charges of unlawfuldiscrimination to the District Equal OpportunityOfficer’s attention, that Officer shall:(a) inform the complainant that he or she may,but is not required to, informally resolvethe charges and that s/he has the right to endthe informal resolution effort and begin theformal stage at any time;(b) notify the complainant of the procedures forfiling a complaint;(c) discuss with the complainant what actionshe or she is seeking in response to the allegeddiscrimination; and(d) advise the complainant that he or she may filea complaint with the Office for Civil Rights ofthe United States Department of Education.(e) Forward a copy to the State Chancellor’s Officeon the appropriate form.(f) Return defective complaints to the complainantwith an explanation of the deficiencies and howthey may be corrected if the complaint is to beconsidered.(g) Review the complaint and determine the needfor any interim measures of relief pendingcompletion of the investigation.6. Within fourteen (14) days of receiving the complaint, athorough and impartial investigation will commencewith notification to the complainant and theChancellor of the initiation of the investigation.Complaints will be investigated and resolvedin accordance with the District’s unlawfuldiscrimination complaint procedures. To ensure aprompt and equitable investigation of complaints,the investigation shall include an opportunity for thecomplainant and the accused to present witnessesand other evidence on their behalf. Thus, theinvestigation shall include private interviews withthe complainant, the accused individual and each ofthe witnesses identified by both parties. Sufficient