All members of this diverse community are expected to maintain a positive and respectful learning environment free of harassment, intimidation, belittlement, humiliation, and abuse. This policy defines mistreatment and provides a mechanism to allow individuals to report violations without fear of retaliation.
This Student Mistreatment policy is meant to address mistreatment not otherwise covered by other existing SGU policies, such as:
- Diversity and Inclusion Policy
- Learning Environment Policy
- Nondiscrimination Policy
- Sexual Misconduct Policy
- Student Code of Conduct
I. Definition of Mistreatment (specific to this policy)
According to the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), mistreatment occurs, either intentionally or unintentionally, when “behavior shows disrespect for the dignity of others and unreasonably interferes with the learning process.”
Examples of mistreatment include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Harmful, injurious, or offensive conduct
- Verbal attacks
- Insults or unjustifiably harsh language when speaking to a student or publicly about a student
- Public humiliation or belittling
- Physical attacks (e.g., being slapped, hit, or kicked)
- Requiring performance of personal services (e.g., child sitting, shopping)
- Intentional neglect (e.g., intentionally neglecting a student in a clerkship)
- Disregard for student safety
- Denigrating comments about a student's field of choice
- Assigning tasks as punishment rather than to meet educational objectives or for the objective evaluation of a student’s performance
- Unreasonable and unjustifiable exclusion of a student from a usual and reasonably expected educational opportunity for any reason other than as an appropriate response to that student's performance
- Other behaviors that violate the trust between teacher and learner and/or that are contradictory to the learning atmosphere
Other behaviors that constitute mistreatment such as sexual misconduct and discrimination are covered under this and other explicit University policies.