Sexual Respect at Lane

Get Help or Report an Incident

You can also reach Public Safety at 541-463-5555. If it's an emergency, dial 911.

For more information on filing other types of complaints, please visit the webpage on Reporting a Concern.

Lane Community College (LCC) works to build and maintain a safe, gender equitable environment for students, faculty and staff in all aspects of educational programming and employment. This means that no one should be denied participation in or the benefits of any LCC program or activity on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Lane Community College does not tolerate:

Sexual harassment
Sexual assault
Stalking
Intimate partner violence
Dating violence
Domestic violence

LCC is committed to providing support and assistance to all members of our campus community who are impacted by gender-based discrimination, harassment, and violence, including sexual assault, relationship or dating violence, and stalking. LCC is committed to developing best practices to respond to and prevent sexual assault.

What is Title IX?

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance (this includes colleges and universities). Title IX states that:

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

Title IX is administered by the US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (OCR). All educational institutions are required to address gender-based discrimination, harassment (including sexual harassment), and violence, including sexual violence, relationship violence (dating and domestic violence), and stalking. OCR identifies these behaviors or actions as 'harassment' generally.

What is Sexual Misconduct?

Sexual misconduct offenses include but are not limited to:

Sexual harassment
Sexual Assault
Stalking
Quid Pro Quo Harassment
Non-consensual sexual contact (or attempts to commit same)
Non-consensual sexual intercourse (or attempts to commit same)
Domestic violence/dating violence/intimate partner violence
Sexual exploitation

For more information and definitions of these behaviors, please see the Sexual Misconduct and Stalking procedure.

Know Your Rights

Reporting Options

Students/Faculty/Staff/Community Members have the right to file a complaint on any instance related to Title IX using the link on this page.

LCC encourages all individuals to report any alleged or suspected violation of its sexual harassment, discrimination, and misconduct policy to the Title IX coordinator, and to report potential criminal conduct to law enforcement. Anyone who seeks to make a complaint or report may do any or all of the following –

Request interim measures from the Title IX coordinator
File a complaint or report with the Title IX coordinator, thereby invoking the LCC Title IX process
Contact Public Safety for assistance in making a safety plan
Contact local law enforcement to file a criminal complaint (see information on resources page)
File a complaint with the Department of Education/Office of Civil Rights

Individuals may also seek a protective order such as restraining order, sexual assault protective order, or stalking order. A police report is not required to request a protective order.

For more information on the process when filing a Title IX Complaint, please visit the Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment and Gender-Based Discrimination Complaint Process

The following information is not a comprehensive list and is not intended to provide legal advice

When Reporting to the College

Both the complainant and respondent have equal rights, such as the right to:

A prompt and impartial investigation
Have an advisor of choice during the process
Present evidence or have witnesses
Receive the final decision in writing at the same time
Have the right to appeal a final decision
Learn and work in a safe environment
Access campus counseling

In addition, the complainant has a right to:

Notify law enforcement of incidents and receive assistance from LCC in doing so
Decline to report the incident to law enforcement
Have LCC investigate their allegations
Seek help from LCC in enforcing orders of protection, no-contact orders, restraining orders, or similar lawful orders issued by criminal, civil, or tribal courts
Request interim measures (academic/employment accommodations, no contact order, temporary restrictions for safety measures)
File a complaint without fear of retaliation

What is Consent?

In reviewing possible violations of sexual misconduct, the College considers consent as the voluntary, informed, uncoerced agreement through words and actions freely given, which a reasonable person would interpret as a willingness to participate in mutually agreed-upon sexual acts. Consensual sexual activity happens when each partner willingly and affirmatively chooses to participate.

Indications that consent is not present include: when physical force is used or there is a reasonable belief of the threat of physical force; when duress is present; when one person overcomes the physical limitations of another person; and when a person is incapable of making an intentional decision to participate in a sexual act, which could include instances in which the person is in a state of incapacitation.

Important points regarding consent include:

Consent to one act does not constitute consent to another act.
Consent on a prior occasion does not constitute consent on a subsequent occasion.
The existence of a prior or current relationship does not, in itself, constitute consent.
Consent can be withdrawn or modified at any time.
Consent is not implicit in a person's manner of dress.
Accepting a meal, a gift, or an invitation for a date does not imply or constitute consent.
Silence, passivity, or lack of resistance does not necessarily constitute consent.
Initiation by someone who a reasonable person knows or should have known to be deemed incapacitated is not consent.

In the context of this procedure, incapacitation is the state in which a person's perception or judgment is so impaired that they lack the cognitive capacity to make or act on conscious decisions. The use of drugs or alcohol can cause incapacitation. An individual who is incapacitated is unable to consent to a sexual activity. Engaging in sexual activity with an individual who is incapacitated (and therefore unable to consent), where a person knows or ought reasonably to have understood the individual is incapacitated, constitutes sexual misconduct.

Note: Oregon state law considers persons under the age of 18 to be "incapable of consenting to a sexual act" (ORS §163.315.) and states that if lack of consent is solely a result of the age of the victim, it is a defense to certain crimes that the actor was less than three years older than the victim at the time of the alleged offense (ORS § 163.345).

The Concept of Consent