Welcome to the Harvard Title IX Discussion Group!

This group is for Harvard students, professors, and faculty to deliberate on the issue of what should be the standard of sexual misconduct at Harvard University. The group draws its name from Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination at universities like Harvard that receive public funding.

In July 2014, Harvard University announced a new sexual assault policy that took effect over the fall. The new policy creates a centralized office and disciplinary board to investigate university sexual misconduct cases and works with a Title IX officer to issue sanctions. The board will make these decisions based on an “unwelcome conduct” standard of sexual misconduct. According to the new policy, conduct is unwelcome “if a person (1) did not request or invite it and (2) regarded the unrequested or uninvited conduct as undesirable or offensive.”

The purpose of this group is to discuss the meaning and adequacy of the “unwelcome conduct” standard for our university. Distinct from the university’s punitive standard, should we adhere to “unwelcome conduct” as our ethical standard? Or should we formulate a different standard to abide by ethically? An example of such a standard is “affirmative consent,” under which both partners must affirmatively communicate their willingness to participate in sexual activity. Does this standard differ from unwelcome conduct, and if so, is it worth adopting as our university-wide ethical standard for sexual conduct?