Members of the School of Mines Community Value a Global Perspective
As a student at the School of Mines, you are responsible for the decisions you make about how you treat other people. Valuing a global perspective means that you recognize people may be different than you. Learning to understand and respect those differences is an important part of your education. What you may consider a joke or teasing could be cruel, hurtful and demeaning to another person. If you make the decision to treat people with disrespect, hurtfulness, and cruelty, or to ridicule someone because they are different than you, that may be considered harassment and you would be in violation of university and Board of Regent policies.
Additionally, having an individual do something that can be viewed as unsafe—even if they consent, even if it’s tradition—because they want to be affiliated with your group is an abuse of your power over them. If that individual wants to be a part of your group (a club, organization, circle of friends) and you set tasks or activities that they believe they must complete that could hurt them mentally or physically, you are in violation of BOR and university policy. If the task that is required of that person who wants to remain with your group involves damaging or removing property, you are in violation of BOR and university policy.
Example: under review
Policies that are in place to assist you with decision making and guide you to value a global perspective include the following BOR policies listed within the SDSM&T Student Code of Conduct:
4. Acts of aggression including threats, intimidation, coercion or other conduct that threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person.
a. Tampering with fire and life safety equipment including, without limitation, fire alarms, sprinkler systems, first aid equipment, and laboratory safety apparatus;
b. Conduct that threatens or endangers a student’s own health or safety may also violate this section;
c. “Aggression” means not only intentional infliction of harm, but also conduct that intentionally subjects another to unwelcome, offensive, physical contact or that puts another person in reasonable fear that the actor intends immediately to subject person to intentional injury or unwelcome, offensive touching.
5. Subjection of another person to any sexual act against that person’s will or without consent, including any conduct that would constitute a sex offense, whether forcible or non-forcible, under SDCL §§ 22-22-1 through 22-22-7.2, 22-22-19.1 or 22-24.1.
a. Persons who are under the influence of alcohol, marijuana or other illegal controlled substances at the time that they are subjected to the sexual act shall be presumed incapable of effective consent.
6. Discriminatory conduct proscribed under Board Policy 1:18 includes sexual harassment, racial harassment, harassment on other grounds identified in Board Policy 1:18 or harassment on any other grounds, directed against individuals.
a. Harassment may be established by showing
i. Conduct toward another person that has the purpose of creating an intimidating, hostile or demeaning environment and that interferes with his or her ability to participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or resource.
ii. Conduct toward another person that has the effect of creating an intimidating, hostile or demeaning environment and that adversely interferes with his or ability to participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or resource.
a) Harassment consists, in most cases, of more than casual or isolated incidents.
(1) Consideration should be given to the context, nature, scope, frequency, duration and location of the incidents, whether they are physically threatening or humiliating as opposed to merely offensive utterances, as well as to the identity, number and relationships of the persons involved.
b) Harassment shall be found where, in aggregate, the incidents are sufficiently pervasive or persistent or severe that a reasonable person with the same characteristics of the victim of the harassing conduct would be adversely affected to a degree that interferes with his or her ability to participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or resource.
(1) The reasonable person standard includes consideration of the perspective of persons of the alleged victim’s race, gender or other circumstances that relate to the purpose for which he or she has become the object of allegedly harassing conduct.
(2) It is not necessary to show psychological harm to the victim to establish that the conduct would interfere with the person’s ability to participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or resource.
iii. Other conduct that is extreme and outrageous exceeding all bounds usually tolerated by polite society and that has the purpose or the substantial likelihood of interfering with another person’s ability to participate in or to realize the intended benefits of an institutional activity, employment or resource;
b. Sexual harassment through the creation of an intimidating, hostile or demeaning environment may be established under section (a) above. Sexual harassment may also be established by showing that an individual has been subjected to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature where:
i. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or a condition of an individual’s participation or use of an institutionally sponsored or approved activity, employment or resource; or
ii. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for educational, employment or similar decisions affecting an individual’s ability to participate in or use an institutionally sponsored or approved activity, employment or resource.
10. Hazing, defined as an act which endangers the mental or physical health or safety of a student, or which destroys or removes public or private property, for the purpose of initiation, admission into, affiliation with, or as a condition for continued membership in a group or organization;
