By Anne Mitchell, director, Office of Equal Opportunity
We, at the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), welcome you to IUPUI, IUPUC, and IUFW! We hope that you are getting to know campus and the greater community. OEO serves our campuses in several ways. We’d like to share what we do and how you can find us if you need us.
One way our office serves our campuses is by handling concerns of discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct when the individual accused of those behaviors is not a student. Our campus partner, the Office of Student Conduct (OSC), handles concerns related to discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct when a student is accused. Procedures to investigate these concerns are in our Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct policy.
It is important for you to know that as a faculty member on our campuses, you are considered a “responsible employee.” This means you are obligated to report any information about workplace discrimination or harassment to OEO. If a student is accused, that report would go to Sara Dickey (use OSC complaint form). If someone other than a student is accused, that report would go to Anne Mitchell (use OEO complaint form).
After you report the information to us, we will reach out to the individual who is the target of the inappropriate behavior to talk about how they’d like us to handle it, the investigation process (if applicable), and most importantly, share resources available to them. It’s important if someone discloses something to you that you tell them that you must report it, so they aren’t alarmed when we reach out. It’s also important that you don’t investigate yourself, as we want to minimize the number of times we ask survivors to tell their story.
There are a few circumstances where you are not obligated to report: (1) if the information is revealed at a public awareness event (e.g., Take Back the Night event); (2) if the information is revealed as part of IRB sponsored research; or (3) if the information is revealed as part of an assignment (paper or presentation).
There are some staff members that are considered confidential employees, meaning they do not have to disclose information to our offices (e.g., counselors in our mental health facilities). Christine Kung’u within CAPS oversees our interpersonal violence response and prevention efforts and can help link any student, faculty, or staff to resources and serve as an advocate for them with any university concern or investigation.
If you want to talk through anything you’ve experienced or have any questions about the expectations of reporting, please reach out to us. OEO is located in Lockefield Village (4th floor, room 4440). You can contact us by phone at (317) 274-2306 or e-mail us at ude[dot]iupui[at]iupuioeo. Our website has further information about us, and our team – who would love to meet you and be a resource for you.
