112 Chabot College 2024-2026 STUDENT RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES INTAKE AND PROCESSING OF THE COMPLAINT Upon receiving notification of a harassment or discrimination complaint, the RDO or designee shall: • Consider whether the District can undertake efforts to informally resolve the charges, including but not limited to mediation, rearrangement of work/academic schedules, obtaining apologies, providing informal counseling, training, etc. • Advise all Parties that he/she/they need not participate in an informal resolution of the complaint, as described above, and they have the right to end the informal resolution process at any time. • Advise a student Complainant that he/she/they may file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, and employee Complainants may file a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. All Complainants should be advised that they have a right to file a complaint with local law enforcement if the act complained of is also a criminal act. The District must investigate even if the Complainant files a complaint with local law enforcement. In addition, the District should ensure that Complainants are aware of any available resources, such as counseling, health, and mental health services. • Take interim steps to protect a Complainant from coming into contact with an accused individual, especially if the Complainant is a victim of sexual violence. The RDO or designee should notify the Complainant of his/her/their options to avoid contact with the accused individual and allow students to change academic situations as appropriate. For instance, the District may prohibit the accused individual from having any contact with the Complainant pending the results of the investigation. When taking steps to separate the Complainant and accused individual, the District shall minimize the burden on the Complainant. For example, it is not appropriate to remove Complainants from classes or housing while allowing accused individuals to remain. INVESTIGATION The RDO or designee shall: • Authorize the investigation of the Complaint, and supervise or conduct a thorough, prompt, and impartial investigation of the Complaint, as set forth below. Where the Parties opt for informal resolution, the designated officer will determine whether further investigation is necessary to ensure resolution of the matter and utilize the investigation process outlined below as appropriate. The investigation will include interviews with the Complainant, the accused, and any other persons who may have relevant knowledge concerning the complaint. This may include victims of similar conduct. • Review the factual information gathered through the investigation to determine whether the alleged conduct constitutes harassment, or other unlawful discriminatory conduct, giving consideration to all factual information and the totality of the circumstances, including the nature of the verbal, physical, visual or sexual conduct, and the context in which the alleged incidents occurred. INVESTIGATION OF THE COMPLAINT The District shall promptly investigate every Complaint. No claim of workplace or academic harassment or discrimination shall remain unexamined. This includes Complaints involving activities that occur off campus and in connection with all the academic, educational, extracurricular, athletic, and other programs of the District, whether those programs take place in the District’s facilities, on a District bus, or at a class or training program sponsored by the District at another location. The District shall promptly investigate complaints of harassment or discrimination that occur off campus if the alleged conduct creates a hostile environment on campus. The District shall notify the Complainant that the District will commence an impartial fact-finding investigation of the allegations contained in the complaint. As set forth above, where the Parties opt for an informal resolution, the RDO or designee may limit the scope of the investigation, as appropriate. The District will keep the investigation confidential to the extent possible but cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality because release of some information on a “need-to-know-basis” is essential to a thorough investigation. When determining whether to maintain confidentiality, the District may weigh the request for confidentiality against the following factors: the seriousness of the alleged harassment; the Complainant’s age; whether there have been other harassment complaints about the same individual; and the accused individual’s rights to receive information about the allegations if the information is maintained by the District as an “education record” under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S. Code Section 1232g; 34 Code Federal Regulations Part 99.15. The District will inform the Complainant if it cannot maintain confidentiality.
