Bias Report

Guided by the Jesuit ideal of cura personalis, which underscores the value placed on the God-given dignity of every human person, Loyola College in Maryland strives to maintain a campus environment characterized by interpersonal care and personal responsibility. Every member of the Loyola College community enjoys the same basic rights, including the right to be treated as a respected member of the community, with freedom from discrimination based on age, gender, religion, racial/ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, or disability. All community members have freedom from harassment of any type, violence, force, threats and abuse.

During the 2000/2001 academic year, there were several incidents in which Loyola community members were targeted with harassing words and actions based on group identity. Some of these incidents were handled through the judicial process while others were never resolved due to lack of evidence. As students learned about these incidents, they were in disbelief that these types of incidents could occur at Loyola College. Other students were not surprised at all and suggested that these type of harassing incidents occur on a regular basis.

As a result of discussion with a variety of student groups, the Division of Student Development agreed to do the following in response to incidents of harassment:

1. Notify the Loyola College community of any incident where a member of our community was the subject of harassing or demeaning behavior that targets age, gender, religion, racial/ethnic or national origin, sexual orientation, or disability.

2. Develop a means by which community members could report these types of incidents anonymously to campus officials.

With regard to community notification, the Vice-President of Student Development will determine when such notification will be sent through a special “newshound” email. For reasons of privacy, notification will occur only when the identities of the involved community members can be protected, permission from the targeted person(s) is granted, and the notification will not interfere with any ongoing investigation. The purpose of notifying the College community is to make the community aware that these types of incidents do occur here and to stimulate discussion about our responsibility as a community to continually work towards an environment that is harassment free for all.

In response to the request for a means to report such incidents anonymously, two different outlets have been developed via the Loyola web site. The first option is a specific form on the Student Development and Student Life webpages that allows anonymous information to be shared without identifying the source of the information. The form can be accessed at (www.loyola.edu/biasform) and is completely anonymous. The form is emailed to the Associate Dean of Students who will then take appropriate action based on the information provided. The second anonymous option is through the Silent Witness form on the Campus Police website. This form can be accessed at (webdev.loyola.edu/jsalisbury/silent.html) and is completely anonymous. This form is emailed to the Director of Public Safety who will review the information and take action as appropriate. It should be noted that the College’s ability to investigate or act on anonymous reports may be limited.

As always, we encourage any of our community members to contact Campus Police, Student Life, or Human Resources for assistance if you are a target of any type of harassment or to report information about harassment of others. Our community recognizes and values the similarities and differences among students, faculty, staff and recognized student organizations at Loyola College. Discrimination, sexual and bias-related harassment, and other violations of rights disrupt the educational process and will not be tolerated. 

Bias-Related Incident Report Form: 
http://www.loyola.edu/campuslife/housingandcampusconduct/forms/biasreport.html