Suggestions for Faculty and Staff

Being a Support to Students

As a faculty or staff member, you may be the first person that a student has ever told about their experience with sex discrimination, sexual harassment, or sexual or interpersonal violence. It is important that you familiarize yourself with campus resources and support, including What to Do When a Student Reports, a document outlining how best to fulfill your reporting responsibilities and connect a student to appropriate resources. Remember, you cannot promise confidentiality unless you are a confidential resource. 

Additional information on identifying students in distress can be found here. 

You can also learn about balancing your responsible person duties with your care and compassion for students here. 

Syllabus Language: General

Many faculty members want to make it clear that sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship violence, and stalking, will not be tolerated in their class, and alert students of their reporting responsibilities. Here is some language that you can include in your syllabus:

Title IX/Let’s Be Clear

UCF cares about your wellbeing. The university has the responsibility to address information it receives about any student having been subjected to sexual violence.  In my role as your faculty member, I am a responsible person who has the duty to report all relevant details about an incident of sex/gender-based discrimination or harassment, sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, relationship violence, and/or stalking that involves any student. If you choose to disclose such an incident to me, I may be required to share your concern with the Title IX Coordinator in UCF’s Office for Institutional Equity (OIE). Once reported, the Title IX Coordinator will have a member of the Title IX team reach out to impacted students to provide resources, support, and options. If you or someone you know has been impacted by sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking, or related misconduct and wants to connect to confidential support, please call UCF Victim Services at 407-823-1200 or text 407-823-6868 (24/7); a comprehensive list of confidential and nonconfidential services can be found through LetsBeClear.ucf.edu.

Syllabus Language: Content-Specific

Some courses directly address the issues of sexual assault, relationship violence, and/or stalking. In addition to the language above, UCF’s Violence Against Women Faculty Cluster has adopted the following syllabus language for use in their courses:

Title IX/Let’s Be Clear

This is a course that focuses on sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship violence, and stalking, so the material will at times be graphic, and potentially upsetting. Due to the nature of the material addressed in the course, you may experience a need or desire to process some of your own personal experiences with violence and trauma. This is a normal and reasonable response given the subject matter. While the online course space is not the appropriate venue for this processing to take place, I am available to offer support and provide referrals as necessary. However, please understand that I am not a confidential resource, and may be required by federal law to report what you share with me to others at the university. This can include information you may share about domestic violence, sexual violence, sexual harassment and stalking, and information you may share in discussion via email, in office hours, in a Zoom session, or in other forms. Course graduate teaching assistants also are not confidential resources, so the same applies to information shared with them. Confidential and nonconfidential resources are available here.