Reporting to ECR FAQ

You can submit a report or referral any time using our confidential online reporting/referral form

You can and should report discrimination, hate or bias, sexual misconduct or retaliation that you or another student, faculty or staff member, believes may be impacting the ability to:

1. Attend Class: This includes going to class, participating fully in class, and doing in-class activities.
2. Engage in University Programs or Activities: This includes clubs, student organizations, athletics, field trips, housing, and UMBC events.
3. Engage in Employment Activities: This includes student employees and faculty and staff members.
4. Feel Safe: This includes on and off campus housing, on and off campus activities, and feeling safe while on campus and working, teaching or attending class.

The following should be reported to ECR:

• Stalking & Cyber Stalking
  • Actions directed at a specific person that cause fear their safety or the safety of others or cause them to suffer substantial emotional distress
• Dating & Domestic Violence
  • Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a romantic or intimate relationship the impacted person or lives with the impacted person
• Sexual Harassment
  • Unwelcome conduct that is severe, pervasive and objectively offensive and denies equal access to education
  • Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or unwelcome verbal, physical or electronic comments that interfere with work or academic performance.
• Sexual Assault & Exploitation
  • Sexual assault: unwanted sexual act involving penetration or fondling
  • Sexual exploitation: when someone takes non-consensual sexual advantage of another for their own benefit
• Hate, Bias incidents, concerns
• Discrimination, harassment or incidents of hate or bias on the basis of: race, creed, color, religion, sex, gender, pregnancy, ancestry, age, gender identity or expression, national origin, veterans status, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or genetic information
• Retaliation against someone because the person made a complaint, participated or refused to participate in an investigation or hearing

 

Yes, you may report anonymously, (as long as you are not a responsible employee) but please know that this will limit ECR’s ability to respond to the report.

Almost all UMBC employees, including student employees, are considered Responsible Employees under the Sexual Misconduct/ Title IX Policy.

This means that if these employees hear about, witness, receive a report, or otherwise encounter sexual or gender based violence, discrimination or harassment, they must report the known facts including names, dates, times, location and a description to ECR immediately.

A report must be made even if the conduct occurred before the person attended or worked for UMBC, and even if the conduct occurred off campus.  These reports help ensure that our office knows as much about experiences of sexual and gender based violence and harassment as possible and can reach out to offer support to those involved.

Employees are also strongly encouraged to immediately report matters covered by the UMBC Discrimination and Equal Opportunity Policy including hate, bias, and/or alleged harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, sex, gender, pregnancy, ancestry, age, gender identity or expression, national origin, veterans status, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or genetic information.

If a student discloses past experience with sexual misconduct as a part of a school assignment, the professor (a responsible employee) will be required to make a confidential report/ referral to ECR. ECR will then do outreach to the student and offer support and resources.

If you disclose as part of a public event such as Take Back the Night or as part of a research study, your disclosure will generally not be reported to ECR. UMBC will provide information about community resources and support services in contexts where disclosures are made as part of a public event or participation in a research study. For more information on public disclosure and research-based disclosures, please see our Policy on Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Harassment and Gender Discrimination.

When you submit a report to ECR, the only people who see the report are members of the ECR staff.  Unless there is immediate concern for someone’s safety or the safety of the community, or your report includes information about child abuse or neglect, ECR will always start by talking with the impacted person, offering support and resources and discussing next steps with them.

Reporting to ECR does not trigger a report to the police, does not automatically result in a formal investigation and does not automatically trigger a complaint or disciplinary process.  Unless there is immediate concern for community safety, or your report contains information regarding abuse of a minor, ECR will always start by talking with the impacted person and discussing next steps with them.

Yes.  If you are making a report about something that happened to you or someone you know, you may report things that happened before you came to UMBC and/or that involve people who are not part of the UMBC community.  We will provide you assistance and support even if you caof things reported to them by a UMBC community member to ECR immediately, even if the conduct or incident occurred off campus or before the student or employee came to UMBC.

If you have experienced something covered by our Sexual Misconduct or Discrimination Policies and would prefer to receive support and remain anonymous without filing a report or referral with our office, you can report to a confidential resource. These confidential resources do not make a report to ECR unless you give them permission to do so.  Responsible employees must report conduct reported to them to ECR.

When you make a report to ECR the details of that report stay as confidential as possible. Only ECR staff will have initial access to the details of the report with certain narrow exceptions.

If there is an imminent or continuing threat to health or safety or if there is a disclosure of apparent or suspected abuse of a child or dependent adult, this information may be legally required to be disclosed to the proper authorities, regardless of who you report this information to.  Also, if an impacted party requests actions that make it necessary to share details of the report with others details will be provided as necessary or requires (i.e. to enact supportive measures, to enforce protective measures, or to engaged in a formal or informal resolution)

Outreach: After receiving a report ECR will send outreach, usually by email.

We may reach out to:

• The people involved in the report
  • This includes the person or people reported to be impacted by harm; and in rare cases the person or people reported to have caused harm.
  • This outreach will let the person or people know ECR received a report, inform them of their rights, send them resources, and offer an intake meeting to explore next steps.
• The person who made the report
  • Also known as the reporter. This outreach is to clarify parts of the report or referral and to gather more information.

Intake: During any initial intake meeting, ECR will ask questions about your concerns, present options for next steps, and provide referrals, support and resources.

• ECR will try to meet with the person who experienced the reported harm
  • If more than one person experienced harm, ECR will typically meet with each person one on one to preserve privacy and to provide accurate possible next steps for each individual
• The person who experienced the harm may choose to:
  • Take no further action*
  • Seek only support and resources
  • Seek Supportive Measures (including, accommodations)
  • Initiate an informal resolution of a report/referral
  • Initiate a formal investigation
  • Some combination of the above

*In very limited circumstances, if ECR determines that there appears to be a continuing threat to an individual or the UMBC community, ECR may choose to go forward with an investigation even if the impacted person does not want to move forward

REMEMBER:

• You can report information to ECR even if what you are reporting did not happen to you. ECR is here to support all students, faculty, and staff, and will respond to all complaints with outreach to those involved.
• You can report to ECR even if you do not know all people involved or have all of the information about what happened.
• This is just an overview of the way that ECR responds to complaints. If you have questions about the process or you have questions about a specific complaint, please contact the Office of Equity and Civil Rights.