The Opportunity Development Center, Vanderbilt University

What You Need to Know about Sexual Harrassment

How Do You Prevent Sexual Harassment?

Everyone is responsible for discouraging and preventing sexual harassment.

Know the law and know your rights.
Speak up when an incident occurs. Remember, silence appears to give consent. Deal with a situation immediately, using clear, emphatic language.
Don't tolerate sexual harassment of others. Everyone suffers if sexual harassment goes unchallenged. Individuals who are harassed lose self-confidence and may leave their job or transfer to another university. The University suffers when energies are diverted from work and study in order to deal with sexual harassment.
Take action. If you see someone else being harassed, encourage the victim to take action and offer to be a witness. If you are unable to stop someone from harassing you, make a written record of the incident and report it to an appropriate person.

How Do You File a Complaint?

Student, faculty, and staff handbooks outline procedures for addressing complaints. In addition, information about the procedures can be obtained from the Opportunity Development Center (ODC).

Reporting an incident of sexual harassment, whether one decides to file a complaint or not, benefits everyone: students, faculty, staff, and Vanderbilt University. The University relies on this information in order to work toward the elimination of sexual harassment on campus. The first step in filing a complaint or grievance is to contact the ODC. Upon receipt of a written complaint, the ODC will promptly conduct an in-depth investigation. After evaluating the specifics of the complaint, the ODC will issue a finding to the appropriate University official and seek to resolve the matter. The University is committed to the protection of those filing complaints from inappropriate retaliation. Regardless of the disposition of the internal process, a person may pursue a complaint of sexual harassment with an outside state or federal agency.

The complete brochure offers complete definitions of different categories of harrassment, statistics, legal definitions, and resources for general advice, support, or counseling.

Opportunity Development Center
P.O. Box 1809, Station B
Nashville, TN 37235
(615) 322-4705 (V/TDD)

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