Title VI & Title VII Discrimination & Harassment

What is Title VI discrimination?

Enacted as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VI  prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. 

Title VI also protects students of any religion from discrimination, including harassment, based on a student’s actual or perceived:

• shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, or
• citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or distinct religious identity.

When someone is treated differently or less favorably because they belong to or are perceived to belong to a protected class because of their ethnicity or shared ancestry, that may be discrimination. There are various forms of discrimination - disparate treatment, disparate impact, hostile environment or retaliation.

What is Title VII discrimination?

Title VII, part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is a federal law that prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The university cannot take adverse employment action - including firing, refusing to hire, demoting, refusing to promote - against an employee based on any of these protected characteristics. 

What is age or disability discrimination?

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) is a federal law that protects individuals aged 40 and older from employment discrimination based on age.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law enacted in 1990 that prohibits employment discrimination, including failure to provide an accommodation,  against individuals with disabilities. 

What forms can discrimination take?

Disparate Treatment Discrimination

A person who is a member of a protected class is treated differently in an employment or academic decision from similarly situated employees or students not in the protected class. In the absence of comparative evidence, if there is other evidence that the action's were motivated by discrimination or there is direct evidence of discriminatory intent, then disparate treatment discrimination may exist. 

Disparate Impact Discrimination

This type of discrimination occurs when a policy or practice of the university results in members of a protected class being treated less favorably than members outside the protected class even though the discrimination was not intentional. The practice appears neutral on its face, but it has a significant consequences to those of the protected group. If the university can show there is a valid job- or academic-related reason for implementing the practice, then it has to be shown that there are other practices that serve the objective without being discriminatory to be considered disparate impact discrimination.

Harassment

Discriminatory harassment is a form of discrimination, and so violates William & Mary policy when it becomes severe or pervasive under Title VI or VII, or is severe, pervasive and objectively offensive under TItle IX.  

The university defines discriminatory harassment as unwelcome conduct, based on a protected class, that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a person's work or educational performance or participation in a university program or activity, or is sufficiently severe/pervasive to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work or educational environment. Often, harassment takes the form of words and actions that create a hostile or offensive  work or educational environment.  

In order for harassment to be a violation of university policy, it must be based on a protected class. If a hostile environment exists for some other reason, such as personality conflicts or management style, that would be a matter for University Human Resources to work with the supervisor, Dean or Provost in the employment realm, or for the Dean of Students Office to address through conflict resolution or disciplinary processes.

Sexual Harassment, including Sexual Assault and other Sexual Misconduct

Sexual harassment can occur in the form of a hostile or offensive environment when words or actions of a sexual nature are unwelcome and are severe, pervasive and objectively offensive. Sexual harassment also occurs in a form unique to sexual harassment, commonly called "quid pro quo" harassment. Quid pro quo is Latin for "this for that" and is defined as the conditioning the provision of an aid, benefit or service of the university on an individual's participation in unwelcome sexual conduct.

The university's Policy Prohibiting Title IX Sexual Harassment and Gender Based Harassment defines the different forms of sexual misconduct and establishes the jurisdiction in which the misconduct occurs.  Sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, or stalking that occurs outside of the university's Title IX jurisdiction, as well as other forms of sexual misconduct are prohibited under the Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment, Retaliation and Sexual Misconduct.

Retaliation

Retaliation is another form of prohibited discrimination. Retaliation is any adverse action taken against a person  for opposing discrimination (including harassment) or complaining of conduct reasonably believed to constitute discrimination or otherwise participating, in good faith, in a discrimination complaint or investigation.