News
2006-09-23
N.D. college
board approves gay-inclusive antiharassment policy
North Dakota's
board of higher education has ordered the system's
colleges to review their antiharassment policies, which
North Dakota's
board of higher education has ordered the system's
colleges to review their antiharassment policies, which must
include a ban on harassing someone because of his or
her sexual orientation. The sexual orientation
provision is not required by federal or state law,
said Pat Seaworth, the university system's lawyer. However,
some of the system's 11 campuses have it, and the
policy should be uniform among schools, Seaworth said.
The board's earlier policy, approved in June
1996, said campus policies must specifically prohibit
sexual harassment. The new document, adopted Thursday
at the board's meeting at Lake Region State College in
Devils Lake, said campus policies must prohibit
harassment "that may be sexual, racial, based on
gender, national origin, age, disability, religion, or
a person's sexual orientation."
Under the change, the board's central office in
Bismarck also must have an antiharassment policy. The
earlier document applied only to the university
system's campuses.
Board members voted 7–0 on Thursday to
adopt the new policy. There was no debate.
Seaworth said most of the proscribed harassment
already is banned by federal or state law, but the law
does not address harassment of someone for sexual
orientation. "It provides a remedy for students, or
others, who believe they have been unfairly or unlawfully
singled out for disparaging or abusive treatment,"
Seaworth said. (AP)
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