This addendum modifies catalog content as indicated and supersedes all previous addenda. Page 26 / 32 2024-2025 ADDENDUM to the Rasmussen University Catalog and Student Handbook April 15, 2025 • Online Reporting System - Rasmussen provides an Online Reporting System to receive reported incidents under this policy. This reporting system allows for anonymous submissions and is available on the Rasmussen website at: http://www.rasmussen.edu/student-life/title-ix/. • Respondent: An individual who has been reported to be the perpetrator of conduct that could constitute sexual harassment under Title IX. • Retaliation: Any adverse action taken against an individual for reporting misconduct or participating in a Title IX investigation. • Sex-based Harassment - Sex-based harassment is a form of sex discrimination and means Sexual Harassment and other harassment on the basis of sex, including on the bases of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity, that satisfies one or more of the following: o Quid pro quo harassment. An employee, agent, or other person authorized by Rasmussen to provide an aid, benefit, or service under Rasmussen’s education program or activity explicitly or impliedly conditioning the provision of such an aid, benefit, or service on a person’s participation in unwelcome sexual conduct; o Hostile environment harassment. Unwelcome sex-based conduct that, based on the totality of the circumstances, is subjectively and objectively offensive and is so severe or pervasive that it limits or denies a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from Rasmussen’s education program or activity (i.e., creates a hostile environment). Whether a hostile environment has been created is a fact-specific inquiry that includes consideration of the following: (i) The degree to which the conduct affected the Complainant’s ability to access Rasmussen’s education program or activity; (ii) The type, frequency, and duration of the conduct; (iii) The parties’ ages, roles within Rasmussen’s education program or activity, previous interactions, and other factors about each party that may be relevant to evaluating the effects of the conduct; (iv) The location of the conduct and the context in which the conduct occurred; and (v) Other sex-based harassment in the recipient’s education program or activity; o Specific offenses. “Sexual assault”, “dating violence”, “domestic violence”, or “stalking” as defined herein. • Sexual Harassment: Unwelcome conduct based on sex that is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to an education program or activity. • Sexual Misconduct: Unwelcomed conduct that includes sexual harassment, nonconsensual distribution of sexual images, sexual extortion, nonconsensual dissemination of a deepfake depicting intimate parts or sexual acts, sex trafficking, VAWA crimes of sexual assault, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, and stalking. • Stalking - Engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to (a) fear for the person’s safety or the safety of others, or (b) suffer substantial emotional distress. As used in this definition, “course of conduct” means two or more acts, including, but not limited to, acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means, follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens or communicates to or about a person, or interferes with a person’s property; “substantial emotional distress” means significant mental suffering or anguish that may, but does not necessarily, require medical or other professional treatment or counseling; and “reasonable person” means a person under similar circumstances and with similar identities to the victim. Rasmussen considers stalking to include “cyberstalking,” which is stalking conducted with technology such as computers or mobile devices, often occurring on or delivered through the Internet, e-mail, or text messages.
