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Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President

University Handbook, Appendix J: Policy on Gender and Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Violence, and Procedure for Reviewing Complaints

Policy on Gender

The goal of the Policy on Gender is to create an environment at Kansas State University in which all students, faculty, and staff interact solely on the basis of individual strengths and characteristics, without having those interactions shaped by generalizations, stereotypes, or valuations based on gender; and to encourage constructive, thoughtful, and gender‑sensitive behavior.

Members of the Kansas State University community are urged to do the following:

  1. Know how gender ideas and traditions affect behavior, including their own.  Each of us must understand the issues involved in how we interpret and respond to gender. We must begin by paying attention to the experiences and statistics that illuminate how women and men encounter different standards and expectations.
  2. Evaluate their own ideas and behavior in this context. New sensitivity must lead to changes in thinking and behavior. Each of us should carefully examine his or her own ideas for the stereotypes and unfounded generalizations that underlie unwitting gender‑biased behavior.
  3. Act in ways that show respect for the individual. We must be particularly vigilant whenever we make evaluations or judgments about others. Such decisions may be informal: expecting certain behavior because of someone's gender; judging the intelligence of a speaker without listening to what is being said; determining what someone wants or needs without inquiring. Such decisions may be formal: faculty evaluations of students (grading, recommendations, advising, scholarships); evaluations of faculty and staff (merit, promotions, grants job assignments, opportunities); peer judgments (faculty and staff searches and reviews; student elections); student evaluations of faculty; staff evaluations of supervisors or administrators.
  4. Actively discourage those who behave in ways that are gender‑biased. We all have a responsibility for disapproving, interrupting, and disassociating ourselves from inappropriate behavior when we observe it, especially among our peers. We can create a positive environment by a clear and strong community consensus that gender‑biased behavior is inappropriate and unethical.
  5. Actively encourage behavior that is gender‑sensitive. Gender is an important part of humanness, and we would all be impoverished by rigidly treating everyone alike. Gender can be a source of valuable talents, insights, and accomplishments, and we seek to appreciate its effect on all of us while preserving equity and fairness.

Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Violence, and Procedure for Reviewing Complaints (see Policies and Procedures Manual Chapter 3010)

The Kansas State University Policy and Procedures Manual (PPM) Chapter 3010 contains the governing directives for prohibiting discrimination, harassment, and sexual violence; it also includes the procedure for reviewing complaints.