Drexel University’s Interim Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation

Dear Drexel Students and Colleagues,

As reported in our August 2, 2024, leadership message, Drexel entered into a voluntary, legally binding resolution agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to continue our ongoing and proactive efforts toward ensuring a safe, welcoming, supportive and inclusive campus environment for all our students, faculty and professional staff.

Those efforts include revising our policies and procedures for responding to complaints of discrimination and harassment and mandating anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training for all University employees.

As required under our agreement with OCR, we have completed a revised, interim Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation, which will go into effect today, February 3, 2025. This policy establishes clearer definitions reflecting the applicable legal standard for all unlawful discrimination and harassment on or off campus, including on social media, that may create a hostile environment for any member of our community. This policy will be subject to the standard policy review process before it is finalized.

The key changes to our policy are:

• A new title that reflects prohibited behavior and protects those reporting such behavior: Policy on Prohibited Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation;
• More specific examples of prohibited behavior by students, faculty and professional staff that could constitute discrimination or harassment and create a hostile environment; 
• A uniform process for resolving complaints of discrimination, harassment and retaliation that applies to students, faculty and professional staff; and
• Centralized reporting of all harassment and discrimination complaints to the Equal Opportunity and Title IX Coordinator to ensure consistent assessment, timely response to all complaints and holistic campus responses.

To comply with our agreement with OCR, the University is mandated to have all employees and students complete a new online prohibited discrimination and harassment training module by March 7, 2025. We recognize that this is a relatively tight deadline and we deeply appreciate your completion of the training. You will receive a separate notification about the training shortly.

As we stated above, this new policy will be subject to the formal review process but will go into effect as an interim/emergency policy at Drexel today. Through consultation with all our stakeholders and ongoing assessment of our efforts to prevent, combat and effectively respond to allegations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation, we will continue to review, and when necessary, further strengthen our policies and procedures to make our University a community where everyone feels safe, welcomed and respected.

Sincerely,

Denis P. O’Brien
Interim President