Northwestern Revises Policies on Sexual Relationships Between Faculty and Students and on Sexual Misconduct

Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has issued new policies concerning sexual misconduct and sexual relations on campus. The first change expands the university’s Consensual Romantic or Sexual Relationships Between Faculty, Staff, and Students policy. The new rules prohibits faculty and coaches from engaging in a romantic, dating, or sexual relationship with an undergraduate student, regardless of whether there is a supervisory or evaluative relationship between them. The earlier policy prohibited relationships only if the faculty or staff member had a supervisory or evaluative relationship with the undergraduate student.

In addition, Northwestern has revised its Sexual Misconduct, Stalking, and Dating and Domestic Violence policy. Under the revision, all faculty and staff are required to report sexual misconduct of which they have become aware to the university’s administration.