For the full text of the University's Policy on Sexual Harassment, please see http://www.northwestern.edu/sexual-harassment/policy/.

Your Responsibilities as a Teaching Assistant—Rules Concerning Sexual Harassment and Evaluative Authority

No teaching assistant may have evaluative, supervisory, or instructional authority (including the assignment of grades) over a student who is a relative or with whom the teaching assistant is having or has recently had a romantic or sexual relationship. If such a relationship exists or has existed between a teaching assistant and a student over whom the teaching assistant has evaluative or supervisory authority, the teaching assistant must report the relationship to his or her department chair, dean, or Dean of The Graduate School. For purposes of this policy, a relative is a blood relation, in-law, step or adoptive relative, as close as or closer than nephew or niece.

If the person to whom the relationship is reported determines that such action is necessary, it is the responsibility of both the teaching assistant with the evaluative or supervisory authority and the individual to whom the relationship is reported to ensure that the evaluative or supervisory authority is reassigned. If this is not feasible in a particular instance, the teaching assistant and the individual to whom the relationship is reported must bring the matter to the attention of the Dean of The Graduate School. Failure to report a relationship is a violation of the policy.

As a teaching assistant, if you are told about or witnessed conduct that you think may violate this policy, it is important to contact the Director of the University’s Sexual Harassment Prevention Office, or one of the other resource people listed in the University’s sexual harassment brochure or Web site (www.northwestern.edu/sexual-harassment).