Draft #1, 2/8/99

Silverglates's Proposed Academic Harassment Rule

Speech or expressive behavior (excluding physical touching) between and among faculty, academic staff and students, shall be sanctionable only under the following conditions and circumstances:

A. It is delivered at a time or place and/or in a manner so as to constitute harassment by virtue not of its content nor point of view, but rather of its repetitive nature or mode of delivery, such that even a verbal message that on its surface is meant to be complimentary could become a harassive annoyance interfering with the listener's ability to pursue his or her activities at the moment. Examples of harassment by means of words or expressive activity would include:

1. Repeatedly speaking to a person from a position extremely close to the person.

2. Telephoning a person at inappropriate hours of the night when the person is expected to be sleeping.

3. Communicating so loudly that the person is unable to concentrate on what he/she is doing.

4. Uttering words of high emotional content to the person -- whether of obsessive love, obsessive hatred, or other obsessive characteristic -- in a manner so repetitious that it becomes obvious that the words are being communicated not simply to convey a message but rather to annoy or distract the person on an ongoing basis.

B. Expression-based harassment that is sanctionable under this policy shall be sanctioned not only irrespective of its point of view, but also irrespective of the race, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or any other irrelevant characteristic of the speaker and/or listener.

C. Nothing in this policy shall be interpreted so as to sanction speech or expressive activity that is protected by the free speech provisions of either the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, nor protected by traditional notions of academic freedom.

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