NYU's Guidance and Expectations on Student Conduct: Nondiscrimination and anti-harassment (NDAH")"

Relevant Excerpt

The NDAH Policy defines discrimination as adverse treatment based on an actual or perceived protected characteristic. Harassment is defined as unwelcome verbal or physical conduct based on an actual or perceived protected characteristic that, from the viewpoint of a reasonable person under all the relevant circumstances, would create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive academic or residential environment or otherwise adversely affect the individual’s academic opportunities or participation in an NYU program, activity, or benefit. Policy violations occur when discrimination or harassment is based in racism, colorism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, sexism, transphobia, ableism or other forms of bigotry involving protected characteristics covered by the policy.

Not every hurtful comment or slight relating to identity is necessarily a violation of the NDAH Policy. The circumstances surrounding a statement or action are relevant to a determination.

Some examples of activities that would violate the NDAH Policy, if part of a pattern of conduct or sufficiently severe that they meet the standards of discrimination or harassment as defined by the Policy, include:

• Refusing to work with an individual, or the application of any type of “litmus test” for participation in any academic program or activity, based on identity.
• Targeting someone for harassment or intimidation on the basis of their identity, their religious attire, their name, their language, their accent, or their association with a religious organization or identity-related student club.
• Ostracism based on identity, such as refusing entry to an event.
• Use or dissemination of tropes about protected groups.
• Calls for genocide of an entire people or group.
• Actions taken against someone based on their field of study, course enrollment, or study abroad participation if that conduct reflects a a discriminatory motive for NDAH Policy purposes–for example, vandalizing the office doors in a particular department tied to the study of a particular country or region.

Discrimination and harassment can come in many forms. It is one thing to denigrate someone using an ethnic, racial, or other slur—that is often a clear example of prohibited discrimination and harassment. But it is also important to recognize that statements and actions can violate the NDAH Policy without directly invoking a protected characteristic. In particular, statements that use attributes or markers, such as coded or veiled language, to stand in for a direct reference to a protected characteristic may constitute impermissible discrimination or harassment. As an example: For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity. Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH Policy if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH Policy if directed toward Zionists. For example, excluding Zionists from an open event, calling for the death of Zionists, applying a “no Zionist” litmus test for participation in any NYU activity, using or disseminating tropes, stereotypes, and conspiracies about Zionists (e.g., “Zionists control the media”), demanding a person who is or is perceived to be Jewish or Israeli to state a position on Israel or Zionism, minimizing or denying the Holocaust, or invoking Holocaust imagery or symbols to harass or discriminate.