Harassment is unwelcome conduct that is offensive, humiliating or intimidating to another person.

You may know the person who is harassing you or it could be anonymous. It is either repeated or of such significant nature that it has a detrimental effect on the person, their performance or their work and study environment.

Harassment can be related to your personal characteristics such as your:

• Sexual orientation
• Gender identity
• Race
• Religion
• Physical or mental abilities

It can take the form of:

• Verbal comments or jokes
• Non-verbal materials or digital messages that are offensive or
• Physical behaviour that is intimidating

Regardless of the focus, harassment is unacceptable. The University has policies and processes in place to keep our communities safe. 

• Report the incident using one of the options on the Student Complaint Process flowchart below. 
• Contact the Student Conduct Office for assistance with non-academic misconduct.
• Seek help from AUSA Advocacy, a free and confidential advocacy service, independent from the University. Call 09 309 0789. 
• Use the University's anonymous whistleblower hotline.
• Request personal support from the Student Health and Counselling Service.
• Contact Te Papa Manaaki | Campus Care.

Depending on who has been harassing you, staff can: 

• Report the incident using one of the options on the Staff Complaint Process flowchart below. 
• Contact the Staff Risk Intervention Team on 09 923 6000 if you've received a threat from an external or anonymous source. You will be directed to specially trained staff who will ensure appropriate, confidential follow-up actions are taken to help keep you safe. 
• Use the University’s anonymous whistleblower hotline.
• Access other staff support options from the staff intranet.

• Students are automatically enrolled in the ‘Addressing bullying, harassment and discrimination’ course on Canvas. You will receive an email from Canvas to confirm your enrolment. If you or a student you know was not enrolled in the training, email wellbeing@auckland.ac.nz for access.
  
• Student leaders are required to do more in-depth training to better recognise and address bullying and harassment. Find out more about student leaders' training.
• Staff must complete the essential 'Addressing bullying, harassment or discrimination' online learning in Hono. This is a self-paced training that takes 30 minutes to complete. are also encouraged to do online training on unconscious bias and follow up with a workshop. Book training on Career Tools. 

Online harassment can come in many forms. It can include:

• Being sent messages that are offensive, derogatory, or threatening.
• Being bombarded by a large volume of messages.
• Being cyber-stalked, monitored or tracked electronically.
• Having your personally sensitive information and images shared without permission.

Report the online harassment

• If a message threatens to harm a person or property, contact the Police on 111
• Staff should report all incidents to the Staff Risk Intervention Team by contacting Staff Service Centre on 09 923 6000. 
• If harassment is taking place on a personal device, report it to your telecommunications company. They can assist you with blocking numbers, sending warning messages or suspending the harasser from the network. Visit NetSafe to find out how to make a complaint.

Documentation and responses

• Don’t delete the messages. Keep a log of the messages, the time and date you received them, as well as the associated phone number or email address.
• If you know the person and feel comfortable doing so, reply to offensive correspondence with a firm message telling them to stop. If it's someone with whom you must continue to correspond, tell this person to refrain from sending you more messages of the kind that you find offensive.
• Don’t reply to texts, voicemails or emails from people you don’t know.
• Don’t retaliate with other harmful communications; it could aggravate the situation and may harm your case should you wish to pursue legal remedies later.

Gender based harassment describes a wide range of behaviour based on gender stereotypes, sexual orientation or gender identity. Such behaviour includes verbal, physical, visual or online actions which demean, belittle or threaten a person. It does not necessarily suggest sexual interest or intent; it is often about making a person feel unwelcome, uncomfortable, inferior or vulnerable.

Examples of gender-based harassment

Students

• The only two female students in a tutorial group notice the male students in the group often interrupt or talk over them. 
  • When they speak privately to the tutor, he tells them they are imagining it.  
  • At the next tutorial he mentions the complaint to the whole group, making a joke of it. 
• A male student complains to his female tutor about the essay grade she has given him. After she explains why it is a valid mark, he threatens to report her to the course convenor for being ‘incompetent’ and says to her that ‘girls shouldn’t be teaching on this course in the first place’. 
• An academic staff member mocks one of their transgender students in front of the class, deliberately refusing to use their preferred pronouns.
• A transgender student repeatedly faces hostility from her cohort when using the women's bathroom.

Staff

• A male staff member is in the habit of telling a junior female colleague how great she looks, always in front of others. She told him his comments make her feel uncomfortable, but he just laughed.  
• A male staff member faces disparaging comments about his masculinity from his colleagues whenever he goes to pick up his child from daycare.
• A male staff member never joins in his male colleagues’ conversations that include explicitly sexual and sexist themes. His colleagues mock him for being ‘too PC’ and not ‘having a laugh’.  
• A female staff member, the only woman on a team dominated by senior male colleagues, is regularly asked by some team members to make coffee.
• A male staff member regularly displays cartoons in his work area that degrade women. Despite being asked by women in the office to remove the cartoons he continues to display them, arguing it is ‘his space’. 
• A woman in a senior role is approached by a junior member of her team who is being teased by his colleagues for being gay. She dismisses his complaints, telling him it is light-hearted banter that doesn’t mean anything, and he should ‘man up.’