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Personal and Professional Conduct

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The Faculty of Arts and Sciences adopted the Resolution on Rights and Responsibilities on April 14, 1970, which states: “The central functions of an academic community are learning, teaching, research, and scholarship. By accepting membership in the University, an individual joins a community ideally characterized by free expression, free inquiry, intellectual honesty, respect for the dignity of others, and openness to constructive change.”

Graduate students engage with peers, administrative staff, and faculty to advance their education and research and Harvard Griffin GSAS expects students, faculty, and administrative staff to conduct themselves in a professional manner. Harvard Griffin GSAS students are expected to follow the regulations and standards of conduct noted in Policies.

Policy on Hazing

Harvard Griffin GSAS students are subject to Massachusetts laws, including those related to hazing (found in Massachusetts General Laws sections 1718, and 19) and to annoying telephone calls or electronic communication.

Students are advised that Massachusetts law expressly prohibits any form of hazing in connection with the initiation of students into student groups and organizations. The relevant statutes are provided below.  The law applies to both officially recognized and unrecognized student groups and to practices conducted on and off campus. Using the definition of hazing set forth in the Massachusetts hazing statute, the Administrative Board will consider all reports of hazing in the normal course of its oversight, taking disciplinary action in appropriate cases, and will report confirmed incidents to appropriate law enforcement officials.

Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 269

Section 17. Whoever is a principal organizer or participant in the crime of hazing, as defined herein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than three thousand dollars or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than one year, or both such fine and imprisonment.

The term “hazing” as used in this section and in sections eighteen and nineteen, shall mean any conduct or method of initiation into any student organization, whether on public or private property, which willfully or recklessly endangers the physical or mental health of any student or other person. Such conduct shall include whipping, beating, branding, forced calisthenics, exposure to the weather, forced consumption of any food, liquor, beverage, drug, or other substance, or any other brutal treatment or forced physical activity which is likely to affect adversely the physical health or safety or any such student or other person, or which subjects such student or other person to extreme mental stress, including extended deprivation of sleep or rest or extended isolation.

Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section to the contrary, consent shall not be available as a defense to any prosecution under this action.

Section 18. Whoever knows that another person is the victim of hazing as defined in section seventeen and is at the scene of such crime shall, to the extent that such person can do so without danger or peril to himself or others, report such crime to an appropriate law enforcement official as soon as reasonably practicable. Whoever fails to report such crime shall be punished by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.

Section 19. Each institution of secondary education and each public and private institution of post- secondary education shall issue to every student group, student team, or student organization which is part of such institution or is recognized by the institution or permitted by the institution to use its name or facilities or is known by the institution to exist as an unaffiliated student group, student team or student organization, a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen; provided, however, that an institution’s compliance with this section’s requirements that an institution issue copies of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations shall not constitute evidence of the institution’s recognition or endorsement of said unaffiliated student groups, teams or organizations.

Each such group, team, or organization shall distribute a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen to each of its members, plebes, pledges or applicants for membership. It shall be the duty of each such group, team or organization, acting through its designated officer, to deliver annually to the institution an attested acknowledgment stating that such group, team, or organization has received a copy of this section and said sections seventeen and eighteen, that each of its members, plebes, pledges, or applicants has received a copy of sections seventeen and eighteen, and that such group, team, or organization understands and agrees to comply with the provision of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of post-secondary education shall, at least annually, before or at the start of enrollment, deliver to each person who enrolls as a full-time student in such institution a copy of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen.

Each institution of secondary education and each public or private institution of post-secondary education shall file, at least annually, a report with the board of higher education and in the case of secondary institutions, the board of education, certifying that such institution has complied with its responsibility to inform student groups, teams or organizations and to notify each full-time student enrolled by it of the provisions of this section and sections seventeen and eighteen, and also certifying that said institution has adopted a disciplinary policy with regard to the organizers and participants of hazing, and that such policy has been set forth with appropriate emphasis in the student handbook or similar means of communicating the institution’s policies to its students. The board of higher education and, in the case of secondary institutions, the board of education, shall promulgate regulations governing the content and frequency of such reports, and shall forthwith report to the attorney general any such institution which fails to make such report.

Seeking Information and Support

When students have concerns, they can find information and support from Harvard Griffin GSAS staff. Speaking with the Office of Student Services is a good place to start when you have a concern but don’t know where to go. 

The Office of Student Services 
B2, Student Center at Harvard Griffin GSAS 
617-495-5005 
stuserv@fas.harvard.ed

University-wide assistance is also available by visiting the Harvard Ombuds Office. The Ombuds Office is an independent, neutral, and confidential place for visitors to discuss their academic and workplace issues and concerns.

Harvard Ombuds Office 
Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center Suite 748 
1350 Massachusetts Avenue 
Cambridge, MA 02138 
Ombuds_cambridge@harvard.edu

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