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Title IX Definitions

Welcome to our Title IX Definitions resource page.

Here, you'll find concise definitions of key terms related to Title IX matters, helping you better understand your rights and responsibilities under this important federal law. Whether you're a student, staff member, or faculty, these definitions are designed to provide you with the knowledge necessary to navigate issues related to gender equity, discrimination, and campus safety.

The person, persons or student organizations alleged to have violated this policy.
The person who is the alleged victim of discrimination under this policy.
Consent to sexual activity is knowing and voluntary. Someone who is incapacitated cannot consent. Silence or absence of resistance does not establish consent. Consent to one form of sexual activity does not imply consent to other forms of sexual activity. Consent to engage in sexual activity with one person does not imply consent to engage in sexual activity with another. Consent must be obtained at the time of the specific activity and can be withdrawn at any time. Lack of consent or withdrawal of consent may be communicated by words or non-verbal acts.  Coercion and force, or threat of either, invalidates consent.
Violence committed by a person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the recipient of the violent behavior.
Sexual contact with someone one knows to be or should know to be incapacitated is a violation of policy. An individual who is incapacitated lacks the capacity to give knowing consent. Incapacitation can be due to the use of drugs or alcohol, when a person is asleep or unconscious, or because of an intellectual or other disability that prevents the individual from having the capacity to give consent.
Sex discrimination occurs when a person has been treated inequitably based on sex, gender identity, or gender expression. Specifically, the University of Missouri System upholds Title IX, which states in part that “[n]o person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity.”  Sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation, stalking on the basis of sex and dating/intimate partner violence are forms of sex discrimination.

Sexual exploitation occurs when one person takes nonconsensual or abusive sexual advantage of another person for his/her own advantage or benefit or for the advantage or benefit of anyone other than the person being exploited and which behavior does not constitute any other form of sexual misconduct.  Examples of sexual exploitation include, but are not limited to, the following activities done without the consent of all participants:

  1. Invasion of sexual privacy;

  2. Prostituting another person;

  3. Taping or recording of sexual activity;

  4. Going beyond the boundaries of consent to sexual activity (letting your friends hide to watch you engaging in sexual activity);

  5. Engaging in voyeurism;

  6. Knowingly transmitting an STI, STD, venereal disease or HIV to another person;

  7. Inducing another to expose their genitals.

The final rule from The Department of Education defines sexual harassment broadly to include any of three types of misconduct in the basis of sex. which would jeopardize the equal access to education that Title IX is designed to protect.  The three types of conduct that would constitute “sexual harassment” under Title IX include:

  1. Quid pro quo harassment (by an employee);

  2. Unwelcome conduct determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the institution’s education program or activity; and

  3. Sexual assault (as defined in the Clery Act), dating violence, domestic violence, or stalking, as defined in the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

Sexual misconduct is:

  1. Nonconsensual sexual intercourse;

  2. Nonconsensual sexual contact involving the sexual touching of the genitals, breast or anus of another person or the nonconsensual sexual touching of another with one’s own genitals whether directly or through the clothing;

  3. Exposing one’s genitals to another under circumstances in which he or she should reasonably know that his or her conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm; or

  4. Sexual exploitation (refer to definition on sexual exploitation)

Stalking on the basis of sex is following or engaging in a course of conduct on the basis of sex with no legitimate purpose that puts another person reasonably in fear for his or her safety or would cause a reasonable person under the circumstances to be frightened, intimidated or emotionally distressed.

More information regarding Title IX and Definitions can be found in:

600.020 Sex Discrimination, Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct in Education/Employment Policy


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