Statement on Community Building
At Penn GSE, we strive to create a community of people who bring a wide range of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds. Bringing together individuals with varied viewpoints encourages the examination of issues from multiple angles, leading to more effective and innovative solutions to pressing challenges. It also strengthens civic engagement by fostering critical thinking and encouraging dialogue across differences. This creates richer learning environments that empower individuals to contribute meaningfully to our community and the broader society.
GSE is a place where knowledge is developed and disseminated. Therefore, we understand that scholars and students require the freedom to explore, to express, inquire, and question both established views and new visions without fear of retribution or silencing. However, we also respect the dignity of all members of our community and believe that the threat of harm to anyone's dignity is an affront to our values. As a community, we consider acts of bias, exclusion, and hate unacceptable and antithetical to our commitment to being a respectful community.
Examples include any discriminatory or hurtful act that appears to be or is perceived by the victim to be motivated by race, ethnicity, age, religion, national origin, sex, disability, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran status or socioeconomic status. The act is not required to be a crime under any federal, state, or local statutes, nor does it have to violate university policy, to be considered an incident.
We are deeply committed to supporting any members of our community who have witnessed or have been the targets of bias-related incidents. To that end, we have provided bias reporting policies, procedures and resources for any members of our community who have experienced a discriminatory or hurtful act, and will also assist them to identify campus, and school resources to help them understand their options.
Penn GSE Bias Policies
Reporting Policies/Practices
Students/staff/faculty who wish to report incidents of bias should contact any of the faculty and staff members listed below. You may also report such incidents using the University's bias reporting system or to any of the individuals listed below:
Penn GSE Dean
Program managers
Division chairs
Leslie Levin –Vice Dean for Admissions & Student Affairs
Susan Yoon – Associate Dean of Research & Faculty Affairs
Kate Hellings – Chief People Officer, HR
Ronika Money-Adams – Senior Director, Office of Student Success
Any trusted faculty member
- GSE takes all reports of bias seriously. In some cases, individuals will want to make a formal complaint, while in others, they would like their complaint to remain confidential and may choose not to come forward with a formal complaint.
- In order to keep track of reports of bias, even if the person chooses not to come forward with a formal complaint, we ask that faculty or staff who have heard about an incident regarding bias report it to the appropriate leader from the list above. with the permission of the person reporting an incident. These reports can be confidential. The school will log all reported incidents and keep track of any recurring pattern of complaints against an individual.
University Resources
Faculty, staff, and students can report an incident of bias through the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity. They have a bias reporting form as well (although they can be contacted via email, in person, or phone).
Complaint of discrimination/harassment, and/or retaliation form
Here is a list of other resource departments at Penn and other information for filing a formal or informal complaint if you don’t want to do so in-house.
Investigations
All reported incidents will be logged and recurring pattern of complaints against an individual will be tracked in accordiance with University policy and relevant laws and regulations. Investigations are handled through different channels, depending upon the role of the person against whom the allegations have been made.
- Investigations of allegations against students will be conducted in collaboration with the GSE Office of Student Success.
- Investigations of allegations against faculty and staff will be conducted by the GSE Office of Human Resources and university-level Human Resources offices in collaboration with the Dean’s Office.
- An investigation can be initiated either by a formal report of bias or by a pattern of recurring complaints. GSE will receive all formal complaints, including complaints made through the University’s online system.
- The complainant may be asked to provide additional details about the incident throughout the reporting process. After the report has been submitted, the following steps are taken:
- Acknowledgement - Confirmation will be provided that the report has been received.
- Assessment/Review - Based on the report, a preliminary assessment will be performed to determine how to handle the incident. This includes determining if other individuals, offices, or committees should either be consulted or involved in the assessment. For example, for complaints involving students this may include the Vice Dean for Admissions and Student Affairs; for staff this may include the staff member’s supervisor; for faculty this may include the Division Chair or CAFR. The respondent will be notified of the complaint and will be interviewed.
- Notification - Both the complainant and the respondent will be notified regarding the next steps for addressing the report.
- Record the Incident - The Dean's Office will maintain a record of all reports.
Every effort will be made to evaluate reports promptly. However, the timing and manner in which GSE addresses the report will depend upon the information provided and whether you wish to remain anonymous.
Responses to Incidences of Bias
Education
- As an educational institution, GSE believes in first taking an educative stance, providing additional coaching, mentoring, education and/or training to individuals who have engaged in problematic or unprofessional behavior.
Sanctions
- The school can sanction the behavior in a number of ways including but not limited to written reprimands placed in a personnel or academic file, mandatory training, removal from administrative responsibilities, or removal from a program or position. In the case of faculty and staff, these sanctions are considered personnel matters and would not be made public, even to those who reported the allegations.
- Please note that not every incident is referred to a disciplinary process.
Policy Against Retaliation
The University’s policy against retaliation describes our provisions towards faculty, staff, and students who file reports for harmful, discriminatory, or unethical behaviors. The University strictly prohibits retaliation against any member of its community for reporting about what the member believes to be wrongful activity. The University considers such reporting, inquiring, or participating to be protected activities in which all members of the Penn community may feel free to engage.