Maintaining a Safe Community
The campus community at UW-Stout is committed to ensuring an inclusive and welcoming environment for students, staff, and faculty, and strives to provide an accepting place for all to work and learn. We are a university that welcomes all ideas and a place where people can be themselves. The students and staff at UW-Stout appreciate the diversity of humanity and reject prejudice and discrimination.
The university asks for the cooperation of the campus community in monitoring the campus climate by reporting all bias incidents and hate crimes.
Education and Resource Response Team
The campus' Education and Resource Response Team consists of members who have been trained in bias incident prevention and response.
This team is one of many initiatives at Stout that reflect our commitment to a safe, inclusive and thriving campus community.
- Nate Kirkman, Assistant Dean, (Chair)
- Emily Ascher, Assistant Director, Housing
- James Heu, Director of Multicultural Student Services
- Rickie-Ann Legleitner, Interim Executive Director of Inclusive Excellence
- Fred Brown, LGBTQIA+ Program Manager
Bias Incidents & Hate Crimes
Bias incidents are acts motivated by bigotry and/or hate based on the victim’s actual or perceived race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, religion or disability.
Hate crimes are those acts that violate criminal law, such as violence or vandalism motivated by bias against a member of a protected group; many crimes carry more severe punishments if the motivation for that crime is proven to be hate.
Bias or hate-motivated speech may be illegal such as harassment, threats, or disruptive speech. However, some bias or hate-motivated speech may be constitutionally protected and thus not subject to university disciplinary action or formal investigation.
Please note that this definition is used for reporting and statistical purposes only and carries no independent punitive weight or authority.
In order to fulfill UW-Stout’s commitment to a safe working and learning environment, University Police and the Administration need to know when a bias incident or hate crime occurs. You can report a bias incident or hate crime as a witness or a victim. Although it’s most helpful to know who is making the report, you can file a report anonymously.
The report will go directly to the Education and Resource Response Team Chair. If you prefer to make a report in person, you can contact a member of the Education and Resource Response Team. No incident is too small to report, especially if it is part of a larger pattern of behavior.
If you choose to file a report, the report will be sent directly to the Education and Resource Response Team Chair. The team is made up of professionally trained individuals to determine the appropriate response to each specific event. The campus response team will:
- Consult and provide care for the affected individual(s) or group(s) to determine what role they would like to play in responding to the incident.
- Investigate all complaints of possible bias-motivated incidents, including those of a criminal nature, by taking appropriate action to identify any university community member, campus guest, or other individuals responsible for the behavior.
- Coordinate campus communication as appropriate to the situation.