The Bates Community Response Team (BCRT)
A Resource for Dealing with Incidents of Hate, Bias, Discrimination and Intolerance
This page covers:
Reporting an Incident
If you feel that you have been the victim of an incident of hate, bias, discrimination or intolerance, or if you know of a situation you feel constitutes such an incident, please report it as quickly as possible to:
The Bates Office of Campus Security and Safety
- (207) 786-6254 or tcarey@bates.edu
Bates Anonymous Reporting Form
- Note: This page is checked regularly, but there may be some delay in response.
The Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion also receives email notification of all reported bias incidents and hate crimes through the Anonymous Reporting Form.
The Purpose of the Bates Community Response Team
The Bates Community Response Team is a group of senior administrators who work to assess, communicate and ensure a comprehensive institutional response to incidents involving the following:
- Hate crimes
- Hate language incidents
- Bias incidents
- Discrimination
- Acts of intolerance
The team draws other members of the community into its response work as necessary.
Response is part of the ongoing college-wide effort to foster a campus community that learns from, respects, and celebrates all forms of difference; to help prevent incidents of prejudice, discrimination, and harassment at Bates; and to help remedy proven incidents, which affect the entire community.
How BCRT Works:
- The Bates Office of Security and Campus Safety reports all such incidents promptly to the Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion and Dean of Students.
- The Special Assistant assesses reports and convenes the BCRT as s/he judges appropriate.
- The BCRT will act promptly to address any incidents that clearly meet institutional definitions shown below, by apprising the campus community of the incidents, advising the President about appropriate responses, and helping convene community groups to deliver those responses.
- Disciplinary action against any individual or group will be handled by other established bodies of the college (such as the Dean of Students Office, the Student Conduct Committee, the Office of Equity and Diversity Resources, and Human Resources). Outside law enforcement agencies may also become involved as appropriate.
Members of the Bates Community Response Team
- Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion (convenes the group as s/he judges necessary)
- Dean of Students and/or that dean’s designee(s)
- Dean of Faculty and/or that dean’s designee(s)
- Director, Security and Campus Safety
- Director, Office of Intercultural Education
- Director, Office of Equity and Diversity Resources
- Director, Human Resources
- Multifaith Chaplain
- Assistant Vice-President for Communications or designee
Principles and Policy
At Bates, we acknowledge and celebrate the plurality of identities, social positions, cultural perspectives and individual abilities that contribute to human difference. We believe in the emancipating potential of education to help all members of our community promote, respect and embrace diversity — broadly defined — and to preserve and advocate for human dignity. As we avow in the Bates mission statement, “With ardor and devotion — Amore ac Studio — we engage the transformative power of our differences, cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action” to prepare leaders who are “sustained by a love of learning and a commitment to responsible stewardship of the wider world.”
Everyone is different; at Bates, we embrace and learn from that difference.
Non-Discrimination Policy
The Non-Discrimination policy applies to all Bates College faculty, staff, students, college contractors, and visitors.
Bates College is committed to providing equal opportunity and an educational and work environment free from any discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, marital or parental status, age, disability, and other legally protected statuses. Bates College shall adhere to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations.
Note: “sexual orientation, gender identity, and/or gender expression” shall have the same meaning as the term “sexual orientation” as defined in the Maine Human Rights Act, as amended.
Retaliation against an individual who has raised claims of illegal discrimination or has cooperated with an investigation of such claims is prohibited.
Definitions
Bias Incident
A bias incident is any event of intolerance or prejudice, not involving violence or other criminal conduct, intended to threaten, offend or intimidate another because of the other’s race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age or physical or mental disability. Examples of bias incidents include hate speech, gay bashing, racist epithets, religious slurs, sexist jokes or cartoons, hate mail, offensive graffiti, or disparaging remarks on social media sites. Such incidents create a socially divisive atmosphere for members of the community targeted and negatively affect the campus climate.
Hate Crime
A hate crime is the violence of intolerance and prejudice, intended to hurt and intimidate, committed against a person, property or society that is motivated by an offender’s bias against a specific characteristic of an individual or a group because of their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, age or physical or mental disability. Hate crimes are criminal offenses that include acts such as physical assault, stalking, cyberstalking, criminal threatening, intimidation, terrorizing, criminal use of explosives, arson, vandalism or other damage to property, reckless conduct, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, or hate mail.
Legal Sources
In Maine, several statutes provide civil and/or criminal remedies for bias incidents and hate crimes, including the Maine Human Rights Act,5 M.R.S. §4551 et seq., Maine’s Protection from Harassment Act, 5 M.R.S. §4651 et seq. and the Maine Civil Rights Act, 5 M.R.S.§4681 et seq.
Federal statutes also provide support and protection for victims of bias incidents or hate crimes, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §2000e et seq., as amended, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994) and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009).