Furman students, staff, faculty, and visitors to campus who have experienced a bias incident, as well as those who are witnesses to a bias incident are urged to report it immediately. This report will go to the Chief Diversity Officer and the Title IX & ADA Coordinator for initial review. While reports may be submitted anonymously, if you include your information you will be contacted by a member of the Bias Incident Response Team to discuss next steps. Absent a safety concern, the University will make every effort to respect your wishes on responding to the incident, including keeping the information confidential.
Please preserve any evidence of the bias incident. This is critical to the University's ability to resolve the incident.
A bias incident is any intentional or unintentional act or behavior directed toward an individual or group based on any facet of the individual’s or group’s identities. Bias incidents may take the form of, but are not limited to:
• Graffiti or signs
• Threatening physical and digital communications
• Written or verbal slurs or threats
• Telephone harassment
• Confrontation, physical or verbal
• Gestures
• Physical injury
• Damage to property
For the purposes of the BIRS plan, a bias incident includes any of the following:
• Discrimination (faculty, staff, and students)
• Harassment (faculty, staff, and student)
• Acts of Intolerance (students)
The expression of an idea or point of view some may find offensive or charged is not necessarily a bias incident. As a community of liberal learning, Furman University maintains its commitment to freedom of inquiry and excellence in the quest for truth.
Learn more about our bias incident response and support plan here.
