58 | STEVENS ANNUAL SECURITY AND FIRE SAFETY REPORT 6. Retaliation Any adverse action, intimidation, threat, coercion, or discrimination against an individual for the purpose of interfering with any right or privilege secured by Title IX or its regulations, or because the individual has made a report or Formal Complaint of Title IX Misconduct, testified, assisted, or participated or refused to participate in any manner in any investigation, proceeding or hearing under the Title IX Policy. Retaliation can be committed by any individual or group of individuals. Consent The voluntary, uncoerced agreement, through words and/or actions, freely given, which a reasonable person would interpret as a willingness to participate in mutually agreed-upon sexual acts. Consensual sexual activity happens when each partner willingly chooses to participate. Indications that consent is not present include: when physical force is used or there is a reasonable belief of the threat of physical force; when coercion is present; or when a person is incapable of making an intentional decision to participate in a sexual act, which could include instances in which the person is in a state of incapacitation or where the person is incapable of giving consent due to age, intellectual limitations, or other disability. Important points regarding consent include: 1. Consent consists of an outward demonstration indicating that an individual has freely chosen to engage in sexual activity. Relying on non-verbal communication can lead to misunderstandings. Consent may not be inferred from silence, passivity, lack of resistance, or lack of an active response alone. A person who does not physically resist or verbally refuse sexual activity is not necessarily giving consent. 2. Consent is not implicit in a person’s manner of dress. 3. Accepting a meal, a gift, or an invitation for a date does not imply or constitute consent. 4. Consent to engage in sexual activity must exist from the beginning to end of each instance of sexual activity and for each form of sexual contact. Either party may withdraw or modify their consent at any time. Withdrawal of consent must be outwardly demonstrated by words or actions that clearly indicate a desire to end sexual activity. Once withdrawal of consent has been expressed, sexual activity must cease. 5. Consent to one act does not constitute consent to another act. 6. Consent to an act with one person does not constitute consent to an act with any other person. 7. Consent on a prior occasion does not constitute consent on a subsequent occasion. 8. The existence of a prior or current relationship does not, in itself, constitute consent. 9. An individual who is incapacitated is unable to give consent to sexual activity. 10. In the State of New Jersey, the age of majority is 18. Under state law, consent cannot be given by minors under the age of 13 and can only be given by a minor under the age of 16 if the other party is less than four years older than the minor. Incapacitation Incapacitation is the state in which a person’s perception or judgment is so impaired that they lack the cognitive capacity to make or act on conscious decisions. It is the inability (temporarily or permanently) to give consent because an individual is mentally and/or physically helpless, asleep, unconscious, or unaware that sexual activity is occurring. Engaging in sexual activity with an individual who is incapacitated (and therefore unable to consent), where a person knows or ought reasonably to have understood that the individual is incapacitated, constitutes sexual assault. In evaluating whether consent was present when there is an allegation of incapacitation, an Investigator will consider whether a Respondent should have been aware of the Complainant’s incapacitation based on objectively and reasonably apparent indications of impairment
