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The CSU has a new policy on freedom of expression. Learn more.

For Students

Get Help

If you've experienced harm, you have rights and options for reporting, support, and accountability under Title IX. To talk through your options or ask questions, you can reach out to the Title IX Coordinator or the Campus Advocate Team, which provides free and confidential support, 24/7 at (707) 445-2881. Additionally, you can check out some of the resources linked below.

Campus Resources

Student Guides

Procedure Information

Additional Information

Local Resources

State & National Resources

Help a Friend

It can be really difficult for someone to share they've been sexually assaulted, abused, or experienced harm. It can also be difficult to know how to respond, if you've never dealt with this before. RAINN has a few different ways of showing support to someone who has chosen to confide in you:

  • Listen and communicate without judgment
  • Share resources with them, like the ones listed above
  • Be patient - there is no set timeline on healing or processing with what happened to them
  • Support their decisions
  • Maintain confidentiality, even if you think the survivor wouldn't mind or the other person wouldn't tell
    • If you are an employee of the university (including student employees), you may have reporting requirements. For more information, you can contact our office at (707) 826-5177.

Additional Resources:

Preserving Evidence

The Campus Advocate Team is a free and confidential resource available 24/7 for questions regarding evidence preservation, along with providing general support. Their number is 707-445-2881. They work with the university, but not for the university.

It is important that you take steps to preserve and collect evidence; doing so preserves the full range of options available to you, be it through the University’s administrative complaint procedures or criminal prosecution.

To preserve evidence, we encourage someone who has experienced sexual misconduct to consider taking the following steps:

  • Don’t wash anything (including your hair, hands, mouth and face), shower, douche or change your clothes before getting help. If clothes are changed, soiled clothes should be placed in a paper bag, as plastic bags may destroy crucial evidence.
  • Don’t comb or brush your hair.
  • If oral contact has occurred, don’t smoke, eat, or brush your teeth.
  • Don’t drink liquids or urinate.
  • Don’t touch any evidence of struggle or disarray.
  • Record evidence including a description of the perpetrator (including type of clothing, race, age, height, weight, hair and eye color, distinguishing marks), where the events occurred, details of the events and the direction of travel of any vehicle involved.

Persons involved with stalking or harassment are encouraged to save potential evidence such as:

  • Any letters or notes
  • Emails
  • Phone calls
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Texts
  • Social media postings (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)
  • Computer screenshots
  • Voicemails, or any other form of evidence that may be helpful

As time passes, evidence may dissipate or become lost or unavailable, thereby making invesigation, possible prosecution, disciplinary proceedings, or obtaining orders of protection related to the incident more difficult.

If someone who has experienced harm chooses not to make a criminal complaint regarding an incident, then the person nevertheless should consider speaking with the University Police Department or other law enforcement agency to preserve evidence in the event that the victim changes their mind at a later date.

Reducing the Risk

Dating & Domestic Violence

Dating/Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behaviors used to exert power and control over a partner. It can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure or wound someone.

Dating/Domestic violence can happen to anyone regardless of race, sexual orientation, social economics, education, age, religion, etc., and can also affect family, friends, co- workers and members in the community, in addition to the victim and abuser. Domestic violence can occur regardless of the relationship status, including individuals who are dating, cohabitating, or married.

There usually is a pattern or a repeated cycle of dating violence, starting with the first instance of abuse.

  • Tension Building: Relationship begins to get strained or tense between partners.
  • Explosion: Outburst that includes verbal, emotional, or physical abuse.
  • Honeymoon: Apologies where the abuser tries to re-connect with theirpartner by shifting the blame onto someone or something else.

What Dating/Domestic Violence Can Look Like

Any actions used for the intent of gaining power and control over a person:

  • Physical Abuse: any intentional use of physical force with the intent to cause injury (i.e. grabbing in a way to inflict pain, hitting, shoving, strangling, kicking)
  • Emotional Abuse: non-physical behaviors such as threats, insults, constant monitoring, humiliation, intimidation, isolation, silent treatment, or stalking
  • Sexual Abuse: any action that impacts the partner’s ability to control their sexual activity or the circumstance which sexual activity occurs, including rape, coercion or restricting access to birth control

Warnings or Signs of Potential Dating/Domestic Violence
Ask yourself if your partner engages in one or any of the following activities:

  • Checks my cell phone or email without my permission
  • Monitors where I’m going, who I’m going with, what I’m doing
  • Repeatedly says or does things to make me feel inadequate or inferior to them
  • Extreme jealously or insecurity
  • Isolates me from my friends and family
  • Explosive temper
  • Mood swings
  • Assumes financial control over my access to financial resources
  • Tells me what to do
  • Possessiveness
  • Physically hurts me in any way

The OneLove Project has additional resources on how to love better and recognizing healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors. CHECK IT, our campus' sexual violence bystander intervention program also has activities around healthy relationships called "Love KNOWS Boundaries".

Sexualized Violence

If you find yourself in the position of being the initiator of sexual behavior, you owe sexual respect to your potential partner. These suggestions may help you to reduce your risk of being accused of sexual misconduct:

  • Clearly communicate your intentions to your sexual partner and give them a chance to clearly relate their intentions to you.
  • Understand and respect personal boundaries.
  • DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS about consent, about someone’s sexual availability, about whether they are attracted to you, about how far you can go or about whether they are physically and/or mentally able to consent. If there are any questions or ambiguity then you DO NOT have consent.
  • Mixed messages from your partner are a clear indication that you should stop, defuse any sexual tension and communicate better. You may be misreading them. They may not have figured out how far they want to go with you yet. You must respect the timeline for sexual behaviors with which they are comfortable.
  • Don’t take advantage of someone’s drunkenness or drugged state, even if they did it to themselves. Incapacitation means a person is unable to give valid consent.
  • Realize that your potential partner could be intimidated by you, or fearful. You may have a power advantage simply because of your gender or size. Don’t abuse that power.
  • Understand that consent to some form of sexual behavior does not automatically imply consent to any other forms of sexual behavior.
  • Silence and passivity cannot be interpreted as an indication of consent. Read your potential partner carefully, paying attention to verbal and non-verbal communication and body language. You need Affirmative Consent.

Reducing Your Risk

Risk reduction tips can often take a victim-blaming tone, even unintentionally. With no intention to victim-blame and with recognition that only those who commit sexual violence are responsible for those actions, these suggestions may nevertheless help you to reduce your risk of experiencing a non-consensual sexual act:

  • If you have limits, make them known as early as possible.
  • Tell a sexual aggressor “NO” clearly and firmly.
  • Try to remove yourself from the physical presence of a sexual aggressor.
  • Find someone nearby and ask for help.
  • Take affirmative responsibility for your alcohol intake/drug use and acknowledge that alcohol/drugs lower your sexual inhibitions and may make you vulnerable to someone who views a drunk or high person as a sexual opportunity.
  • Take care of your friends and ask that they take care of you.
  • In an emergency, call 9-1-1