Disclosures and Reporting

Reporting: 

To make a report or ask questions about reporting obligations, please contact ECRT at [email protected] or 313-436-9194, or file a report via the online reporting form. 

Employee Reporting Requirements:

All UM Employees, including faculty, staff, and student employees, are obligated to report alleged misconduct to ECRT within 48 hours. Employee reporting obligations apply when:

• Conduct is learned of (witnessed, disclosed, reported, or otherwise made known) in the course of employment
• Conduct occurs on campus, and/or in a program or activity
• Conduct outside a university program or activity poses a serious threat or creates a hostile environment for the campus community 
• Failure by an employee to promptly report to ECRT information they receive about alleged prohibited conduct is a violation of policy, and may result in disciplinary action. *See below for exceptions. 

Confidential Resources—offices or individuals who do not have reporting obligations—continue to be designated under the policies, and include the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Faculty and Staff Counseling and Consultation Office (FASCCO), and university ombudspersons.

Once a report is made, ECRT will reach out to the Complainant (the person making the report or reported to have experienced the behavior) to offer resources, support, and information about possible next steps, including how to file a formal complaint.

Responding to Disclosures: 

First and foremost, respond with empathy and care. Be transparent if you have a reporting obligation and connect the individual to appropriate resources. The Responding to Disclosures document contains helpful information about responding to disclosures, and the Our Community Matters Resource Guide contains helpful information to provide to individuals who may have concerns.

Privacy:

Reporting is private but not confidential, which means ECRT may need to share information with other university officials. This may include when a U-M employee has engaged in sexual or gender-based misconduct, a crime is alleged, community safety is impacted, when addressing a reported concern, or otherwise legally required to share information. If an employee is reported as having potentially engaged in sexual or gender-based misconduct, that employee will be made aware of the report to address the concerns. ECRT must take action to address possible discrimination, harassment, and sexual/gender-based misconduct. However, the office considers the steps an impacted person would like taken.

*Reporting Exemptions:

Employees may, but are not required to, report disclosures when they happen under certain, generally uncommon, scenarios:

• In the context of a relevant classroom discussion, assignment for class, a related discussion outside of class, or as a part of a research project directly related to the class (for example, a person discloses a personal experience of sexual misconduct in a written assignment related to the neurobiology of trauma, or a classroom discussion about course material related to sexual violence);
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved research project – Unless otherwise provided in the IRB-approved consent, during a non-minor participant’s involvement as a subject in an IRB-approved human subjects research protocol (IRB Research), even when such disclosure would otherwise be considered received within the scope of the employee’s employment
• Sexual misconduct public awareness events (ex, Take Back the Night or events organized by confidential resources)
• A discussion in a peer support group organized and offered by a confidential resource (e.g., FASCCO), when the employee is a member of the peer support group