Sexual harassment is unwanted sexual or gender based behavior that occurs when one person has formal or informal power over the other.

There are three elements to sexual harassment:

1. The behavior is unwanted or unwelcome.
2. The behavior is sexual or related to the gender of the person.
3. The behavior occurs in the context of a relationship where one person has more formal power than the others (such as a supervisor over an employee or a faculty member over a student) or more informal power (such as one peer over another).

Thompson Publishing Group, Inc. - June 1994

The following conduct could be considered sexual harassment if unwelcome:

• Direct or indirect threats or bribes for unwanted sexual activity
• Sexual innuendoes and comments
• Intrusive sexually explicit questions
• Sexually suggestive sounds or gestures such as sucking noises, winks, or pelvic thrusts
• Repeatedly asking a person out for dates or to have sex
• Touching, patting, pinching, stroking, squeezing, tickling or brushing against a person
• A neck/shoulder massage
• Rating a person's sexuality
• Ogling or leering, staring at a woman's breast or a man's derrière
• Spreading rumors about a person's sexuality
• Graffiti about a person's sexuality
• Name-calling - terms with a sexual connotation or relating to gender in a derogatory manner
• Sexual ridicule
• Frequent jokes about sex or males/females
• Letters, notes, telephone calls or material of a sexual nature
• Pervasive displays of pictures, calendars, cartoons or other materials with sexually explicit or graphic content
• Stalking a person
• Attempted or actual sexual assault