Fostering a culture of safety and respect.
The Department’s Title IX Liaison was created to help students, staff, faculty, and all in our community deal with any issues concerning sexual and gender-based discrimination, including sexual violence. The current Title IX Liaisons are Professors Yuhua Wang and Mashail Malik.
Anyone in the Department can reach out to one of the Liaisons to report misconduct and seek help. The Liaison serves as a neutral point of contact supporting individuals in response to concerns regarding sexual and gender harassment. Here, we are committed to creating an environment of psychological safety, so that people who have experienced or know of instances of sexual harassment are comfortable reporting it.
It’s important to know that the Liaison is not the sole point of contact for dealing with Title IX issues; it is just one of many options Harvard provides for dealing with these issues. People should feel free to approach anyone inside or outside the Department with whom they feel comfortable sharing their concerns about discrimination, health, and work issues. They do not have to go through the Department of Government Liaison.
Feel free to contact Liaison Prof. Yuhua Wang yuhuawang@fas.harvard.edu or visit his office at CGIS Knafel Bldg., K 214. Or Liaison Prof. Mashail Malik by mashailmalik@fas.harvard.edu or visit her office at CGIS Knafel Bldg., K208.
Liaisons must disclose all known details about potential incidents of harassment.
Under Harvard’s Title IX, all faculty, staff, and grad students are Responsible Employees while employed by Harvard. As a Responsible Employee, the Liaison then must share with a Title IX Coordinator all known details (“a disclosure”) about potential incidents of sexual or gender-based harassment. However, before revealing details to the Liaison, an individual has the option of working with others, on and/or off campus, who can provide varying degrees of confidentiality (e.g. lawyers, doctors, mental health clinicians, clergy, ombuds). The individual can decide whether or not to disclose a potential incident to the Liaison.
Please note that sharing a concern with a Title IX Liaison is not the same as filing a formal complaint; filing a formal complaint is a separate process handled by the Office for Dispute Resolution. Rather, the Liaison is resource to help you make an informed decision about which pathways are right for you. The Title IX Liaison can also arrange interim measures (supports that help members of the Harvard community continue with their studies and work and to participate in campus life) and may facilitate informal resolutions, as appropriate, between the involved parties, with a goal of memorializing a mutually acceptable resolution in writing.