The University has finalized a sexual harassment policy after nearly five years of having an interim document in place.

Susan Kaplan, associate vice president of human recourses, said the new policy resolves unclear procedures and ambiguous sections from the interim policy but contains no major changes.

“Frankly what is most important to us is the principle of zero tolerance for sexual harassment and that the University is committed to maintaining a school that is free of harassment in general,” Kaplan said.

In a mass e-mail sent to the GW community, the human resources department explained how a committee made of faculty, staff and students was appointed in 2005 to suggest changes to the interim policy.

Since 2000, similar committees investigating changes to the harassment policy have been created, but this year the revisions were approved by the Faculty Senate and the administration.

Tara Woolfson, GW’s director of Student Judicial Services, said the new policy will have no effect on how SJS handles sexual harassment cases.

The new policy is available at http://www.gwu.edu/~vpgc/harass.html.

-Eric Roper