Conduct

NOIRLab Non-Harassment Policy Statement

NSF's NOIRLab is committed to providing a safe and respectful work environment, free of any form of harassment. All NOIRLab partner organizations take this responsibility very seriously.

NOIRLab staff are subject to the policies of its operating organization, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. Collaborating personnel are also subject to the various specific anti-harassment policies of their employing organizations. Additionally, the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences has charged AURA with establishing and publicizing policies and methods for reporting harassment. These practices and procedures will apply to NOIRLab personnel as well as to all science and business associates, and all public and other visitors to NOIRLab facilities.

As harassment can take many forms, abbreviated excerpts from AURA policy are provided below to assist in identifying and addressing unacceptable behavior.

Harassment – AURA policy prohibits illegal harassment of any employee by a manager, co-worker or visitor, because of race, religion, color, gender, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity expression, or any other protected class. Policy also specifically addresses sexual harassment, which creates gender-based intimidation, hostility, and an offensive working environment. Harassment can take many forms:

Verbal harassment includes innuendoes, suggestive comments, jokes of a sexual nature, requests for any type of sexual favor, epithets, slurs, teasing and negative stereotyping.

Non-verbal harassment includes distribution, display or discussion of any material that is sexual in nature and offensive, or that shows hostility, aversion or disrespect toward an individual or group.

Physical harassment includes unwelcome, unwanted physical contact, Including violating an individual’s personal space.

If at any time you feel that a member of the NOIRLab community, regardless of organizational affiliation, is violating any of these principles and standards, please speak up. As soon as safely possible, you should report issues to NOIRLab or AURA Human Resources, to your supervisor, principal investigator, department chair, ethics or legal representatives, as applicable. Specific steps for reporting within NOIRLab and AURA are described in the AURA workplace standards policy.

You may also contact the NSF’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion directly if you feel the concern warrants external review.

NOIRLab Code of Conduct for Meetings

NOIRLab’s meetings will be open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy experiences for all participants.

Principles

All meeting attendees have the right to:

• be treated with courtesy, dignity, and respect;
• be free from any form of discrimination, victimization, harassment, or bullying; regardless of sex, sexual orientation and/or gender identity, disability, physical appearance, age, body size, ethnicity, nationality, and religion. In particular, sexual language and imagery and sexist, racist, or otherwise exclusionary jokes are not appropriate;
• enjoy an environment free from unwelcome behavior, inappropriate language and unsuitable imagery, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, bullying, discrimination, and photography or recording without consent.

All meeting attendees shall:

• exhibit respect, kindness, and empathy, and treat all attendees as valued peers and colleagues;
• share responsibility for maintaining the inclusive and welcoming atmosphere of the meeting;
• be receptive to differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences;
• avoid feigning surprise, interrupting, or derailing conversations with minor corrections;
• apologize to those affected by a mistake and learn from the experience;
• focus on the community goals of the meeting, not merely individual goals.

Attendees are requested to not share the meeting access information and credentials with non-registered attendees and are required to ask for explicit consent from the speaker and Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) Chair prior to publishing presentations or commentary externally (e.g in scientific publications, social media or conference websites). 

Enforcement

Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported to the meeting SOC. All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly. The SOC is obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident.

The SOC will follow these Community Impact Guidelines in determining the consequences for any action they deem in violation of this Code of Conduct:

Correction

• Community Impact: Use of inappropriate language or other behavior deemed unprofessional or detrimental to the atmosphere of the meeting.
• Consequence: A private, written warning from the meeting SOC, providing clarity around the nature of the violation and an explanation of why the behavior was inappropriate. A public apology may be requested.

Warning

• Community Impact: A violation of the workshop Principles against an attendee through a single incident or series of actions.
• Consequence: A warning with consequences for continued behavior. No interaction with the people involved, including unsolicited interaction with those enforcing the Code of Conduct, for a specified period of time. This includes avoiding interactions in community spaces as well as external channels like social media. Violating these terms may lead to a ban.

Ban

• Community Impact: A serious violation of the workshop Principles, including sustained inappropriate behavior, harassment of an individual, or aggression toward or disparagement of classes of individuals.
• Consequence: A ban from any sort of participation in the meeting.