When consulting campus resources, students should be aware of confidentiality and mandatory reporting in order to make informed choices. Some campus departments may maintain your complete confidentiality, offering you options and advice without any obligation to tell anyone unless you want them to. Other departments are expressly there for you to report crimes and policy violations, and they will take action when you report an incident to them. Please contact the Women's Resource Center (503-725-5672) if you have questions about confidentiality on campus.
Campus Confidentiality
Center for Student Health and Counseling (SHAC)
SHAC employees maintain confidentiality; which means with limited exceptions, any information you share with a SHAC employee will not be disclosed to outside parties without your written consent. For a full description of SHAC confidentiality visit their site.
Student Legal Services
Student Legal Services attorneys may also have confidential communications with their student-clients. In addition, information disclosed to your attorney is protected by attorney-client privilege, which means that in most cases they cannot disclose that information without your permission even in the case of a lawsuit or other legal proceeding. There are some limited exceptions to attorney-client privilege. Contact Student Legal Services with any questions
Sexual & Relationship Violence Response Advocates Across Campus
Students' disclosures to a Confidential Advocate will not be reported to other University officials and will not trigger a PSU investigation into an incident against the student’s wishes. Exceptions to this confidentiality are:
Other things to know about confidentiality and advocates:
- Communications with a Confidential Advocate are privileged under Oregon law. This means that an Advocate will not be compelled to disclose your information without a court order.
- The Advocate will report anonymous data to the Title IX coordinator solely for the purposes of addressing systemic issues. This information will include: the type of incident, date it occurred, and whether it happened on or off campus. This information will not include any identifying information and will not trigger an investigation.
- Confidential Advocates are housed in the following spaces on campus:
- Women's Resource Center: Alisha Howard, Sydney Bernkopf, Erica Bestpitch, and Sheena Ino
- Queer Resource Center: Kirsten Keith
- International Student & Scholar Services: Yoko Honda
- Diversity and Multicultural Student Services: Michelle Lee
- Cultural Resource Centers: Shanice Clarke (Pan-African Commons) and Yolonda Salguiero (NASCC)
Campus Private/Non-Confidential Services
The following staff are obligated to take action on any information they receive regarding incidents of sexual or relationship violence. However, they will keep your information private, meaning your information will not be shared with staff who do not have a direct role in addressing safety issues.
- PSU’s Title IX Coordinator or, Director of Conduct and Community Standards, or the Director of the Equal Employment/Affirmative Action: Communication with these individuals will not be confidential and and may be required to initiate a prompt, neutral and thorough investigation of a complaint.
- All other supervisors, managers, faculty members or any other University officials, including any one with oversight of students or has a title of Director or higher, are considered “Responsible Employees.”
Responsible Employees are required to report all the details of an incident or concern of discrimination, including the identities of both the victim and the alleged perpetrator to the Title IX Coordinator, the Office of the Dean of Student Life or the Office of Equity & Compliance. A report to the Responsible Employees constitutes a report to P.S.U. and obligates P.S.U. to look into the incident and take appropriate steps to address the situation. P.S.U. will work with victims to keep their identity as private as s/he requests.
Additional Services
View a complete list of on- and off-campus support services ›