Below are additional scenarios that facilitators can use for the scenario activities.

1 Student Makes Inappropriate Comments to Another Student

During the first day of summer class, Béatrice’s professor asks the class to form study groups that will meet for three hours a week for six weeks. As a first-year master’s student, Béatrice doesn’t know many other students and decides to create a study group with one of her friends, Nafissa, and another student, David. Nafissa and David are both in the second year of their PhD program and have the same thesis advisor as Béatrice. After the second study group meeting, as Béatrice and David are heading to the same bus stop, they decide to walk together. Mid-way through their journey, David starts making inappropriate and sexual remarks toward Béatrice; feeling very uncomfortable, Béatrice brushes him off by laughing and changes the subject. What are some possible responses Béatrice can make?

2 Professor Dismisses Student’s Experience of Sexual Harassment

Taylor, a graduate student, works as a teaching assistant (TA) for a public health course. Kendal, a student in the course, begins sending an excessive number of emails to Taylor. Eventually, Taylor asks Kendal to reduce their emails or seek assistance from the instructor about course-related questions. Kendal then starts staring and looking up and down at Taylor’s body when she is teaching the class. The staring makes Taylor feel violated. Taylor raises her concerns to the professor, who listens but then states that the attention is a compliment and should not distract from Taylor doing her job as a TA. What are some possible responses or actions that Taylor can take?

3 Undergrads Inappropriately Touch a TA

Onyx is an international graduate student in her first semester of their PhD and is working as a teaching assistant in a second-year chemistry laboratory class. In this lab, an undergrad named Kerry always asks Onyx for assistance but for his lab partner Quinn. While helping Quinn, Onyx notices that Kerry always stands really close to both of them. Initially, Onyx thinks Kerry is just observing Onyx’s explanations for Quinn, but on one occasion, Onyx notices that Quinn is trying to hide a laugh. When Onyx turns toward Kerry, Onyx notices Kerry sniffing and touching Onyx’s long hair. What are some ways that Onyx could respond or actions she could take?

4 Sexual Innuendo from a Research Supervisor at a Conference

Milo is a graduate student attending an international research conference. During the lunch break, Milo’s supervisor, Cyan, comes over to chat about the conference sessions. Milo isn’t sure when the conference dinner will end, so he asks Cyan, who responds, “Well, you can leave early if you are on your way to a hot date.” Later, at the conference, Milo wins an award as the best presenter among master’s students, and their teammates congratulate them at the community event that night. Cyan, who is at the event, chimes in, “It seems you have quite the oral skill,” emphasizing the word “oral” and winking at Milo.

5 Inappropriate Texts from a Professor

Ash, a graduate student, is taking a physics course taught by Dr. Martinez, a visiting scholar. Ash finds some of the course concepts challenging, so Ash goes to Dr. Martinez’s office and says, “The last assignment is quite challenging for me. I can’t seem to get it right. Can you help me understand what I’m doing wrong?” Dr. Martinez has another class so can’t help right then, but says, “Here’s my number. Send me a picture of your solution, and I’ll help.” Ash thanks Dr. Martinez and sends a picture of their work the next day. Dr. Martinez reviews the work and offers some assistance. The course finishes, but the day after the final exam, Ash receives a text from Dr. Martinez saying, “Good thing I got your number! Now that the course is over, I can finally ask you out.” Ash doesn’t respond and feels uncomfortable.

6 Supervisor Makes a Misogynistic Joke to a Student

Frankie is a first-year master’s degree student who recently suffered a head injury that left her feeling unwell. As a result of their illness, Frankie has been consistently arriving late to her engineering workshop, taught by Frankie’s supervisor, Dr. Cameron. Within the department, Dr. Cameron is notorious for making personal remarks to students during class. Today, Frankie approaches Dr. Cameron, saying, “Sorry for being late again today, Dr. Cameron. I was feeling sick the whole week. It won’t happen again.” Dr. Cameron replies, “No worries, it’s okay. I can easily understand engineering problems, but I’ll never be able to understand lady’s problems.” He starts laughing. Confused, Frankie asks, “Sorry, what do you mean by that?” Dr. Cameron responds loudly, “I mean your hormone imbalance.”

7 Student Sexually Harassed by Two Students at a Social Event

Rachel is a new graduate student in the department of Anthropology. As a part of welcome week, the graduate school organizes a barbecue with a music and dance evening on campus. Rachel is taking in the vibrant sights and boisterous music at the event when she’s startled to feel someone roughly grab her shoulder. She turns to see that it is a member of her class named William, who she hardly knows. His sentences are slurred, as he calls her abusive names. As he pushes himself nearer to her, he makes crude remarks about her appearance and body. He also tries to touch her inappropriately. She then sees Philip, a postdoctoral student whom she’d briefly met during welcome week. While she was expecting he would intervene, instead, he joined William in sexually harassing her. Rachel is in a shock response and feels helpless, threatened, scared, and unsafe. What are some options left for Rachel?

8 Inappropriate/Offensive Comments Made to a Graduate Student

Lisa is a first-year female doctoral student taking an online graduate course on methods in research. The course is open to all graduate students and is facilitated by a professor in the educational technology program that Lisa is in. After introductions, students are placed into online breakout groups based on their program area to share their project concepts. Because the course is small, only two students end up in Lisa’s breakout room. Dave is a master’s student in the same program and shares a thesis supervisor with Lisa. Dave is well-regarded by Dr. Robson—Lisa has heard him talk about Dave’s research. After some small talk, Lisa redirects them to the class discussion purpose by asking Dave if he has decided on a thesis topic. Dave replies: “Well, I haven’t decided. This is going to sound sexist, but, as that saying goes…there are so many pretty girls, how can you choose just one?” What are some of the possible impacts of an incident like this, and what are some possible responses and actions Lisa can take?

9 Supporting a Friend Who Has Experienced Sexualized Violence

Julie, a friendly graduate student in the science department, and her close friend Taylor, a physics graduate student, are talking privately when Julie shares an unsettling incident from the previous day at a coffee shop. While working on her teaching assistant duties, a male TA named John approached Julie. He appeared to be intoxicated and made a crude comment about her resembling his ex and, without warning, grabbed her in a sexual manner. Feeling uncomfortable and shocked, Julie pushed him away and left the situation. She’s unsure how to process what happened. How should Taylor respond to this disclosure and support Julie?