The New York Academy of Sciences (or the ‘Academy’) is committed to making our meetings productive and enjoyable for everyone, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, religion, ability status, physical appearance or educational background. The Academy will not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. Attendance at an Academy meeting or event implies consent to abide by this code of conduct. Explicitly, please follow these guidelines:

• Behave professionally. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, verbal abuse of any kind, sexual attention or innuendo, deliberate intimidation, stalking, and photography or recording of an individual without consent. It also includes offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or religion.
• All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.
• Be kind and courteous to others. Do not insult or put down other participants, including speakers, meeting organizers, or staff.

Participants asked to stop any inappropriate behavior are expected to comply immediately. Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the event or conference at the sole discretion of Academy staff without a refund of any fees paid for attendance at the meeting.

Any participant who wishes to report a violation of this policy is asked to speak, in confidence, to either the Meeting’s Coordinator or Program Manager. Reception Desk personnel can identify these individuals for you. The reporting participant will be asked to complete a ‘Participant Concern Form’ to document the occurrence for our files.

Consequences may range from verbal warning, to ejection from the meeting without refund, to cancellation of Academy Membership and/or notification of appropriate authorities. Retaliation for complaints of inappropriate conduct will not be tolerated. If a participant observes inappropriate comments or actions and personal intervention seems appropriate and safe, they should be considerate of all parties before intervening.

Protocol for dealing with violations of this policy

To avoid any confusion or bias in dealing with reports of violations of the code of conduct, the following protocol will be followed:

1. The designated Academy contact will request a written record of the complaint including time/date plus particulars (Participant Concern Form);

2. The designated Academy contact will bring the incident to the attention of Academy management:

3. If appropriate, the designated Academy contact or a member of Academy management will inform the individual(s) indicated to have violated the code of conduct of the allegation and ascertain and record their version of events.

Based on the nature of the violation and the response, Academy management will decide upon appropriate actions. Where a violation of the policy is deemed to have occurred, a record will be kept to that effect within Academy records.