Policies and Regulations

The policies and regulations included here are only a portion of the official policies and regulations of Middlesex Community College. MCC has regulations in place regarding alcoholic beverages, drugs and animals on campus, bomb threats, posting items on campus bulletin boards, false fire alarms, gambling, hazing, solicitation, trespassing and campus visitors.  

Consult the Student Handbook, available on the college website (www.middlesex.mass.edu/StudentHandbook), for complete listings of college policies and regulations – including MCC’s complete Computer and Network Usage Policy. (For reader convenience, the subjects included here are listed in alphabetical order.) Due process is accorded to students in the event of any alleged violation of college regulations. 

Policies and procedures have been developed at the college to aid in the prevention of sexual assault.  Copies of these procedures, along with campus security procedures and crime awareness statistics, are available in the Campus Managers’ Offices in Bedford and Lowell, various public locations throughout the campuses or on the college website at www.middlesex.mass.edu/disclosurestatements/SORI/crimestat.pdf.

In accordance with federal law, the college is required to advise the campus community where information concerning registered sex offenders may be obtained. Information concerning Level 2 and Level 3 offenders is available to the general public by contacting your local police department or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Sex Offender Registry Board, P.O. Box 4547, Salem, MA 01970-4547, 978-740-6400. Level 3 offender information is also available online at www.mass.gov/sorb. If you have any questions regarding access to sex offender information, please feel free to contact the Campus Managers on each campus. 

Middlesex Community College’s audited financial information is included as part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Requests for financial information should be addressed to the Office of the Chief Fiscal Officer, Middlesex Community College, 33 Kearney Square, Lowell, MA 01852.

 It is the policy of Middlesex Community College to prohibit the possession, display of, or attempt or threat to use unauthorized firearms, knives or other weapons on campus also including, but not limited to explosives, ammunition, replica or facsimile weapons, or objects not originally intended as a weapon, but used as such or to imitate a weapon.

This policy does not prohibit small quantity personal protection chemical spray devices (e.g., key-chain sprays) intended for defensive purposes, or tools possessed and used by employees in accordance with departmental policies, uniformed law-enforcement officials, armored-car couriers, or others specifically authorized by the College. 

The Middlesex Community College Institutional Review Board (IRB) supports the research endeavors of students, faculty and staff. The IRB has responsibility to oversee procedures for carrying out MCC’s commitment to protect human subjects in research. The IRB is charged with evaluating each project’s compliance with ethical standards in regard to issues such as informed consent, confidentiality and risk to participants. Any research involving the use of human subjects requires review by the IRB. Those individuals seeking to conduct such research may not solicit subject participation or begin data collection until they have obtained clearance by the IRB.

The MCC IRB Charter and Standard Operating Procedures, meeting dates and all application forms can be found on the IRB’s website at www.middlesex.mass.edu/IRB. If you have questions regarding the IRB or human subject research, contact the IRB Chair at 781-280-3660 or irb@middlesex.mass.edu.

Community Colleges recognize the multitude of barriers that confront disabled persons in employment and in access to education.  Consistent with state and federal statutes, which affirm and protect the equal opportunity rights of disabled persons, the Community Colleges adopted a policy to ensure nondiscrimination and equal opportunity for disabled persons. In all matters of employment, disabled persons will receive full and fair consideration.

The Community Colleges will take constructive measures to ensure equal opportunity in all areas of employment including recruitment, selection, upgrading, opportunities for training and development, rate of compensation, benefits and all other terms and conditions of employment.  The establishment of goals and timetables is not required.

Necessary reasonable accommodations will be afforded to any disabled employee to enable such otherwise qualified disabled employee to perform the essential functions of the job.  Reasonable accommodations will also be afforded to disabled applicants for available positions.  Any reasonable accommodations provided by the Colleges will be provided to the extent that such accommodations do not impose any undue hardship on the Colleges in the conduct of their operations.

Specific efforts to be undertaken by the Colleges to ensure equal opportunity for disabled persons may be outlined in individual College Affirmative Action Plans.  It is recognized that all facilities may not be available and accessible at a particular time.  

The Community Colleges will also continuously examine all policies and programs of the institution regarding students to ensure that such policies and programs do not operate in a manner discriminatory to disabled persons.  Where such policies or programs are determined to have an adverse impact on disabled persons, appropriate remedial action will be mandated by the President.  In addition, the Colleges will conduct monitoring activities to ensure that all divisions or departments within the College are in compliance with the policy of providing reasonable accommodation to disabled students.

Inquiries and requests related to 504/ADA should be directed to Susan Woods, ADA Coordinator and Director of Disability Support Services,  781-280-3641, Bedford campus, Enrollment Center (Building 9), Room 204.

Pluralism

Middlesex Community College is a contributing element to the emergence of our nation as one of the most technologically and economically advanced societies of the world. The important role that MCC can play is profoundly dependent upon the extent to which it may draw from the collective intellectual resources within its community of scholars, students and administrators. Any condition or force that impedes the fullest utilization of the human and intellectual resources available represents a force of destructive consequence for the development of our commonwealth and, ultimately, our nation.

Middlesex Community College students, faculty, staff and visitors must be free from conduct that has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual’s academic or professional performance and creating an intimidating, hostile or demeaning educational or employment environment. Therefore, Middlesex Community College establishes a policy of unequivocal condemnation of all forms of ethnic, religious, cultural or racial intolerance.

This policy condemns all conditions and all actions or omissions, including all acts of verbal harassment or abuse, which deny or have the effect of denying to an individual his/her rights to equality, dignity and security in violation of his/her rights guaranteed under the law. The policy reaffirms the doctrine of civility, appreciation for pluralism and the pre-eminence of individual human dignity as preconditions to the achievement of an academic community that recognizes and utilizes the resources of all persons while recognizing and reaffirming the tenets of academic freedom. Middlesex Community College recognizes its obligation to protect the rights of free inquiry and expression, and nothing herein shall be construed or applied so as to abridge the exercise of rights under the Constitution of the United States and other federal and state laws.

Middlesex Community College will vigorously strive to achieve diversity sufficiently reflective of our society.  However, diversity alone will not suffice. There must be a unity and cohesion in the diversity which we seek to achieve, thereby creating an environment of pluralism.

Middlesex Community College bears a responsibility by edict and an obligation by social morality to promote understanding and acceptance of ethnic, cultural, religious and racial diversity as we strive to create an atmosphere of dignity for all individuals and groups within our system of public higher education. The President will take reasonable measures to prevent and discourage harassment and will act positively to investigate alleged harassment and to effect a remedy or resolution when an allegation is determined to be valid.

When a student or employee feels his/her rights have been breached under this policy, the grievance process under the Affirmative Action Plan is a mechanism for resolution unless it is a student appeal (see the Student Grievance Procedure section in the Student Handbook). The Affirmative Action Plan is available in the College Libraries, Human Resources Office, on the college website (www.middlesex.mass.edu) or contact Darcy Orellana, Assistant Dean of Diversity & Equity Affairs and Affirmative Action Officer, at 781-280-3559.

Affirmative Action

Middlesex Community College is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer in compliance with Title IX and does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, color, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, veteran status, religion, or handicap status in its education programs or in admission to, access to, treatment in or employment in its programs or activities as required by Title VI, Civil Rights Act of 1964; Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972; Section 504, Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and regulations promulgated thereunder.

Middlesex Community College admits students of any age, sex, race, color, national and ethnic origin, veteran status or handicap status regardless of ancestry, religion, or sexual orientation to all programs and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the College. It does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, race, color, national and ethnic origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, veteran status, religion or handicap status in the administration of its educational policies, scholarships, and loan programs.

All inquiries related to affirmative action, nondiscrimination and diversity, including Title VI and Title IX, should be directed to Darcy Orellana, Assistant Dean of Diversity & Equity Affairs and Affirmative Action Officer, 781-280-3559, Bedford Campus Enrollment Center (Building 9), Room 220. For employment-related matters, you may also contact Judith Wong, Associate Director of Human Resources, 781-280-3536, Bedford campus, Cataldo Administration Building (Building 10), Room 118.

For purposes of filing federal level charges of discrimination under Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments, Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act or Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, students may contact the Federal Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, 33 Arch St., Suite 900, Boston, MA 02110, or call 617-289-0111 TDD: 877-521-2172.   

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment of a student, an employee or any other person in the College is unlawful, unacceptable, impermissible and intolerable.

Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. It occurs in a variety of situations which share a common element: the inappropriate introduction of sexual activities or comments into the work or learning environment. Often, sexual harassment involves relationships of unequal power and contains elements of coercion, as when compliance with requests for sexual favors becomes a criterion for granting work, study or grading benefits. However, sexual harassment may also involve relationships among equals, as when repeated sexual advances or demeaning verbal behaviors have a harmful effect on a person’s ability to study or work in the academic setting.

For general purposes, sexual harassment may be described as unwelcome advances, requests for sexual favors, and other physical conduct and expressive behavior of a sexual nature when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment or education;  (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for academic or employment decisions affecting that individual; or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s academic or professional performance and creating an intimidating, hostile, or demeaning employment or educational environment. Examples of conduct which may, depending on the circumstances, constitute sexual harassment, include:

• repeated offensive sexual flirtation, advances or propositions; 

• continued or repeated verbal abuse or innuendo of a sexual nature;

• uninvited physical contact such as touching, hugging, patting or pinching;

• display of sexually suggestive objects or pictures, jokes or remarks of a sexual nature in front of people who find them offensive;

• making obscene gestures or suggestions or insulting sounds, indecent exposure;

• the demand of sexual favors accompanied by an implied or overt threat concerning an individual’s employment or student status or promises of preferential treatment.

In addition to sexual harassment being unlawful, it is also unlawful to retaliate against a student, employee or any other person in the College for filing a complaint of sexual harassment or for cooperating in an investigation of sexual harassment.

A student, employee or any other person in the College who is found to have engaged in sexual harassment is subject to discipline up to and including, termination of employment or expulsion. All disciplinary proceedings will be conducted in accordance with applicable collective bargaining agreements and/or personnel polices.

When a student, employee or any other person in the College believes he/she has  been subjected to sexual harassment, the grievance process is a mechanism for redress. A grievant may seek recourse through informal efforts and/or by filing a formal grievance in  writing. In the latter case, a grievant may obtain an Affirmative Action Grievance Form from the College’s Affirmative Action Officer, Darcy Orellana, Assistant Dean of Diversity & Equity Affairs, 781-280-3559 or 978-656-3200 ext. 3559. This form must be completed and returned to the Affirmative Action Office within thirty (30) days from when the grievant knew or should have known of the alleged discriminatory action. In either case, all grievants must contact the College’s Affirmative Action Officer before proceeding under the Affirmative Action Policy’s Grievance and Hearing Procedure. If, however, the  Affirmative Action Officer is the subject of the sexual harassment complaint, the grievant may report his/her complaint to the supervisor of the Affirmative Action Officer, President Carole A. Cowan. All reasonable efforts will be made to maintain confidentiality during the grievance process.    

The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) is responsible for investigating and handling complaints of sexual harassment filed in the Commonwealth. The MCAD is located at 1 Ashburton Place, Boston, MA  02108-1518, and can be reached at 617-994-6000.

At the federal level, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is charged with investigating and handling complaints of sexual harassment filed under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments. The EEOC is located at the J.F. Kennedy Federal Building, 475 Government Center, Boston, MA 02203, or call 1-800-669-4000. In keeping  with these regulations, a concerted effort will be made to protect employees, students and others from sexual harassment as defined.

The final authority and ultimate responsibility for the prevention of sexual harassment will rest with the President of the College. The President or his/her designee will take reasonable measures to prevent sexual harassment and will act positively to investigate alleged harassment and to effect a remedy when an allegation is determined to be valid, whether or not a formal grievance has been filed. However, the Affirmative Action Officer will have the responsibility for the overall development, administration and monitoring of all programs, policies, procedures and regulations related to sexual harassment.

The College’s policies and procedures on sexual harassment shall be distributed to all College community members. In addition to formal procedures, the College shall ensure that appropriate opportunities are available to students and employees to obtain counseling concerning their rights under the law and effective means of informally resolving grievances.

On Nov. 8, 1990, Congress enacted the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990 under Public Law 101-542, Title II. This act requires that institutions of higher education receiving federal funding collect information with respect to crime statistics and campus security policies and, beginning September 1992, prepare, publish and distribute an annual security report.

Middlesex Community College, in accordance with legal mandates and its philosophy of establishing and maintaining an environment of learning and a supportive climate in which to conduct the business and mission of the college, provides this information to the college community through the Campus Managers’ Offices in Lowell and Bedford, and the MCC website: www.middlesex.mass.edu/disclosurestatements/sori/crimestat.pdf.  

Middlesex college buildings are all smoke-free. Smoking is only allowed in designated areas away from building entrances. Smoking materials must be disposed of appropriately in containers provided.