Important Info on Upcoming Civil Rights Compliance Review

April 10, 2013

About Our Equal Access/Equal Opportunity (EA/EO) Statement or Nondiscrimination Statement

There has been a lot of talk lately concerning the placement of the college's EA/EO statement on printed materials in advance of our upcoming civil rights compliance review on April 22.

We have reviewed applicable rules and documentation from our peer institutions to better understand the reviewers' expectations. Some of the documentation our peer institutions received from the civil rights reviewers indicated that college(s) should:

 "publish its nondiscrimination statement on all major publications, including recruitment materials, posters, brochures, financial aid publications forms, application forms, handbooks and course schedules; and on websites pertaining to all major student and employee related links."

The EA/EO statement
The EA/EO statement was created to affirm to the college community and beyond that Santa Fe College does not discriminate based on the stated criteria, and provides an avenue to report an offense for anyone who feels they may have been subject to discrimination. The EA/EO statement comes in three forms:

1. The formal, long form statement, available at sfcollege.edu/eaeo.

2. The brief statement:
"Santa Fe College is committed to an environment that embraces diversity, respects the rights of all individuals, is open and accessible, and is free of harassment and discrimination based on, but not limited to, ethnicity, race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, marital status, national origin, genetic information, political opinions or affiliations, and veteran status in all its programs, activities and employment. EA/EO notice Inquiries regarding non-discrimination policies should be directed to: Lela Frye, Equal Access/Equal Opportunity Coordinator 3000 NW 83rd Street, R-Annex, Room 105, Gainesville, Florida 32606, (352) 395-5420, lela.frye@sfcollege.edu."

3. The link statement:
"Find our Equal Access/Equal Opportunity statement online at sfcollege.edu/eaeo."

Guidelines for Use
Please follow these guidelines for placement of the EA/EO on printed materials.

The brief statement should be included on:

• Documents that constitute a formal relationship or contract between Santa Fe and any student, employee or community member or where a person engaging with the college might feel excluded, overlooked or otherwise disenfranchised.
• Materials that might constitute the college's first contact with prospective students, faculty, staff or other community members outside SF.

The link statement is appropriate for:

• Any materials that clearly direct your audience to the college website for more information.

No statement needs to be applied to:

• Materials that are delivered to your audience as a package of information, where other documents in the package already contain the statement. If in doubt, you may apply the link statement.
• Web pages (all properties of www.sfcollege.edu are already covered by the link to the formal statement available at the bottom of each Web page.)

Compliance
To help you update existing materials that may not be compliant with the above guidelines, Communications and Creative Services has ordered stamps and a limited number of stickers containing the link statement or the brief statement that can be applied to documents as needed. Stickers will be available April 9, upon request on an as-needed basis. Stamps will be available April 12. Please contact Dave Houder at x3625 to request stickers or stamps.