The Bias Incident Report is a web-based form that you can fill out if you have witnessed or experienced a bias incident on campus. It can be submitted anonymously if you choose, or you can request that someone from the Equity Office contact you for follow-up. The form is sent by anonymous e-mail to the Equity Office.

A bias incident is an act of intolerance which is committed against any person, group, or property and which discriminates, stereotypes, harasses, or excludes anyone based on some part of their identity. Identity includes race, color, ethnicity, religion, disability, nationality, language, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, group affiliation, and other similar factors.

Any act of intolerance, such as graffiti, name-calling, or threats can be reported using the web form. Hate crimes, extreme examples of bias incidents, are also reportable here. (Note: this office must inform the MU Police Department of any crimes reported via the Bias Report.)

Anyone with knowledge of a bias incident on campus may report the incident using the Bias Incident Reporting form. That includes faculty, staff, students, as well as parents, alums, and visitors to campus.

You should submit a report so that the university can get a really accurate fix on the number and kinds of incidents that occur on campus. If we don’t know what’s going on, we can’t address it. And we want to centralize that information so that we can be sure that we do address the issues thoroughly and appropriately.

A related use of the Bias Incident Report system is for statistical tracking of incidents over time. This kind of tracking gives us data on trends (e.g., are we seeing more religious-bias incidents than we did five years ago?); the more complete the data, the more reliable is the information that results.

When submitting the report, you can specify whether you want the Equity Office to contact you to follow up. Thus, you can initiate an inquiry using the Bias Incident Report simply by supplying your name and contact information.

Conversely, another reason to use the Bias Report is if you want to act responsibly and report an incident but you don’t want to give your name. This does not mean that we won’t investigate the incident when the facts warrant it. But if we subsequently contact you, it will be because you were identified through the investigation, not because you submitted the anonymous Bias Report.

If you have a concern about your academic freedom, bias in class content, or one-sided class discussions, the way to address those kinds of issues is through the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, not with a Bias Incident Report.

Because those concerns are clearly academic in nature, the Provost’s Office has primary responsibility to address them. However, should your concerns relate to areas of prohibited discrimination, the Provost’s office may refer the matter to the Equity Office for resolution.