The organizing committee, comprising Mikhail Shapiro, Sreekanth Chalasani, Hong Chen, Stuart Foster, David Maresca, and Yingxiao Peter Wang, are committed to ensuring that this conference (ISBUS, December 8-12, 2022) is held in a welcoming, safe and respectful environment free from discrimination or harassment based on any protected characteristic. As an attendee you should expect that:
- This meeting will be free of intimidation or bullying of any kind. Offensive and unwelcome behaviors, even if intended as “humor”, will not be permitted.
- There is no discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, age, physical or mental disability, citizenship, marital status, genetic information, genetic status or characteristics, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by an applicable law (a “protected characteristic”).
- Examples of forms of harassment include, but are not limited to:
- Verbal (for example, epithets, derogatory statements, slurs, comments or jokes related to a protected characteristic, unwelcome sexual advances, or requests for sexual favors)
- Physical (for example, assault or inappropriate physical contact)
- Visual (for example, displaying inappropriate images of any sort via any media, sending written or electronic messages such as text messages or emails that are inappropriate, leering, or making sexual gestures)
- All conference attendees, staff, and visitors will immediately comply with requests to stop behavior that is not consistent with these expectations and/or policies.
Complaint Procedure and Assurances
We encourage all attendees and staff to raise their concerns with one of the organizers if they experience or witness behaviors that do align with these expectations. Additionally, during the meeting, we will activate an anonymous form on the conference website where complaints can be submitted.
In response to reports of perceived violations of these policies, the organizing committee will promptly investigate and take any appropriate corrective action. All reports will be kept confidential by the organizing committee, but complete confidentiality is not guaranteed.
The organizing committee also prohibits any form of retaliation for good faith reporting as described in these expectations, for participating in any investigation or resolution of such reports, or for testifying or assisting in any proceedings related to such reports.
Moreover, all attendees are also able to a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the Health and Human Service via their webpage https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/filing-a-complaint/index.html.
Also, all attendees can notify the NIH about concerns of harassment, including sexual harassment, discrimination, and any other forms of inappropriate conduct at this conference via their webpage https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/harassment/find-help.htm