The Emerald on Monday reported an account of an undergraduate students’ six-month romantic relationship with a professor who was 30 years older than she (“University rules of academic attraction,” ODE Feb. 27). The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, described her initial excitement to discover her feelings weren’t one-sided. She ended the relationship because it wasn’t going anywhere long term, but she said the breakup was amicable.
This student detailed a generally positive experience dating her professor. But what happens if romantic relationships between students and their instructors turns ugly?
It is difficult to gauge how often such relationships occur and on what terms most end. What is clear, however, is that student-faculty relationships can represent a serious power imbalance and conflict of interest.
Further, the University needs to more closely regulate these interactions.
The University’s Faculty Handbook does not forbid such relationships, but it requires instructors who are sexually involved with students they teach to report the relationship to their academic department so the student may be reassigned. This policy rightly allows both parties to avoid real or imagined conflicts of interest in regard to grading or other academic favoritism.
Allowing students to date professors when they are not taking classes from that instructor should continue to be acceptable; these relationships may naturally arise in the close quarters of a university setting.
However, the current policy is too vague and defines conflicts of interest too narrowly. A student buying a professor drinks after work, or vice versa, certainly appears just as improper as a sexual relationship. Moreover, limiting conflicts to sexual relationships opens the door to Clinton-esque, ambiguous definitions of sexual activity. The faculty handbook should be revised to apply to any relationships University officials determine are non-professional between students and instructors.
The University should also take significant steps to publicize this policy. Many students and graduate teaching fellows remain unaware of what constitutes a conflict of interest or what action they should take to remedy conflicts that arise. This poses a more serious risk than having a vague policy. To remedy this situation, incoming freshmen should learn about the policy during IntroDUCKtion and other initiation events. GTFs should similarly learn about it during orientation.
Although keeping records of people who report conflicts of interest may seem counter-intuitive to some because people who make the reports are just “doing their jobs,” the University should keep records of the frequency of incidents as well. This would help instruct future policy changes.
These moves would help protect both students and instructors from real or perceived conflicts that could damage their reputations or the image of the University.