UVA Faculty Debates Question Of Student and Faculty Dating

Next week, professors at the University of Virginia will decide whether or not they can date students.

It is not a simple issue to consider. The announcement last month of the school's new proposed legislation--the most restrictive in the country--has set off a string of debates among students and faculty at the school about the fairness of such limitations and the feasibility of enforcement.

At Harvard, the written rule is clear, the unspoken more ambiguous. The University officially forbids relationships between teachers and their students. This includes students' amorous ties with professors, teaching fellows, course assistants, administrators, tutors, proctors and prefects.

"The latest word is 'don't,'" said Susan Lonoff, associate director of the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. "Harvard has one of the strictest policies [about teacher-student ties]."

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences's rules on unprofessional conduct state that "officers and other members of the teaching staff should be aware that any romantic involvement with their students makes them liable for formal action against them."

The main reason for these regulations, both the report and several administrators say, is that there are inherent power discrepancies between students and persons in positions of authority.

"Implicit in the idea of professionalism is the recognition by those in positions of authority that in their relationships with students or staff there is always an element of power," states the report.

"There is an imbalance of power between a faculty member and a student over whom he or she has direct supervision," said Sheldon E. Steinbach, general counsel of the American Council on Education. "This warrants the implementation of some kind of guidance."

In general, people inside and outside of academia agree that teachers shouldn't date students in their classes. But the University of Virginia proposal goes farther, seeking to restrict teachers from having romantic liaisons with any undergraduates.

At Harvard, restrictions on such relationships are unclear.

The Faculty's guidelines state, "Amorous relationships between members of the faculty and students that occur outside the instructional context can...lead to difficulties," but as yet. Harvard does not forbid these liaisons by the letter of the law.

"We don't list acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior because it would be inefficient and a little insulting," said Special Assistant to the Dean of Harvard College Virginia L. MacKay-Smith '78. "But there is a whole range of remedies and responses when these come up; the main concern is the welfare of the student."

MacKay-Smith said that although teachers must rely on their own judgment to follow general University guidelines, if a romantic relationship situation is brought to the University, the administration will be the final judge.

The difference between the University of Virginia and Harvard, said MacKay-Smith, is that Virginia is trying to pass a plan that will be very specific.

"We don't want to specify," she said. "We want everyone to be paying attention to the underlying principle."

Steinbach said in all universities the issue of relationships between faculty and students is also necessarily tied to the issue of sexual harassment.

"The bottom line is that the University is against sexual harassment," said MacKay-Smith. "A personal relationship opens up the possibility for widespread misinterpretation and abuse."

The same policies that exist for professors are also valid for tutors in the houses, according Deborah Foster, senior tutor at Currier House and lecturer in folklore and mythology.

"Under no circumstances must a resident tutor be involved in any way with a student," said Foster. "It's an unequal power equation, and it's inappropriate."

Foster said if a relationship between a tutor and student does arise, the tutor is normally asked to leave.

"It's very well known that this is not acceptable," said Foster. "You can't regulate human emotion, but it's very important to have protection for the student who has no power in this kind of scenario."

Warburg Emeritus Professor of Economics John Kenneth Galbraith likely had no idea that student-faculty relationships would become such a hot issue today, 55 years after he started a relationship with a student while he was professor of economics at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

"I fell in love with a young female student," Galbraith wrote in a 1983 letter to then-Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky, published in Galbraith's 1986 book A View From the Stands. "A not wholly unpredictable consequence of this lapse from faculty and professional decorum, as now required, was that we were married.

In general, people inside and outside of academia agree that teachers shouldn't date students in their classes. But the University of Virginia proposal goes farther, seeking to restrict teachers from having romantic liaisons with any undergraduates.

At Harvard, restrictions on such relationships are unclear.

The Faculty's guidelines state, "Amorous relationships between members of the faculty and students that occur outside the instructional context can...lead to difficulties," but as yet. Harvard does not forbid these liaisons by the letter of the law.

"We don't list acceptable behavior and unacceptable behavior because it would be inefficient and a little insulting," said Special Assistant to the Dean of Harvard College Virginia L. MacKay-Smith '78. "But there is a whole range of remedies and responses when these come up; the main concern is the welfare of the student."

MacKay-Smith said that although teachers must rely on their own judgment to follow general University guidelines, if a romantic relationship situation is brought to the University, the administration will be the final judge.

The difference between the University of Virginia and Harvard, said MacKay-Smith, is that Virginia is trying to pass a plan that will be very specific.

"We don't want to specify," she said. "We want everyone to be paying attention to the underlying principle."

Steinbach said in all universities the issue of relationships between faculty and students is also necessarily tied to the issue of sexual harassment.

"The bottom line is that the University is against sexual harassment," said MacKay-Smith. "A personal relationship opens up the possibility for widespread misinterpretation and abuse."

The same policies that exist for professors are also valid for tutors in the houses, according Deborah Foster, senior tutor at Currier House and lecturer in folklore and mythology.

"Under no circumstances must a resident tutor be involved in any way with a student," said Foster. "It's an unequal power equation, and it's inappropriate."

Foster said if a relationship between a tutor and student does arise, the tutor is normally asked to leave.

"It's very well known that this is not acceptable," said Foster. "You can't regulate human emotion, but it's very important to have protection for the student who has no power in this kind of scenario."

Warburg Emeritus Professor of Economics John Kenneth Galbraith likely had no idea that student-faculty relationships would become such a hot issue today, 55 years after he started a relationship with a student while he was professor of economics at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

"I fell in love with a young female student," Galbraith wrote in a 1983 letter to then-Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky, published in Galbraith's 1986 book A View From the Stands. "A not wholly unpredictable consequence of this lapse from faculty and professional decorum, as now required, was that we were married.