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To: glorgau

Yup...really should be ALL students.


18 posted on 02/06/2015 7:00:52 AM PST by rbg81
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To: rbg81
Yup...really should be ALL students.

I once sat on a committee at a university which examined this issue. The university had no explicit policy against professors dating students. We recommended that none be enacted. This was based on a few factors.

First, there was no evidence that this problem was common. There had only been a handful of reported incidents over a couple decades.

Second, there were already university policies concerning conflicts of interest and abuse of power which in the opinion of the university attorney were sufficiently broad to cover these situations. That opinion was supported by the previously reported incidents which used the already-existing provisions to punish wayward professors where punishment was deemed appropriate.

Third, some administrators wanted a uniform policy across the campus while others wanted different policies for undergraduates and graduates. This disagreement got heated and our committee did not want to get in the middle. So we did what all administrators do in that situation: we took the path of least resistance.

In our early discussions about the policy, the one issue that kept coming up was the age difference and relatedly, the maturity and social status of the student. In a typical undergraduate class, the professor is usually substantially older than the undergraduates with more maturity and social status. In a graduate class, it was not uncommon to have students as old or older than the professors with substantial careers already started. In my discipline, it was not uncommon for someone to graduate, work for a few years earning a high salary and respected credentials, and then come back for a graduate degree. In such a situation, the power imbalance is much less because the social statuses are much more equal and the maturity level of the student much higher. I can think of half a dozen professors who met their spouses when the spouse was a student in their class. In none of those cases, did it appear anything improper was being undertaken.

None of that affected me personally - Mrs. CommerceComet has a much more stringent policy on this than any university but she only has jurisdiction over one professor.

39 posted on 02/06/2015 8:52:51 AM PST by CommerceComet (Ignore the GOP-e. Cruz to victory in 2016.)
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