To the Editor:
I am writing in response to the article "Universities pass prof.-student sex regulations" from April 18, 2002. I would like to point out that concerns about student-professor relationships are not simply a matter of academic integrity, nor do they affect only the consenting parties. Student-professor relationships communicate to the student body that the professor views his or her students not only as intellectuals, but as possible dating partners. For every relationship that takes place, it is not difficult to imagine that there were also unreciprocated advances on the part of the professor towards other students. While these advances may not seem serious enough to lodge a complaint, or may even appear flattering, they change the character of future interactions. Even in cases where no explicit overture has been made, knowledge of such a relationship within the community may leave other students wondering whether attention paid to them was a result of intellectual respect or sexual attraction.
As the article pointed out, these relationships are most often between male professors and female students. Not only is the morality of such a relationship questionable because it places the female student in a subordinate position, it must also be put in the context of a world where many women still struggle to be seen as professionals first and women second. Thus, if it is known that a male professor has carried on a relationship with one female student, it casts suspicion on his interactions with other students as well. Unfortunately, this suspicion often raises more questions about a female student's academic reputation than a male professor's personal reputation.
Turning a blind eye to professor-student relationships implicitly sanctions the behavior and places the onus on the student, already in a subordinate position, to challenge that norm through a process of complaint. While I realize that penalizing such behavior may be perceived as an infringement on the rights of individuals to conduct their private lives as they see fit, it is not only the lives of the individuals at stake, but the health of the community as well.
