Proposals clarifies policy on pre-existing relationships, forbids hooking up with a ‘mentor’
The faculty senate at the George Washington University recently proposed several additions and clarifications to the school’s policy regarding relationships between students, faculty and staff, calling for clearer and stronger language governing and prohibiting such arrangements.
The university’s current policy “establishes a zero-tolerance policy for faculty-student relationships,” The GW Hatchet reports. The proposed revisions “included a clarification about how officials should handle pre-existing relationships, which will help students and faculty understand what constitutes an unacceptable relationship and how they should report to administrators.”
The proposed addition also “instructs faculty members with a previous relationship to ‘immediately’ report the association to their superior, and administrators would then ‘promptly’ recuse the professor from their institutional responsibilities ‘in a manner that results in the least harm to the student’.” The current policy reverses that, mandating that the professor first recuse himself and then report the relationship.
The new policy “also clarifies that professors are prohibited from having relationships with anyone they may ‘coach,’ ‘mentor,’ ‘counsel,’ ‘advise’ or ’employ’.”
Faculty sifted through the policy this fall after voicing concerns to administrators in the spring that the document had been pushed through to the Board of Trustees without input from the Faculty Senate.
[Professor Jeff] Gutman said the [professional ethics and academic freedom] committee revised the policy by reviewing relationship policies at peer universities and consulting with the Office of General Council and an outside ethics group.
“The policy has a very clear and specific definition as to whose behavior is covered, teachers and staff,” he said.
Universities often have policies that prohibit relationships between students and faculty, though not all do. At Columbia University, a recent $50 million sexual harassment lawsuit revealed that that university permits students and faculty to engage in romantic and sexual relationships.
MORE: Sexual harassment lawsuit shines light on Columbia’s staff-student sex policy
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