As universities change their professor-student dating policies, Tufts remains ahead of the game

Consenting adults beware: your extracurricular activities could get you fired.

Recently, universities across the country have been changing (or adding) policies addressing student-professor relationships. Most recently, Iowa State University, Syracuse University and the University of New Mexico have instituted no tolerance policies towards these relationships -- and these schools are not alone.

Tufts has had a policy against professor-student dating since 1992. The policy applies to any professor regarding any student whom he or she "instructs, evaluates, supervises, or advises, or over whom he/she is in a position to exercise authority in any way."

"Once upon a time there was no policy," said Professor Daniel Mulholland, who has been with the History department since 1968. "One used to hear long, long ago of things going on between faculty and students, but I never knew of any while they were going on, and only learned of them much later."

The University's policy states: "Faculty members and academic administrators exercise power over students, whether by teaching, grading, evaluating, or making recommendations for their further studies or their future employment. Amorous, dating, or sexual relationships between faculty members, academic administrators, and students are impermissible when the faculty members and academic administrators have professional responsibility for the student."

The policy goes on to explain some of the reasons such relationships would interfere with the role professors are meant to play: "Voluntary consent by the student in such a relationship is suspect, given the fundamental nature of the relationship. Moreover, other students may be affected by such behavior, because it places the faculty member and academic administrator in a position to favor or advance one student's interest to the potential detriment of others."

Violating the policy could result in disciplinary action, including termination, for the professor.

Junior Erin Connolly believes this type of policy is necessary: "In the college environment, it is inappropriate for there to be any type of relationship between a professor and a student other than an extremely professional one," she said.

"At the college level, there should be boundaries between a student and a teacher," Connolly added. "There are lines that shouldn't be crossed, and a physical relationship is definitely one of those lines."

Connolly touched on many concerns that the policy addresses, including bias and the fact that both parties could be in the relationship for inappropriate reasons.

"The teacher may take advantage of the student using their power, prestige, and age to attract a younger maybe more naive student," Connolly said. "The student may be pursuing the teacher for the challenge of going after someone older in a position of power with the possibility of maybe achieving a better grade."

However, there seems to be no record of any such relationships at Tufts.

Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser, who is new to his position, said, "I don't know of any [student-professor relationships], but I haven't been in a position to know."

After contacting many members of the Tufts faculty and administration including Glaser and Dean of Academic Affairs Kevin Dunn, as well as Siobhan Houton of Tufts Public Relations, Tufts Magazine editor Michele Gouveia, and Nancy Sardella, Assistant Director to Alumni Relations, no one was able to recall an instance of a professor pursuing a romantic relationship with a student.

Tufts administrators stand by their policy. "We feel it is a detrimental thing for professors to have relationships with students when they are their students," Dunn said.

Although the policies at other universities vary, there is a thread common to most schools' professor-student dating policies: of the two consenting adults who would be in breach of policy, only the professor ever seems to be punished.

"[It's] hard to think a student would be punished," Dunn said.

Junior Sarah Hoffman has been in a class where the professor was rumored to be seeing the teaching assistant romantically, but she takes many of these rumors with a grain of salt.

"There are always rumors about student-professor 'relations,' but typically they are unfounded and elaborated excessively," Hoffman said. "That is not to say they do not occur, but everyone likes to have something to gossip about."

The policy is not supported by all, however. Some students believe that the University's policy is unnecessary and intrusive.

"I feel at this age everyone should be allowed to do whatever they want as long as they respect other people," senior Eugenia Vandoros said. "The idea of a student having a relationship with a professor in general doesn't phase me, but then again it completely depends on circumstances."

Vandoros added that she would not mind being in a class with a professor who was involved with another one of the students, as long as both parties could separate personal and business life. She did acknowledge, however, that "a lot of the times, I suppose emotions might get in the way."

As for professors, the fear of penalization is certainly real. "Nowadays, everybody is scared to death to even think of such matters," Mulholland said.

Since the policy came into fruition, there have been no changes. Because there have been very few instances where the policy has been openly broken, the administration does not see this as one of its top priorities, according to Dunn.

"It's not a priority only because it's not coming up," Dunn said.