[WASHINGTONPOST] Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences will join a small but growing number of colleges formally banning sexual relationships between professors and undergraduate students, Bloomberg reported Thursday.The story quoted the Harvard history professor who headed the panel that wrote the policy, Alison Johnson: “Undergraduates come to college to learn from us. We’re not here to have sexual or romantic relationships with them.”
Harvard provided a brief and decidedly unsexy statement: “As part of a formal process to review Harvard University’s Title IX policy, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures, led by Professor Alison Johnson, determined that the existing language on relationships of unequal status did not explicitly reflect the faculty’s expectations of what constituted an appropriate relationship between undergraduate students and faculty members. Therefore, the Committee revised the policy to include a clear prohibition to better accord with these expectations.”
Fifty years ago that was the norm. There were also girls' and boys' dormitories and visiting restrictions between the two. There was a considerable amount of silliness that went on, along with a certain amount of breeding, but the grownups were at least making an attempt to control it. Nobody was squalling about a "culture of rape" on campuses.
There aren't many relationships more unequal that teacher-student, nor many more susceptible to abuse. Maybe politician-intern, but that would certainly be a rarity, wouldn't it.