New school policy forbids professor-student relations

No longer may students and faculty members engage in romantic relationships, according to a new Consensual Relationship Policy passed by the faculty at the end of last semester.“Colorado College prohibits all sexual or amorous relationships between members of the faculty and students,” reads an October draft of the policy. “Because of their inherent power differential, such relationships are fraught with possibilities for abuse.”The new rules state that faculty members who violate the policy will face consequences “up to and including dismissal.” The policy also requires that faculty members having relationships with other faculty under their authority report the relationship and remove their supervisory role. Prior to now, CC had no explicit policy regarding consensual relationships.Heather Horton, CC Sexual Assault Response Coordinator and Psychologist, believes that the new policy is necessary for the campus to keep relationships from beginning that have the potential to become problematic. She said she has had students come to talk to her about incidents with faculty, including relationships that began as consensual but later became troubling and complicated. She also said she knows of problems with faculty/student relationships both in which official complaints have and have not been filed.Horton said that it is difficult to understand the scope of scope of faculty/student relationships and related problems because they are little reported.“I don’t think I have a sense of how prevalent they are,” she said. “What comes through my door is a sampling.”Discussion about whether CC should have a policy governing faculty/student relationships has been underway for years. When legal counsel Chris Melcher came to the school in 2006, the then-chair of CC’s Women’s Concerns Committee approached him to discuss the need to create a consensual relationship policy. For the next several years, the committee worked to develop a draft form with Melcher’s legal guidance, looking to schools with existing policies for guidance.“It’s to protect the students, essentially, from possible predatory practices by people who would be perceived to have authority,” said Terri Akse, the Women’s Concerns Committee Staff Co-Chair.Akse said that the school had faced several lawsuits throughout the years regarding relationships involving faculty, staff and students.David Weddle, Chair of the Governance Subcommittee of the Faculty Executive Committee, said that an official school line on relationships was one area in which CC was lacking.“All of our peer schools have some kind of statement regarding consensual relationships,” he said. “We felt it was long past due that we had a policy governing faculty.”The Women’s Concerns Committee and Faculty Executive Committee decided on a draft policy last year. The policy came before the faculty just before winter break last semester where, after a few changes were made, it was unanimously approved. The official version is in the process of being finalized within the President’s office.Members of the Faculty Executive Committee denied that the policy was a result of any particular instance of misconduct.“Every law has a history, but I don’t have any specific cases,” Weddle said.Melcher said the new policy is important to protect the school from possible legal problems.“From a legal perspective, it certainly helps to reduce the risk of misunderstandings, the risk of interactions that one person doesn’t welcome,” Melcher said. “It helps to maintain the integrity of the teaching relationship.”Currently the CC Faculty Handbook and the Pathfinder Student Handbook prohibit sexual harassment by or against school employees and students. Neither bans or discourages any consensual relationships, but cautions that such relationships can become problematic.“Although sexual harassment involves sexual conduct that is unwelcome, employees [and students] should understand that even consensual sexual relations may lead to complaints that the policy has been violated where one party to the relationship has power or authority over the other, one party no longer wishes to continue the relationship, actual or potential abuse exists in the relationship, or where third parties not involved in the relationship believe it is affecting their own employment environment,” both handbooks read.The next version of the Faculty Handbook will be updated to include the new Consensual Relations policy.“Faculty” defines anyone who has a letter of appointment to a department or program for the purpose of teaching classes, and includes both full-time and part-time employees. There has been debate, however, as to how CC should handle relationships between students and staff, which includes employees of varying positions and ages.The school Staff Council has been working to draft a consensual relationships policy similar to that of the faculty, but is exploring a tempered version. Rather than expressly outlaw relationships, the council has been discussing using wording of “strongly discourage.”Joseph Sharman, a Co-Chair of Staff Council, said it is more complicated to evaluate relationships between students and staff, because staff includes employees such as paraprofs, who are close in age to students. He emphasized, however, a concern for relationships in which one party holds power over the other.“Nobody is going to get on the paraprof for having a relationship with a student- unless, of course, that paraprof is grading a student’s papers,” said Sharman.Sharman said that at least one staff member had been fired over a relationship with a student, even without a policy in place, though Melcher said he was unaware of such an incident. Once the new policy is passed, despite the lack of outright prohibition, staff will still be face possible repercussions for relationships deemed inappropriate.“It’s legally a little more difficult to draw a clear line, but can staff be subject to consequences? Absolutely,” said Melcher. He said that instances in which a staff relationship involved harassment, favoritism, treatment of other individuals differently or abuse of college resources certainly would be punished. He also emphasized that the staff policy has not been finalized or passed yet, and could become more strict in its wording.Once the policy is completed the staff will vote on it, likely before the end of the semester.Horton said the new policies will help improve the atmosphere of the school.“I’ve heard of relationships like this that are very problematic,” she said. “It probably does have a significant impact.”In the relationship, or where third parties not involved in the relationship believe it is affecting their own employment environment,” both handbooks read.The next version of the Faculty Handbook will be updated to include the new Consensual Relations policy.“Faculty” defines anyone who has a letter of appointment to a department or program for the purpose of teaching classes and includes both full-time and part-time employees.There has been debate, however, as to how CC should handle relationships between students and staff, which includes employees of varying positions and ages.The school Staff Council has been working to draft a consensual relationships policy similar to that of the faculty, but is exploring a tempered version. Rather than expressly outlaw relationships, the council has been discussing using wording of “strongly discourage.”Joseph Sharman, a Co-Chair of the Staff Council, said it is more complicated to evaluate relationships between students and staff, because staff includes employees such as paraprofs, who are close in age to students. He emphasized, however, a concern for relationships in which one party holds power over the other.“Nobody is going to get on the paraprof for having a relationship with a student- unless, of course, that paraprof is grading a student’s papers,” said Sharman.Sharman said that at least one staff member had been fired over a relationship with a student, even without a policy in place, though Melcher said he was unaware of such an incident. Once the new policy is passed, despite the lack of outright prohibition, staff will still face possible repercussions for relationships deemed inappropriate.“It’s legally a little more difficult to draw a clear line, but can staff be subject to consequences? Absolutely,” said Melcher. He said that instances in which a staff relationship involved harassment, favoritism, treatment of other individuals differently or abuse of college resources certainly would be punished. He also emphasized that the staff policy has not been finalized or passed yet, and could become more strict in its wording.Once the policy is completed the staff will vote on it, likely before the end of the semester.Horton said the new policies will help improve the atmosphere of the school.“I’ve heard of relationships like this that are very problematic,” she said. “It probably does have a significant impact.”