Posted on 03/08/2006 7:43:15 AM PST by FreeLuna
University human resources held a discussion forum yesterday, inviting faculty to address concerns about proposed changes to the university's policy on consensual relationships between faculty and students.
The forum was co-chaired by Larry Lewellen, associate vice president of human resources, and Allan Silverman, chair-elect of the faculty council of the University Senate.
There will not be a vote on the final version of the policy by any university groups. Human resources, however, is circulating the revised policy and facilitating feedback forums before making a final decision.
Yesterday's forum marked the third round of discussions on the policy change and highlighted the third draft of the policy since a university task force proposed the policy change in July 2005. Human resources has been making revisions to the policy after receiving feedback from the University Senate, Undergraduate Student Government and faculty.
"There has been lots of reaction," Lewellen said. "We've made quite a few changes already. We haven't reached closure on any of this today."
Faculty at the meeting voiced concerns on the notification clause in the policy change. Originally, the revised policy required that human resources be notified if a faculty member entered into any consensual relationship with a student, even in cases where the faculty member was not in a supervisory position. Some faculty were concerned with this central reporting mechanism and with the creation of records of the relationships within human resources. In response to these concerns, human resources has revised the policy to require faculty to report the relationships only to their department chairs. No notification of human resources is required and no central records will be kept.
With the adoption of the anonymous reporting line on March 1, T.K. Daniels, chair of the faculty council of the University Senate, expressed concerns that third-party reporting would be encouraged in instances of consensual relationships between faculty and students. It's a romantic police state," Daniels said. "It's even more so a police state because it can be reported anonymously."
Lewellen said the policy needs to be revised to discourage third-party reporting and that he believes this is a matter of professional ethics.
The notification mechanism of the policy also created concerns in cases of same-sex relationships.
Karen Mancel, professor of agricultural engineering, said that requiring faculty to report any conflict of interest, in a non-specific way, could ease concerns about the reporting clause.
"These relationships constitute a conflict of interest," Mancel said. "Disclosing a conflict of interest, but not describing what it is would solve some of the issues with the reporting clause."
The topic of conflicts of interests quickly turned to a discussion of ethics. The university does not have an official, universal statement on ethics.
"We need a clear statement on ethics; we really don't have one," Lewellen said. "It could be interesting to think about."
Mancel said this policy is likely to affect graduate teaching assistants and young faculty the most. "Because of their age grad students will develop relationships with undergrads," Mancel said. "I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing."
Lewellen agreed with Mancel that this policy could create a stigma surrounding relationships between graduate teaching assistants and undergraduate students, as well any other relationship between people who are both a part of the university.
"We need to manage the conflict of interest without creating a stigma," Lewellen said.
The meeting ended with Lewellen thanking the attending faculty for their input.
"This is a forum and we're getting as many ideas as possible," Lewellen said.
The next step is a similar meeting with department chairs sometime this month, followed by another revision to the policy change.
"We are in mid-process," Lewellen said. "We want to have these conversations before we redraft the policy."
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I had to check to see if this was scrappleface.
Professors: THIS IS WHY WE TOOK THE JOB IN THE FIRST PLACE - DAMMIT!!
TOTALLY SHOCKING!
Well jeez. How else are eggheads going to get women?
In case anyone else was wondering, the "O" is for "Ohio."
What about Teaching Assistants? OSU prohibiting them? I dated my Psych 101 TA after I was out of her class. I was 20...she was only 23, and in her first year of the PHD program.
I didnt think there was anything ethically wrong with it, since I didnt approach her till after the semester was over.
Yes, TA's would also be banned. There has been a growing problem in the university of predatory type of relationships where a TA or a Prof have basically used and lied to female students to get sex. Usually they are an international student who have student visas on the line.
I had a dear friend in college who dated a married professor. It was a bad choice on both their parts. However, he didn't care because he was a real co-ed hound. She, on the other hand, was deeply hurt by the experience.
To think that these meatheads(professors) have to debate and discuss this issue is ridiculous. Hands off co-eds. Simple as that.
But old habits are hard to break, ay professors?
Glad to hear that ! My middle son graduated from OSU (Oregon) a couple of years ago and his little bro wants to go there also in another couple of years.
Oregon State have lost their 'marbles' in that this year they have made the "Female Masterbation - 101" into a coed class in masterbation. One can only imagine the study group assignments. Just when you think the Universities can sink no lower, they come up with ways to sink lower into the abyss.
Nam Vet
I am all for throwin predatory geezer profs in the slam for taking advantage of young impressionable women...but, hopefully, this will looked at on a case by case basis.
Glad to hear that ! My middle son graduated from OSU (Oregon) a couple of years ago and his little bro wants to go there also in another couple of years.
Oregon State have lost their 'marbles' in that this year they have made the "Female Masterbation - 101" into a coed class in masterbation. One can only imagine the study group assignments. Just when you think the Universities can sink no lower, they come up with ways to sink lower into the abyss.
Nam Vet
Nam Vet
When I was a graduate student at the University of California back in the early '70s I don't recall any official policy on these matters. There were certainly faculty members who were involved with students, sometimes students in their classes. I recall a couple of notorious instances where senior professors became involved with quite young undergraduates.
When I was a TA, most of us had an informal policy that we wouldn't date anyone in a section we were leading. I dated a couple of girls who had been in my sections after the courses were over. The guys who did date students in their sections were considered pretty sleazy by the rest of us.
The most notorious department on campus was sociology. A young woman I knew recounted how, while having an occaisonal affair with one sociology professor with whom she was taking a class, one evening one of her other professors showed up at her apartment, saying "[X] said you were a great lay and was sure you'd be happy to get it on with me." She described how she, and others, were essentially passed around the department from professor to professor (male and female) until they were all tired of her. Sad story: she'd been in an abusive marriage, had a small child, and was really struggling to balance work and school to better herself, and the professors had the power to make aid available or see that it was witheld.
My oldest daughter wants to go to Oklahoma State U., so I was hoping this article wasn't about them! Not that there isn't some weird stuff going on in Oklahoma, too ...
Great school.
Thanks for clearing that up, Tax Chick! I thought it was referring to Oregon......and I would be completely shocked if anything like that happened here! :)
She wants to be a meteorologist.
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