What Price Romance?
Love affairs between
students and teachers
can be a risky business
It’s taboo,” says a recent University of
Massachusetts graduate, "almost like
incest.” Pepperdine University adjunct
Prof Allen Weiner agrees: "Students are
forbidden fruit." There you have it, from
both sides. Teacher, thou shalt not sleep
with thy students; students, thou shalt not
seduce thy teachers.
So go the proscriptions—yet student
teacher sex remains a troublesome reality
It’s perhaps only natural that true love
often runs its course in the wake of pas
sionate intellectual exchange; in an ideal
world, it shouldn't really matter, as long as
both parties consent But can there be a
truly consensual relationship when one
party holds most of the power? At the very
least, asks J. Claude Evans, assistant pro
fessor of philosophy of Washington Univer
sity in St I>ouis, "How could you grade
somebody you're involved with?"
Given the surreptitious nature of stu
dent-teacher romances, it’s difficult toesti
mate just how often they occur But there
are a few scattered indications that it may
be more frequent than generally thought
A University of Missouri, Columbia, study
published in 1986 found that male profes
sors had made passes at nearly one-third of
the female psychology grad students. One
in six students said she had had sex with a
faculty member, who was usually a re
search adviser; in 28 percent of those rela
tionships. the student felt coerced The
frequency of homosexual relationships,
meanwhile, can only be surmised—but
some gay teachers, sensitive about fears
they will convert the young to their sexual
preference, say they’re extremely cautious
about involvement with students
Now that sexual harassment has be
come a more actionable complaint (boxi,
some schools are trying to outlaw student
teacher sex For the most part their efforts
hi\ve fizzled Lust spring the University of
California system rejected a bun thut
would have forbidden faculty from "en
gaging in a romantic or sexuul relation
ship with a student under circumstances
which compromise student-faculty rela
tionships.” Another failed attempt, at the
University of Texas, Arlington, would
have made any romantic involvement
w ith a student a "serious breach of profes
sional ethics for faculty." In the view of
Robert King, dean of the College of Liberal
ILLUSTRATION BY HARNKTT R(X)T
Almost like Incost’: The extracurricular taboo
Arts at Texas, Austin, adopting such pro
hibitions "would be about as effective as
having a policy against sin."
Folks view the matter differently in the
City of Brotherly Ixive At the University of
Pennsylvania, the faculty adopted sweep
ing measures in 1985 to curtail student
teacher dating. Sexuul relations between
student and teacher were deemed "inap
propriate." The policy second-guesses the
lovers: "What might appear to be consensu
al, even to the parties involved, may in
fact not be so.” If teacher and student
have sexual relations while the faculty
member is teaching the student, any com
plaint of sexual harassment will be pre
sumed valid. The statement condudesomi
nously: "any teacher enters at peril into
sexual relations with a student.”
Like a wormy apple, the official respon
sibility for intrascholastic love affairs
most often lands on the teacher’s desk
Students, younger and presumably less
experienced, may be immensely flattered
by attention from a respected author
ity figure and unable to differenti
ate gratitude from attraction. On the oth
er side of the lectern, professors argue
that they, too, can be
manipulated. Peter Fa
varo, who teaches psy
chology and computer
science at New York's
Hofstra University, says
he's propositioned about
once a year by females
who say they would "do
anything for an A."
Jennifer admits to
flirting first. "I'd always
been intrigued by the
idea of dating a profes
sor,” she says. Jennifer, a
recent graduate of UT,
Austin, was fond of
her liberal-arts profes
sor’s "sexy” voice and
even his paunch. She be
gan smiling at him across
the room, and he smiled
back. They finally went
out for drinks with
another student-faculty
pair. That night they
kissed. After 10 minutes,
the professor broke off
theembrace—and the re
lationship. Recalls Jen
nifer: "He said, 'The
first thing is, I don’t
know you very well. The
second thing is, you’re a
student. I’d be too influ
enced . I ha ve to give you a
grade at the end of the
semester’.”
Dirty old protossor':
Whether an adventure
lasts 10 minutes or one term, social pres
sure can be tremendous. "I fear hearing,
'That dirty old professor, he’s out dating
students’,” says a University of Houston
professor. Kathleen Kupper, a UCLA grad
uate who married her thesis adviser, re
members her mortification in front of her
peers: "You get downcast eyes and giggles.”
The professional penalties can be
far more severe. Jonathan Hird, wom
en’s cross-country coach at Brown, says
he was "not rehired” for a part-time posi
tion at the school apparently because he
dated one of his athletes. Three years
later, after she married him and graduat
ed, Hird was offered a full-time position.
"The athletic director as much as told me
that he was happier when she and I got
married," says Hird.
Sometimes love does find a way, but the
Hirdsare probably lucky exceptions. Steve
Brackney, a student at Houston who mar
ried his Spanish instructor, says, "It’s not