OPINION
Student-professor sex not black and white issue
Li a Salciccia
In a rule-crazy society such as
ours, even love can he legis
lated
Or can it?
I'm talking about rules that
have been popping up on col
lege campuses all over the coun
try — Harvard. Amherst. Stan
ford and Oberlin. for example.
The rules, in essence, tell pro
fessors that hoinking their stu
dents is a big no-no. Hesitating
to use childish, blunt phrasing
as I have done, the policy-mak
ers call these rules ''non-frater
nization.”
Welcome to the 1990s. a time
when everyone agrees that pow
er inequalities exist, but nobody
agrees on how to solve thorn.
Hence, the policy-makers go
crazy and try to legislate every
thing from the nature of a frush
mnn-to-freshman iexual
encounter to who a professor
can boink.
I've got mixed feelings about
fraternization policies. (Colum
nists generally aren't supposed
to have mixed feelings because
that would fail to substantiate
the popular media trend of por
traying every issue in black and
white terms, but let 's do it any
way.)
On one hand, the policies
exist to protect potential sexual
harassment victims In the uni
versity context, a male professor
— reinforced in his power role
hv his tenure, his maleness
(which gives him acc ess to the
"old boy’s network"), and by the
sheer amount of work and expe
rience which allowed him to got
there — could use his position
to get what he wants from
female students — namely, sex.
In turn, the female student
feels inferior to such a pillar of
academia, and she feels she can
not turn away his advances
because it may jeopardize her
decidedly more tenuous posi
tion.
If she is a former victim of
sexual abuse, she may be carry
ing around feelings of inferiority
already that, when played upon
by the professor, compel her to
accept his advances. Rules
against fraternization would
hold a professor accountable for
his actions, especially if the
harassed says it was harassment
and the harasser says it was just
a hoink.
Here’s an oxample of a profes
sor who is so full of himself that
he does not even see his own
chauvinism or potential for
manipulation: "I have been the
subject of advances from male
and female students for 25
veers I've had them come at me
right and left I've had people
take their clothes off in my
office And there is a particular
kind of student I have respond
ed to.
"I am not defending Don
(nanism, you know, sex for
grades and so forth But there is
a kind of student I've come
across in my career who was
working through something that
only a professor could help her
with I'm talking about a female
student who, for one reason or
another, has unnaturally pro
longed her virginitv. Maybe
there's a strong father, maybe
there's a religious background.
And if she loses that virginity
with a man who is not a teat her.
she's going to marry that man.
boom.
"And I don't think the mar
riage is going to be very good.
These relationships . can be
quite beautiful and and genuine
ly transforming. It's very pow
erful sexually and psychologi
cally, and because of that power,
one can touch a student in a
very positive way."
That passage, from Amherst
Professor William Kerrigan,
offends me on a variety of levels
First, the notion of the helpless
female who will be trapped in a
sexually and mentally unsatisfy
ing marriage unless a professor
(a real man) can show her the
way with no strings attached is
archaic and sexist.
Second, the idea that an edu
rated female student would pro
long her virginity for a col luge
professor |i oupltul with a men
tal picture of the professors I
know! is rather hilarious
Third, the idea that any one
man i an presume to know what
women want in the bedroom has
been proven wrong in countless
ImmIrooms around the globe.
Ffut there is a flip side to this
issue Let's assume that not all
professors who wont to boink
their students are pigs. What if a
legitimate, equal, < aring and dis
creet relationship evolves
between a professor and a stu
dent' What if those two are hap
py' Do the bureaucrats have a
right to intervene'
I am willing to believe that
there is that one-in-n-million
case where a professor and a
student are happy together, with
no harassment involved Sexual
harassment by law is "unwanted
sexual attention." So if both par
ties want it. it seems unfair to
make laws to tell them they just
can't sleep together
Also, legislating this type of
romance leads to the assump
tion that female students are
powerless against the advances
of a professor. In some cases
they are. and in some, they have
a choice. In a decade that
claims, among other things, to
he empowering to women,
maybe it's time to advocate
choices — namely, the choice to
tell a harasxer to go to hell. Hut a
rule cannot differentiate
between ih»* two choices.
What's most wrong about
making this type of rule is that it
doesn't treat the root of the prob
lem It is an attempt to save a
university's butt from costly
lawsuits.
It’s like telling a < hild they
can't eat sugar but not why sug
ar is had for them It's putting a
band-aid atop a gushing so< nil
wound It s the easy way out for
an administration that doesn't
want to develop a comprehen
sive sexual harassment policy
that conforms to federal policy
and involves speedy, reliable
means for complaint, investiga
tion and just punishment.
It's probably a bad idea for a
woman to sleep with anyone
who has exercisable power over
her. Vet. by that definition,
women shouldn't sleep with
men at all. So I'll try again. It's
not a good idea for women to
become involved with their
male professors, their bosses,
their psychiatrists, their law yers
or their doctors if the relation
ship poses a threat of power
inequality, especially if the
power inequality < an he used
against them.
Men wlio use positions of
power over women to get a
quick hoink should be held
accountable for their deplorable
actions and tie fired.
I.iii Salt in hi is a columnist
for the Emerald.
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