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STAR-ADVERTISER / OCT. 2008
Students walk in front of Hawaii Hall.
The University of Hawaii revealed a new policy Tuesday that bans faculty members from having consensual romantic relationships with students in their classes.
It comes amid a national trend to prohibit professors from dating their students at schools including Harvard, Yale and Arizona State University. Many universities created the policies as the federal government urged them to boost efforts to prevent sexual assault on campus.
The Hawaii rules emerged after the school’s president created a group to review university policies across the country. The policy bans dating or sexual relationships when there is a “clear power differential” and says enforcement will be on a case-by-case basis.
“I am very pleased that we were able to convene a group of people to address something that should have been done a long time ago,” University of Hawaii President David Lassner said.
The university system has 57,000 students on 10 campuses. It came under fire two years ago when it was among dozens of schools that the U.S. Department of Education started investigating over how they handled sexual assault allegations.
Meda Chesney-Lind, a women’s studies professor at the University of Hawaii Manoa, called the rules long overdue and said they should help to curb “ugly situations” at the flagship campus.
“We’re not in the business of providing people with vulnerable students that they can sexually exploit,” said Chesney-Lind, who was part of the group that drafted the rules.
The university adopted interim rules last year to crack down on sexual assault, but they didn’t explicitly address consensual relationships between students and professors. School policy previously discouraged faculty and students from dating but didn’t prohibit it.
Many U.S. colleges have not had formal policies addressing romantic relationships between faculty and students. In recent years, schools have created rules ranging from banning professors from dating students to prohibiting it only when a professor might be grading a student.
No brainer.
So long as they’re not in a class you’re teaching, I guess anything goes.
Any teacher/professor who has a personal relationship with any of his or her students is unfit to be in a classroom in a position of trust.
Now only “booty-calls”?(!) Saves buying Coffee and Breakfast…
(since my comment is awaiting moderation, perhaps I should amend it by saying that your comment is ill-advised and uninformed.)
And by the way dear moderator: you believe a comment like “Now only “booty-calls”?(!) Saves buying Coffee and Breakfast…” is appropriate and my response may not be? Do you have children? What kinds of educational experiences do you desire for them?
Unknown criteria, but I have seen some of my comments resurrected.
Maybe you need more rosin on your bow? What’ the matter? Can’t kick the dog or the cat because they ran away? Or, is your “Bud Bundy”-inflatable–deflated? Sixty years of alleged “post-secondary academics” and I’m your only target? Maybe you should work more on your “moderato”?
Maybe you need more rosin on your bow? What’ the matter? Can’t kick the dog or the cat because they ran away? Or, is your “Bud Bundy”-inflatable–deflated? Sixty years of alleged “post-secondary academics” and I’m your only target? Maybe you should work more on your “moderato”?
Sweet!
Not surprisingly, the prior UH policy seemed to be written to accommodate the professors and administrators, not the students. There are so many things wrong with UH, it can seem almost insurmountable. From the incompetent administration, to the self serving public worker unions that guarantee mediocre to poor work performance, to the never ending money scandals, it just seems like an institution out of control.
Self indulgent administration! FromDobelle on! Thought andxstill think they are above the law! Like Billy Kenoi!
I would never date my professors. I have never run into that here at the UH. It must be very unusual.
back 36 years ago i would have………..
Maybe your professors are only dating the hotties in your classes.
Zing.
LOL
Female UH students are not immoral! And I have never even heard of a professor dating a student in my years in Manoa.
Is it immoral to date someone. That is a broad generalization. Guess it depends on what the meaning of immoral is.
very sexist remark!
Duhhh.
Any professors currently at UH Manoa who look like they could grace the covers of Esquire, GQ, Men’s Health or Muscle & Fitness?
Me
Aye Ka’va! You no should look Granma’s mirror–she nevah clean em…
They would have to get paid, and handsome, to date a troll like you….
Hmm, might be consensual.
Something you never have to worry about allie I suppose?
Sounds like a text book case of racial discrimination right. I mean why else would they not be hitting on you Allie … I can’t imagine.
I give up. Don’t know what is turning the censor on.
Are ypu kidding Allie? You may not.. But just look around Kuykendall! Chairs who married Asian women after they got to Hawaii and dumped the wives they came w! Deans! Your current Dean Not to mention the antics of the VCAA! All the foljs who sat in mertings w him while he juggled phones and sextedhis mistress! Not to mention the people who saw what he was sexting over his shoulder!And now they profess to be honorably and monogamously married! A dishonorable woman, mother of 3 forces her way into becoming supposedly
honorable w a dishonorable man! There needs to be a strongly worded moral turpitude policy that applies across the board, to faculty, staff, students! If Vroman can’t do this, he needs to resign! These are not hippie Quaker days!
They’re NOT hippie Quaker days? Does that mean I gotta quit sprinkling shrooms in my morning oatmeal?
You would think that the university’s code of behavior would have already prohibited fraternization between staff and students……
We’re taking about U.H here. Give me a break.
residenttaxpayer- You would think that, however please remember we’re in Hawaii. Things take a little longer to get here over the vast pacific ocean.
Two consenting adults– seems like the state is meddling where it shouldn’t. Nanny state strikes once again.
not nanny state…. common sense.
Would you like to share a classroom with someone who’s dating your prof? Classes need to be fair. Any claim of fairness in such a scenario would not be worth the ink it’s graded with.
But think about the possible outcomes if they break up or prof sets eyes on another lovely.
So until now it was not frowned upon by administration? What about coaches and athletes? Why was that not added as well? UH can call it the JJ Rule……..if you know what I mean?
Yes! The JJ Pillar of UH Award (as in motorway pillar!).
we students know what you mean. jj is done at the UH
No wonder girls get better grades than guys.
So you don’t think there are any female professors???
From what I heard, it’s still the girls that need to worry, even if prof/lecturer is a female.
C’mon. These are consenting adults we are talking about, not high school teachers dating illegal aged minors.
“Consent” is not consent if faculty member has power to fail student and/or other retribution for non-compliance. Happens in private sector a lot. Especially in nepotistic environments. So, if that’s where you’re coming from, I understand.
Let us hope that the next policy has to do with removing bullying administrators from their positions. VCAA Reed Dasenbrock has had a “vote of no-confidence” slapped on him by the faculty senate (for various reasons) and yet he won’t step down and the administration wont remove him. So, professors aren’t allowed to date their students but the administration protects its own when it comes to bullying, incompetent behavior!! And as for the investigation into the numerous complaints against Dasenbrock (made by faculty nearly a year ago), what happened to that? Ooohhh., that is right, the corrupt administration put former Vice President Linda Johnsrud in charge of that. What is the likelihood of her finding the UH administration at fault? Zero! UH is a disgrace at all levels.
Honeybadger, WHAT about his own immoral behaviour?! O.k. to have sex w another professor’s wife, in the office? Talk about dating?! Openly w no shame accompanying each other, while still married to Japanese embassy and consulate events, before Regents and donors? And Hinshaw o.k.’d this? Just because she, Hinshaw got trips to China? What example is the leader of academics at UH setting?
Well then, how are students suppose to make good grades now?
And how about the Vice Chancellor who had an affair with a faculty member’s wife (also a UH employee)? Wasn’t there are “power differential” there? Ask the poor faculty member who was cuckolded! Lets make policy and procedure for everyone! And, if this same VC has to oversee some of the breaches in the policy of professors dating their students, how will he undertake this. Seriously! Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
What about a certain football coach and a student vb player ?
and the baby?
Sugar Bowl Baby
yikes!
I have been involved with post-secondary academics for six decades. I’ve observed the problems that this policy seeks to address. I’ve seen the fallout and I firmly believe that nothing good can result from teacher-student romances. It’s just a bad idea and incredibly unethical. It’s ok to like your students, hope for and be an advocate for their success, but it’s just plain wrong to use a position of power as a lever in a sexual relationship. I mean really, get a clue.
agree!
About time. It should also contain a provision that anyone in a teaching capacity should also be included.
Very sad that an obviously common sense way to conduct oneself has to be imposed by a rule.
I thought it was law ” no child’s behind left alone” ???
First of all what the Heck a Professor dating a student for?? Oh! forgot! teachers or human too…. My okole! Be professional and teach, not looking to hook up with young people…
Oh NO say it isn’t so!
Now what am I going to do?
You stay young forever if you hang around young people.
What about administrators dating development officers. What was the example set by Peter Englert and Donna Vousenich? What aboutbthe current VCAA, dumping his sick wife and dating and then marrying a faculty member’s wife.what sort of example is the VCA/A setting? Make him resign right now!
Will the Women’s Studies professor, the President and whoever was on the Rules Committee, immediately ask for the VCAA’s resignation? If not their action is hypocritical and THEY and Vroman should resign! There are dirty e mails from and between the VCAA and this so called development officer, now having forced her way to wife hood floating around campus, because the development officer forwarded them and mailed them around! Is that an example to set! That is pure moral turpitude. You can enforce this legislation, ONLY, and only if VCAA, Hinshaw, Soifer and ALL who looked the other way are held accountable
No “nookie” for “A” anymore, I guess.
“The University of Hawaii revealed a new policy Tuesday that bans faculty members from having consensual romantic relationships with students in their classes.” What if they do in an off-campus location instead of “in their classes?”
Something like this may be hard to enforce but this rule is necessary as it may limit how often stuff like this happens as everyone will be aware that it is improper.
Kind of like a moral code which acts as a deterrent but of course does not stop people from violating it from time to time.
It seems to me that these situations are fairly close to a worker-supervisor relationship that can lead to claims of sexual harassment even when it may have started as a consensual relationship.
“Love conquers all” — Geoffrey Chaucer
“We’re not in the business of providing people with vulnerable students that they can sexually exploit,”
I think this is a mark of someone who has a warped view of human relationships, one which she has apparently made an academic career out of.
I can understand how a relationship might compromise the appearance of integrity in grading, for example, but to put it in these terms tells us volumes about the world view of the person making the statement.
In any case, there are any number of other kinds of relationships that could compromise grading etc, such as being from the same family, say a mother professor and a student son.
It seems that many of the comments here are made by faculty at UH. By the elementary content expressed, it is obvious that faculty positions in “higher” education does not equate to higher mentality or morals. This the need for rules such as this one.