So here’s an interesting announcement coming from one of the world’s most revered educational institutions, this being 2015 and all.
Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences have now formally banned sexual relationships between professors and undergraduate students. My immediate reaction was one of shock. No, I don’t believe professors should have free reign. Rather, how has it has taken this long to enforce such a ruling?
It turns out many universities around the US have yet to ban such fraternisations, rather ‘actively discouraging’ them over blanket prohibition. To be fair, Harvard claims there is no such problem at the university but I have seen enough dirty movies to know otherwise.
Alison Johnson, a Harvard history professor who chaired the panel that wrote the policy, was quoted in the Washington Post:
We’re using this opportunity to reaffirm our priorities as teachers and to imagine what we’re seeing when we’re looking at these students, and what we’re not seeing. We’re not seeing potential romantic partners. We are seeing students…
Tough break for those who were planning on sleeping their way to good grades. They will have to do it the old fashioned way – through hard work, an intricate system of note-swapping and sexual favours to classmates.
[sources:washingtonpost&bloomberg]
