Rights and Responsibilities Relative to Relationships with Students
Belmont’s faculty and staff have the right and, in many cases, even the responsibility to maintain congenial relationships of a professional nature with students. Such relationships often enhance the educational processes of the university.
The university also recognizes that faculty and staff have a right to have personal relationships with their students that are mutually desired. Such relationships can also occur between faculty and staff supervisors and those who report to them.
However, members of the faculty and staff must avoid any conduct with Belmont students or other Belmont employees that would constitute immoral conduct on the part of the faculty or staff member, or would represent a professional conflict of interest for the employee (e.g., dating a student who is in one’s class; dating a person that one supervises).
Romantic relations between faculty members and students or
supervisors and those who report to them do not necessarily involve
sexual harassment. However, the power faculty members exercise in
evaluating students’ work, awarding grades, providing
recommendations and the like will generally constrain a
student’s actual freedom to choose whether to enter into
a romantic relationship with a faculty member. Similarly, the power
supervisors exercise over the terms and conditions of their
subordinate’s employment will constrain the
employee’s freedom of choice. Where such power
differentials exist, it may be exceedingly difficult to defend
against a charge of sexual harassment on the grounds that the
relationship was consensual. In internal proceedings, the
university generally will be unsympathetic to a defense based on
consent when the facts establish that the accused had the power to
affect the complainant’s academic or employment status or
future prospects. Even genuinely consensual relationships between
faculty or staff and students and between supervisors and those who
report to them may be problematic. For example, they may result in
favoritism or perceptions of favoritism that adversely affect the
learning or work environment. Consensual relationships involving a
power differential, therefore, may violate university policy and
equal opportunity law. All university employees are expected to
exercise good judgment and avoid such relationships. Failure to
exercise good judgment may result in disciplinary action such as
formal reprimand or suspension, or depending on the gravity and
nature of the incident, it may be cause for discharge.
