As the professor passed out the graded papers I noticed that one of my classmate’s had a note that read, “meet me after class in my office.” I could not help but think that my professor’s office hours were still two days away, and he was usually pretty rigid about students visiting him otherwise. It seemed unusual, as though something more than just what appeared on the surface was going on.

Relationships are a valued treasure that societies encourage. It is said that interaction between human beings is essential to maintaining sanity. In an educational environment relationships are established everyday. Specifically, students and professors are required to interact with one another so that the students can learn the material provided. It is believed that building a comfortable relationship is essential in building an ideal learning community. Making students more comfortable allows their minds to feel at ease and therefore grasp the knowledge with more effectiveness.

However, in some cases relationships between students and professors become too comfortable, and can reach the point of inappropriate behavior. For example, in February of 2010, a 37-year-old teacher and her 15-year-old student were found having run away together. In this case, the teacher had completely crossed the line and created a relationship that affected the relationships of teachers and students in the whole district.

In reality, few students actually admit to having or even knowing of cases where these inappropriate relationships develop. In some cases, the professor will be at fault and would be the one considered being unprofessional.

It has been heard of that some of these professors have used their authoritative positions to achieve a sexual level of intimacy with a student, and in return, the professor would award a student with a better grade. In other cases, the student uses their body is a way to seduce professors to achieve the grade they want. In both of these cases, a lingering variable remains: favoritism. If such relationships are occurring within a classroom some students might have the advantage of easy grading, excuses on assignments and scaling of grades.

Although all of these negative relationships have scarred the eyes of society in regards to how people may see relationships between students and professors, some relationships do occur without the negative effects and consequences.

The question really is where do we as a society draw the line? Where is the appropriate level of intimacy between the two groups? On the other side of the bar where do we intervene because there is no relationship at all? It seems that society has been very interested in overabundance of contact between the groups, but how about those who have been suffering with limited or restrained relationships because of fear? Is society missing opportunities to form life-changing relationships for fear these relationships will become an overabundance of contact?

Like the case with my classmate, it is sometimes hard to determine where we draw the line. Although these tasks seem difficult it is important that schools and colleges set firm policies in regards to inappropriate behaviors. I feel that schools should invest more time in determining the level of intimacy they want their professors and students to be having. More time and effort should be used to research the interactions between both groups in each individual school. Like I mentioned before, making students more comfortable with their professors, allows their minds to feel at ease and therefore grasp the knowledge with more effectiveness.

At the University of Massachusetts, the faculty handbook is somewhat ambiguous on the definitions of what is appropriate and what is not. In Ch. 5 – selected university policies, under the Code of Professional Ethics for the Faculty it states, “They respect the confidential nature of the relationship between professor and student. They avoid any exploitation of students, staff, colleagues and others for their private professional advantage and acknowledge significant assistance from them.” There is no other statement within the Guide concerning the topic. I think it is unfortunate that a school as big as the UMass does not have a policy concerning inappropriate relationships between professors and students. As well as examining their school to see where they stand with policies, I feel that schools must concentrate on enforcing them. Many of these inappropriate relationships occur in schools and the schools do not even realize it.

If our society believes so much in justice, we must start cracking down on the school systems and removing one by one the relationships that our ruining our education system. I would hope that by the schools enforcing their policies and helping to remove the problem of inappropriate behavior and unprofessionalism it will open a door to a new stage in education allowing for students to feel that school is truly a home.

By doing these things and informing societies of past cases, society can prevent itself from having the same negative relationships form.

Aline DeSouza is a UMass student. She can be reached at [email protected].