This Is Why Harvard Banned Professors From Sleeping With Students

Harvard joins several other schools with a similar ban, including Yale and the University of Connecticut. (Photo: Allie_Caulfield/Flickr)

This week, Harvard University announced the implementation of an official campus-wide ban on sexual relationships between students and faculty. The prime reason: Title IX.

Title IX is the federal legislation prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education, mandating that colleges and universities be proactive in their policies to prevent such discrimination. For a school to be Title IX-compliant, it must actively take steps to prevent sexual harassment, discrimination, or violence, rather than merely responding when such instances occur.

By banning sexual relationships between students and faculty, Harvard is attempting to take a proactive stance to prevent sexual harassment and assault resulting from this unique power dynamic. (Other schools with similar bans include Yale University, the University of Connecticut, and Arizona State University.) The ban applies to relationships between faculty and undergraduates, as well as relationships between faculty and graduate students and relationships between graduate students and undergraduate students, when there is an element of supervision between the parties.

It hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing for Harvard with regard to Title IX lately. Last year, the Department of Education announced that Harvard, along with 55 other schools, was being investigated for failure to comply with the legislation (meaning the federal government found the school’s efforts and policies inadequate with regard to preventing sexual harassment and sexual assault).

And this summer, Harvard announced a new university policy regarding sexual assault on campus that was harshly criticized by Harvard Law School faculty. The key element of the new policy was the establishment of a “preponderance of the evidence” standard for school review of sexual assault allegations brought forth by students, thus creating a lower burden of proof. Law school faculty spoke out against this policy, saying it is unfairly biased against the accused.

Related: Should Sororities Host Their Own Parties to Prevent Rape?

Harvard implementing the ban on faculty-student sexual relations — including consensual relations — begs the question: How big of a problem is this, that the university feels the need to address it so explicitly? Is the university truly motivated by the urge to protect civil rights outlined in Title IX, or is it more interested in safeguarding itself from potential claims or accusations in the future?

A recent case at Northwestern University perhaps shows what Harvard is trying to guard against. A professor in the philosophy department there sued the university for defamation, gender discrimination, and invasion of privacy after a student filed a Title IX complaint against him with the university, accusing him of raping her. The student who filed the complaint said the university acted with “deliberate indifference and retaliation” after she reported her alleged assault by her professor.

Related: What’s Really Behind College ‘Rape Culture’?

The professor, in his suit, claims that he was defamed during the school’s Title IX investigation into the rape allegations; it brought to light that a graduate student had also filed a complaint against him, citing non-consensual sex following a four-month long consensual sexual relationship with him. The professor insists that false claims were made against him. An independent investigator hired by the university found the graduate student’s claims to be unsubstantiated, but did find the professor in violation of the school’s sexual harassment policy because of the inherent imbalance of power that exists between students and faculty — especially when sex and sexuality are involved.

Ultimately, the problem with professor-student relationships is about so much more than actual sex. Such relationships, many feel, inevitably taint academic recognition and achievement of female students in particular. As Rachel McKinnon, an assistant professor at the College of Charleston, explained to Slate last summer, “If a woman co-authors with a more senior man (and notice the heterosexism that we always assume heterosexual relationships), some people either explicitly or implicitly suspect that they’re in a romantic relationship, and that the senior scholar only offered to help her publish for romantic interests. This happens even if there’s no truth to it.”

Your Next Read: 13-Year-Olds Push To Change Rape Culture — Starting In Sex Ed Class