Assessing Affairs of the Heart

Had Warburg Professor of Economics John Kenneth Galbraith met his wife today, they probably would never have tied the knot.

Under the present Harvard regulations for sexual harassment, relationships between students and their professors are completely off limits--including the one that launched the courtship and marriage between Galbraith and his wife 55 years ago.

"We liked each other and were interested in the same things," Catherine M. Galbraith '36 says. "I never felt harassed...In the olden days, people had better manners."

But the "olden days" are over, and as sexual harassment remains a serious problem nationwide, debates about the restriction of faculty-student relationships have drawn considerable attention.

Harvard has one of the oldest policy statements on sexual harassment and unprofessional conduct among colleges nationwide, and it has set an example for policies on many other campuses.

Harvard's policy prohibits amorous relationships that occur between any teacher or officer of the University and any student over whom the person holds a position of power, even when there is consent at the outset. It also strongly discourages romantic relationships between students and teachers that occur out of the instructional context.

In March, the University of Virginiatried to ban all romantic relationships--even "overtures"--among professors and all students at the university.

The proposal did not pass, and Virginia adopted a less-restrictive policy similar to Harvard's. But the attempt set off a string of nationwide debates about the legitimacy of relationships between students and teachers.

The basis for these regulations is that there is an inherently unequal power relationship between faculty members and students which can lead to difficulties both inside and outside of the classroom.

Administrators, professors and students, however, appear to have different ideas about the murky line between a friendly coffee break to discuss math problems and a private rendezvous that oversteps the boundaries of professional conduct.

"Any relationship between an official and a student is asymmetric in nature," says Assistant Dean for Co-Education Virginia L. MacKay-Smith '78. "A personal relationship [between a students and his or her professor] opens up the possibility for widespread misinterpretation and abuse."

Even when there appears to be mutual consent between the two parties, administrators say an unequal power relationship still exists.

"There can be no consentual relationship when there is an asymmetrical relationship," says Margot N. Gill, dean for student affairs in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. "Because there is a hierarchical relationship and one party is responsible for judging the work of another, the parties can never predict when that relationship will go sour...this inevitably creates a bias."

Despite the restrictions, however, neither students nor administrators deny that there are many "illicit" relationships on campus.

"We know it exists here," says Joseph J. McCarthy, assistant dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for academic planning. "There's a lot of it going on."

The Coordinating Committee on Sexual Harassment's report for 1991-92, which discloses the number of reported sexual harassment cases in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, indicates that in the last academic year, undergraduates filed two formal complaints against instructors or officers and one informal complaint, and made three requests for direct advice, Gill says.

In the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences there were four formal complaints against officers or instructors, no requests for informal intervention, and four requests for direct advice.

"My belief is that it happens more at the graduate school level because [professors and students] are closer in age," says McCarthy.

Many victims of harassment in the classroom are reluctant to discuss their experiences with anybody, let alone bring their experiences out into the open. Especially in relationships between teaching fellows and students, where there is a fine line between the perception and the reality of sexual harassment, students tend to keep problems to themselves.

One woman, who filed an official sexual harassment suit with the College against her math preceptor last year, says she still prefers not to talk about the incident, which she hopes to place behind her. But the accused instructor, math preceptor Otto K. Bretscher, says the allegations brought against him during the spring of 1992 were unfounded.

Bretscher says that although he became well-acquainted with the student, he only had a professional relationship with her.

"There was no discussion of any sexual kind between the woman and me," he says.

Bretscher says he does not agree with the University-wide rules banning relations between faculty and their students because the guidelines place a strain on the professional interaction.

"It should be possible to have dinner with a student and to talk about personal things," Bretscher says. "I don't find anything wrong with it."

Bretscher says that when the student complained that she had been harassed by him, the case went to a University official on the Coordinating Committee who began an investigation.

Bretscher hired a lawyer to smooth his way through the University's procedures, which he calls "ineffective and counterproductive."

After almost two semesters of discussions between the University and his lawyer, Bretscher says he was told to avoid any further contact with the student.

Although Bretscher says he used to be available to students in the evenings and on weekends before the complaint, he says he has stopped being so accessible for fear of seeming to over-step his professional bounds.

"I've changed my style of teaching and the students have noticed it," says Bretscher, who says his CUE rating has declined from a 4.8 to a 4.0 since he has become less accessible. "It only got me into trouble."

Despite the constraints that professors and teaching fellows may feel when they have to beware of the rules against sexual harassment, administrators say the policies protect students' freedom to study and learn in a comfortable environment.

"We want to try to improve the overall environment," says McCarthy. "The gender equity culture is less hospitable to sexual harassment."

One of the primary ways in which the administration is trying to eradicate the "culture" that is friendly to sexual harassment is through education of teaching fellows and course assistants in all undergraduate classes.

James E. Davis, lecturer on biochemistry, expects his teaching aides to adhere closely to Harvard's policy on unprofessional conduct, according to many of his teaching fellows and course assistants.

At the beginning of the semester, Davis makes sure all his graduate and undergraduate teachers understand the guidelines.

"I come right out and say it," Davis says. "There's no intercourse with people in your course."

The Harvard policy also prohibits romantic relationships among tutors and house residents. "Under no circumstances must a resident tutor be involved in any way with a student because there's an unequal power equation and, therefore, it's inappropriate," says Deborah Foster, Currier House senior tutor and lecturer in folklore and mythology.

If a relationship does develop, however, the tutor is generally asked to change houses, Foster says.

But despite the guidelines and reprimands students and instructors face, students say that sometimes true love cannot be held back, even if it does originate in an inappropriate context.

One student said he and his Core class teaching fellow developed a mutual interest in the middle of one semester. Although they wanted to begin dating, they waited until reading period to see each other on a regular basis.

"We knew we were attracted to each other and before the final exam, she asked me out," the student says. "I didn't see anything wrong with it and the grade issue didn't seem a big one."

The student said nobody in the section knew about the relationship.

"I don't think it adversely affected anyone's grade and I don't think anyone thought there was any impropriety going on," he says.

But several administrators say that other students in such classes are unavoidably affected by a relationship that forms within the class.

"There is a perceived bias by the other students," says Gill, who says students often feel as though "they will somehow be evaluated differently."

The Coordinating Committee's main focus for the coming year will be on education and on increasing awareness among both faculty and students of all degrees of sexual harassment issues.

"We're trying to be more proactive," says McCarthy. "We've been making progress, but we're not satisfied."