Consenting Relationships, University of Kansas Policy on

The University of Kansas has a tradition of commitment to providing an academic community environment that, without discrimination, fosters intellectual, professional and personal growth. Central to the preservation of this environment is the trust that should characterize all interactions among those working toward the common goal of the institution, namely, our students, faculty, unclassified staff, and university support staff. This trust is put at risk when members of the University community engage in consenting romantic or sexual relationships that involve persons of unequal power, for example, administrator and faculty, faculty and student, supervisor and employee. Because the University of Kansas strongly disapproves of consenting relationships where a professional power differential exists, this policy statement is being promulgated.

1. A faculty member will always be treated as having such a power differential if the student is in an educational experience where the faculty member has authority to assign grades. The same holds in other circumstances as well, for example, when a faculty member serves on thesis, dissertation, or scholarship awards committees.

   These principles also apply to administrators and supervisors in their relationships with students, faculty, unclassified staff, and university support staff.

2. In the view of the University of Kansas, romantic or sexual relationships between persons of unequal power, even if consenting, are unwise and often contrary to professional ethics. Such a relationship tends to impair one's ability to make an objective judgment of the performance of the student or employee.

   Those who choose to ignore these standards will stand responsible for their actions and risk the loss of support of the University community.

3. Decisions concerning grades, degrees, promotions, evaluations, merit increases, and awards must be made free from any trace of bias or favor. Such decisions come under a cloud when made by those who have an emotional relationship, beyond the purely professional or academic one, with those who benefit from those decisions.

   Even the mere appearance of bias may seriously disrupt the academic or work environment.

4. The individual in authority bears the primary responsibility for any negative consequences resulting from an even apparently consenting romantic or sexual relationship. It is the student or the employee, not the instructor or supervisor, who is most at risk in these relationships. In particular, the respect and trust accorded a professor by a student, as well as the legitimate power exercised by the professor in giving grades, criticism, praise, recommendations for further study, future employment, etc., greatly diminish the student's actual freedom of choice, should sexual favors be added to the professor's demands. Although it is proper for a student to decline any personal relationship of this kind, a student may feel that few options are available when a professor asks for a date.

   If an employee's supervisor attempts to initiate a personal relationship, the employee may feel that the employee's options are similarly limited. As a result, the degree of informed consent that exists within such a relationship is difficult to establish. Should a charge of sexual harassment follow, a claim of mutual consent may be difficult to sustain.

5. Commonly accepted standards of professional behavior and ethics require that faculty members not hold evaluative power over any student with whom they have a romantic or sexual relationship. Thus, faculty members should not initiate or accept such a relationship with a student over whom they have an evaluative role. Should such a relationship exist between a faculty member and a student, the faculty member shall not evaluate the student's work. Failure to do so will be a violation of Article IV, Section 5.g. of the Faculty Code of Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct.

   Similar proscription applies to administrators and supervisors in their relationships with students and employees over whom they have an evaluative role. A supervisor who is in a romantic or sexual relationship with another individual where an evaluative responsibility must be removed from personnel decisions concerning that individual, such as appointment, retention, promotion, discipline, tenure, or salary. Failure to do so will be a conflict of interest.