OPINION: USC must ban all student-faculty romantic relationships


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The Joint Provost/Academic Senate Task Force on Sexual Harassment will present its final report to University administration in the next few weeks. Formed in the wake of a National Academies report examining sexual harassment in STEM academia, the task force seeks to develop recommendations that will create a zero-tolerance, respectful environment at USC, according to Provost Michael Quick. Given that one of its main objectives is to assess the “unique power dynamics” in relationships between faculty and doctoral students, it is impossible for the task force to ignore current regulations that do not prevent romantic relationships between students and faculty.

The 2018 Faculty Handbook “strongly discourages” sexual relationships between students and professors and acknowledges the pitfalls of such relationships. This statement’s wording is a recommendation, however. This choice renders the handbook powerless as a safeguard against impropriety because it lacks concrete directives. While the handbook does require faculty members to recuse themselves from teaching or supervising their significant others, preempting conflicts of interest fall short of prohibiting relationships altogether.

As a result of the incongruity of the Handbook’s intentions and its actual policies, the University not only fails to give clear direction regarding romantic relationships between faculty and students, but also renders students vulnerable to unequal and coercive treatment. To combat sexual harassment, the joint task force must advocate for a blanket ban on student-faculty romantic relationships.

A student-faculty relationship subjects the student to an inherently imbalanced power dynamic. The faculty member’s institutional power grants them influence over other faculty members and University officials. If the faculty member and the student are part of the same academic program at USC, the faculty member can significantly influence the student’s university experience and career prospects. Any power imbalance entails a lack of true consent, so a student-faculty relationship would not only be unequal but also vulnerable to abuse.

Some might argue that banning such relationships infantilizes consenting adults by depriving them of sexual agency. In a 2017 paper against blanket bans, University of Manitoba associate professor Neil McArthur asserts that when both partners are adults, power dynamics shouldn’t infringe on their rights to engage in a relationship.  He writes that the perception that unequal relationships negate consent is an egalitarian, subjective moral judgment. He argues that banning student-faculty romantic relationships imposes morality onto private intimate behavior, rendering it tantamount to prohibiting same-sex intimacy or abortions.

What McArthur dismisses as a moral judgment, however, is actually a documented reality consisting of many incidents of abuse. From 2010 to 2011, the University of British Columbia’s creative writing chair Steven Galloway had an affair a student in his department. A 2015 investigation found that the student’s failure to object to Galloway’s inappropriate sexual comments and advances was a result of unequal power dynamics. 

The University must recognize that the ramifications posed by an unequal power dynamic are not distant hypotheticals ­— they are real, inevitable and serious. As evident in USC professor Erick Guerrero’s alleged sexual harassment encounter with graduate student Karissa Fenwick, sexual injustice within the context of student-faculty relationships is not only costly to USC’s finances and reputation but also the trust that its students put in the University. USC has no room for failure; it must do everything in its power to protect students from sexual harassment, assault and abuse.

As long as the Faculty Handbook’s stance against student-faculty relationships remains vague and open to a wide variety of interpretations, unscrupulous individuals will continue to exploit loopholes in regulation to their advantage. It is incumbent on the joint task force to draft a recommendation demanding the explicit prohibition of all student-faculty romantic relationships. and when students and faculty build relationships primarily focused on academic discourse and professionalism, USC can shift away from a culture of harassment and toward a culture of respect.