UK Edition
Cambridge dons must register any sexual relations with students
Cambridge University is introducing an official sexual liaisons ‘register’ to record relationships between academics and students in a crackdown on harassment and misconduct.
The university will unveil a new policy that actively “discourages” affairs between staff and students. It will insist that academics who risk a conflict of interest will have to disclose relationships with students to the university. They then will be barred from teaching those students or marking their work.
The move comes in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal where actresses have claimed the Hollywood mogul had abused his position of power to sexually assault them.
In the last few days some former university students have used social media to claim they were sexually harassed by tutors back in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Their claims include allegations that some professors abused their positions of trust to behave seuxally inappropriately, sometimes during one-to-one tutorials.
Some wrote about tutors who had wandering hands, and another claimed one professor met students in his room naked, except for a towel around his waist, in a manner similar to allegations against Weinstein.
While a university lecturer is not breaking the law if they have a consensual sexual relationship with a student over 18, most universities demand staff adhere to a code of conduct based on their ethical responsibility. Tutors at a college where students are aged between 16 and 18 would break the laws if they had sexual activity with their students due to the “abuse of trust”.
Cambridge University’s policy on “consensual” staff-student affairs forms part of a new wider strategy to tackle sexual harassment. Cambridge has also appointed Britain’s first university ‘sexual assault’ adviser to provide support for victims.
The university is keen to stress the scheme has been a long time in the planning but was given a boost this year when it received £87,000 funding.
The ‘zero tolerance’ campaign - the first major initiative of Cambridge’s new vice chancellor Professor Stephen Toope - will also include targeting university sports clubs where lewd and rowdy behaviour has caused concern over the years. Specially convened ‘Good Lad’ workshops will be introduced in the sports bodies “to promote respect and tolerance”.
However, it is hoped the decision to officially record ‘consensual’ relationships between staff and students will help to combat concern that academics can use positions of power to seduce students, male or female.
The new policy, called Breaking the Silence - preventing harassment and sexual misconduct, states: “Personal relationships between students and staff, where a member of staff has a professional responsibility for a student, should be avoided.”
The policy states that such intimate relationships must be disclosed by the member of staff to a head of department and that failure to do so will likely result in disciplinary action.
Personal relationships, according to the policy, can include “any association however brief” that involves not sexual or intimate relations that can include “remote” contacts through text messaging and social media.
In a statement the university said that “as part of a series of new initiatives to encourage behaviour change around sexual misconduct” it was publishing new guidance “on consensual staff-student relationships”.
It went on: “The policy, designed to ensure the quality and clarity of every student’s academic experience in Cambridge, discourages such relationships, particularly where there is a real or perceived conflict of interest. For example, where the staff member might be involved in marking the student’s assessments.
“The policy stipulates that any such relationships have to be disclosed by the staff member to the University and the staff member must withdraw from any professional duties that could lead to accusations of unfair or preferential treatment.”
Cambridge is also launching a series of workshops intended to teach students at seven of it colleges how to identify and have the confidence to challenge safely those people they think are sexually harassing someone.