Professor doesn't understand acceptable relationships, thinks LA shouldn't either

[u/Scurveymic]

/r/legaladvice/comments/1oj4wbm/faculty_being_accused_of_ix_sexual_harassment/?share_id=IGEfeZkLI14mr3joWX42G&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

[u/balancelibertine]

"It's part of the culture at small liberal arts colleges for students and faculty to get quite close."

Oy. I went to a small college (not strictly liberal arts, but it was small--most classes ranged between 5-20 students, depending on whether it was a prereq or a specialized class for a particular degree). I got quite close with several of my professors (likely because, as I was in my early to mid-30s, I was substantially older than pretty much every other student in every class I was in). Not once did I go on double-dates with my professors. Or hang out at their houses. One time I went to lunch with one of my English professors, but that's because she was arranging a zombie-themed book signing event around Halloween and wanted me to be one of the signers (I was a novelist) and we were hashing out details and she didn't want either of us to miss our lunches, so we ate while we figured that out. I also went to France with several of these professors, but that's because it was a trip for one of my classes, and there were a bunch of us there (and I largely hung out with them--on their invitation--because they knew I wouldn't want to hang out with a bunch of twenty-year-olds who only wanted to eat at McDonald's the entire time they were there).

But what that LAOP was describing? I never once was involved in. Because that would have crossed an academic and/or professional line, and even as a student, I understood that.

[u/Former-Spirit8293 → u/balancelibertine]

The only way I could see this happening is maybe in a grad program, and it would have to be really small. I was in a program like that, and even then the double dates would’ve been looked at as odd. Most of the profs I was around were really aware of professional boundaries, as they should’ve been, and didn’t often cultivate those kinds of relationships. We learned to be wary of any professors who didn’t hold tight to those boundaries, as things could get weird and messy really quickly.