Academy of love

This is going to sound really boring for a moment – but it’s about professors and sex, so stay with me.\nOn Friday, The Chronicle of Higher Education posted a blurb about the latest round in an argument between professor Paul Abramson of UCLA and conservative writer/intellectual Dinesh D’Souza. Abramson is coming out with a new book called “Romance in the Ivory Tower: The Rights and Liberty of Conscience” which, among other things, will argue that state university rules banning romance between professors and students violate the Ninth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (the Ninth Amendment being: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”). D’Souza expressed skepticism about this – and, most recently, Abramson has told D’Souza that he needs to wait until the book comes out before he can criticize it.\nNow, as to whether there is a “right to romance” implicitly protected by the Ninth Amendment, I really can’t say. I’m not a legal scholar, and what makes for non-enumerated rights (that is, rights not specifically mentioned in the Bill of Rights, such as the right to privacy) has been a subject of decades-long debates over judicial interpretation and court precedent.\nI can say this: I think academia honors bans against professor-student relationships more in theory than in practice, because if professors and students couldn’t hook up, the professorate would go extinct.\nNow, I think we can almost all agree that dating a student while he or she is in your class is inappropriate – but what about students not in your class, but with whom you might have to otherwise professionally interact? When I think of all the seemingly happily married couples that I know who started out as faculty advisor and graduate student advisee, the line starts to blur. \nLook at it this way: most academics’ social universes could be bound in a nutshell and within that nutshell, many of the individuals are already married. So, if you’re still single upon entering academia, you really feel the pinch. And, then you put professors with students who have common interests. For example, as shocking as it might sound, both political science professors and political science majors tend to be very interested in politics. The rules seek to discourage any attractions that develop. It’s like academia is a dating agency in the ironic punishments division of Hell.\nThings seem to have improved since I entered college in the late 90s, as universities have gotten a grip on what constitutes sexual harassment and what does not. Still, reading through IU’s Handbook for Student Academic Appointees, a lot of vagueness remains. While universities should protect students from abusive professors, they can’t really expect academics to follow the famous quote from “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.” You know the scene I mean.\n“No time for love, Dr. Jones.”