Today I'm here to talk about something that I feel is an under-discussed part of the post-secondary undergraduate experience, specifically for women, and that's the issue of professor-student intimate relationships. Often, that's greeted with a sort of knowing chuckle. It has a lot of cultural baggage, but if we strip that away, it constitutes an abuse of power and a violation of trust, plain and simple.
Predatory professors use their position of authority and the admiration that students hold for them to induce them to enter romantic relationships, and then use that power to compel these women to stay quiet. While it isn't exclusively women who are affected, it is disproportionately women. The idea of a bad end to a relationship with a professor impacting grades and career prospects is really a legitimately scary thing that prevents a lot of young women from speaking out about this. As well, a lot of these professors will tell them to stay quiet in order to protect their reputation.
Most universities do not have outright bans on teacher-student intimate relationships. My own university, McGill, recently declined to do so despite two full years of sustained student advocacy for this policy.
In first year, I was told by an older female student in my department that I should never take classes with a certain prof because everyone knew that he would hit on his students during office hours. A lot of people don't have access to that information. I was very lucky. It's a shame that whisper networks have to evolve in order to protect female students where institutions fail to do so. As well, there is a great personal cost to speaking out on this. A student at my university is currently being sued by a professor because she's alleged to have told other students about allegations against him.
I understand that the federal government doesn't get involved in education, but it's a national issue, and you should call for an outright ban.
Thank you.