Grappling with university relationships

IT has yet to be seen if other tertiary institutions will follow Victoria University of Wellington’s ban on intimate relationships between staff responsible for a student’s academic learning and/or their emotional safety and wellbeing.

It seems surprising, given the attention to the impact of relationships involving power imbalances in the wake of the #MeToo movement, that Victoria University is believed to be the first New Zealand university to impose such a policy.

It follows the university finding the issue of inappropriate staffstudent relationships regularly surfaced after it introduced its new Sexual Harassment Response Policy and Procedures in 2020.

The new policy will apply to situations where the university considers there is potential for the abuse of power, or the perception of that, in any intimate or close personal relationships between those in inherently unequal positions.

The policy says these positions would include, but it is not an exhaustive list, ‘‘a teacher, examiner or supervisor and their student; a tutor and students in their tutorials; a supervisor and postgraduate student or research assistant; staff members in a hall of residence and students; or a manager and a staff member in their reporting line’’.

‘‘Due to the potential for exploitation, favouritism, bias (real or perceived) or conflicts of interest, such relationships may undermine the integrity of the supervision or evaluation provided, or may have adverse effects on the working, learning, and living environment or on the emotional safety and wellbeing of those directly involved, as well as on the broader team culture,’’ the policy states.

If a member of the university community has an isolated, consensual intimate encounter with someone and later discovers that person is a student in a situation where the member has or will have a direct responsibility for, or involvement in, that student’s academic studies, and/or where they have specific direct responsibilities related to the emotional safety and wellbeing of the student, they have to report it to the university.

This is so ‘‘appropriate arrangements can be made to meet the needs of the student and the broader university community’’, although it is not totally clear what that means.

If it was an encounter both parties might prefer to forget, that could sound all rather embarrassing and unnecessarily intrusive.

On the other hand, perceptions of participants about the significance of a consensual onenight stand might vary and there could be opportunity for exploitation, favouritism, or bias further down the track.

All the same, we wonder how well this rule will be followed.

Some who have commented on the policy feel it goes too far, that students are grownups and not all young and vulnerable because they are away from home for the first time.

It would, however, be nonsensical to assume more mature students are immune from abusive relationships simply because they are older and have experienced more of life.

The point is, in relationships in which someone wields power over another, if the person with the power chooses to use it inappropriately, the person without the power starts off on the back foot, no matter how worldlywise they are.

New Zealand universities are not alone in grappling with this issue. In the United Kingdom, recent official guidance to the university sector says universities must ‘‘strongly discourage’’ sexual relationships between staff and students, but it falls short of banning consensual relationships.

However, where they occur, it says staff should be removed from all responsibilities where there could be a conflict of interest.

The University of Otago, which is reviewing its policy on this issue, already strongly discourages staff from entering relationships with students and requires them to declare any possible conflict so such situations can be managed and monitored.

A tougher stance is long overdue, according to Gil Elliott, father of student Sophie Elliott, stabbed to death in 2008 by the tutor she once dated.

Mr Elliott is keen for all universities to follow the important lead set by Victoria University of Wellington.