CU policy regarding professors’ amorous relationships with students is inadequate

The University of Colorado system’s weak policies fail to protect students from unwanted sexual advances and consensual sexual relationships. Professors, coaches, and other university employees are technically allowed to use their positions of authority to develop intimate relationships with students and athletes. There is always an imbalance of power in these sexual relationships, and many colleges across the country have already banned these relationships following the NCAA’s lead.

CU has a long-winded policy on such relationships – they are discouraged but ultimately allowed as long as it is ‘disclosed’. If the student is not in a professor’s class or if the athlete is on another team, the relationship never even needs to be disclosed.

CU President Todd Saliman referred to Administrative Policy Statement 5015 as a robust policy to protect students during an editorial meeting with The Denver Post on Tuesday. He continued in an email saying the policy on “conflicts of interest in cases of amorous relationships” would come up for review next year.

“Under APS 5015, it is never appropriate for a faculty member to have an amorous relationship with a student over whom he teaches, advises, or has any authority. For example, a professor cannot have an amorous consensual relationship with a student in his class,” according to a written response to follow-up questions.

However, that is not exactly what the policy says. The policy says that “direct evaluative authority may not be exercised in cases where amorous relationships exist or have existed within the past seven years.” The policy then outlines how a professor and a student would disclose such a relationship and how the inherent “conflict of interest” could be addressed by removing evaluative authority – that is, by finding someone else to grade the student on his or her work. Nothing about that process tells a CU employee – coach or professor – that he is prohibited from having sex with students.

We believe this needs to change and urge Saliman to begin the six-month process to change this policy today so it can be in effect when the 2025 freshmen enter campus next fall.

Many 18-year-old freshmen’s worst nightmare is having a man or woman in a position of power make sexually suggestive comments, send flirty text messages, or ask for a date. There is no good option for that teen, especially if the behavior is indirectly condoned by university policy. We know that such behavior is rare; college professors are professionals dedicated to teaching the next generation, not looking to have a good time. However, abuses are well documented across the country.

Colorado State University recognized this when it implemented a policy that explicitly prohibits any new sexual relationships between a professor or coach and a student or athlete. The policy describes the inherent balance of power that exists and aims to protect students and athletes from unwanted advancement.

The University of Colorado also pointed to their sexual misconduct policy, which prohibits unwanted or non-consensual sexual relationships. In other words, it bans rape and sexual harassment – ​​two things that are already illegal in Colorado.

Saliman said Tuesday that it is a high legal bar to prove “intimidation.” To violate APS 5014, the conduct would have to be “so severe or pervasive as to limit or deny an individual’s ability to participate in or benefit from the university’s educational program or activity.”