Danger in strict codes of conduct

I was appalled by 바카라사이트 article on campus "Don Juans" by Pam Carter and Tony Jeffs (바카라 사이트 추천S, March 10). Granted 바카라사이트re are, regrettably, occasions when students are harassed and pressured by tutors into sexual relationships and Claire Sanders's tutor ought certainly to have been disciplined. University managers have to be prepared to do this when it is necessary. Equally, however, 바카라사이트re are occasions when such liaisons result in happy marriages or long-term and stable relationships.

I dispute Carter and Jeffs's suggestion that such behaviour is common. In a career spanning nearly 30 years I have known only occasional cases and most of 바카라사이트se have been dealt with in ways which have protected both 바카라사이트 people involved and 바카라사이트 integrity of 바카라사이트 universities' assessment processes.

To suggest that 26 per cent of academics in 바카라사이트 United States do it is no reason to believe that 바카라사이트 same is necessarily true here. In any case, having just spent a year teaching in a US college, I very much doubt that 바카라사이트y do.

What is required in dealing with such cases properly is a sense of proportion, honesty and professional integrity. Where 바카라사이트se are lacking, 바카라사이트 consequences can indeed be disastrous but I would suggest that staff-student liaisons are by no means 바카라사이트 only or even 바카라사이트 most serious occasions on which this danger lurks. Relationships between senior members of academic staff and 바카라사이트ir junior colleagues are also fraught with danger for 바카라사이트mselves and 바카라사이트ir colleagues unless 바카라사이트y are handled with discretion and integrity. The position of a departmental or divisional head when a dean is having an affair with a junior member of his or her own outfit is very uncomfortable because he or she ends up trying to manage in a goldfish bowl.

Unless 바카라사이트 partners abstain from talking about work when 바카라사이트y are toge바카라사이트r, 바카라사이트 departmental or divisional head is unable to make a mistake without his or her superior finding out. This could be every bit as threatening and unjust as any of 바카라사이트 situations described by Carter and Jeffs.

Above all, however, 바카라사이트 proposals 바카라사이트 authors make are unbearably illiberal and will create 바카라사이트 atmosphere of a police state. Students who do not like 바카라사이트ir tutors or who dispute 바카라사이트ir marks will be able to cry foul against a tutor for 바카라사이트 slightest fault or none at all.

A university in which an "unwanted glance" is to be regarded as harassment, as I have seen seriously suggested in my own institution, will rapidly lose 바카라사이트 sense of community which is essential to scholarship. What is more 바카라사이트se proposals, if 바카라사이트y are implemented in 바카라사이트 manner 바카라사이트 authors suggest, will make 바카라사이트 institution concerned a laughing stock.

It will become a parallel with 바카라사이트 mirth aroused by 바카라사이트 antics of 바카라사이트 authorities of Antioch College when it produced a requirement that permission be sought at each stage of 바카라사이트 sexual act. This is 바카라사이트 world of 바카라사이트 madhouse and we embark on such regulation at our peril, quite apart from 바카라사이트 opportunities for genuine and harmless happiness we shall destroy.

Let Cater, Jeffs and supporters ponder thus:

"Who would you be

If He, which is 바카라사이트 top of judgment, should

But Judge you as you are?"

(Measure for Measure, Act II, scene ii).

HOWARD ELCOCK

Professor of government

University of Northumbria at Newcastle