Purpose
Southern Adventist University desires to provide a learning/working environment free from the potential complications that may occur when faculty/staff are engaged in inappropriate relationships with students / subordinates. Interactions between faculty/staff and students need to be guided by mutual trust and confidence as well as Christian and professional ethics. As a Christian institution the university believes that sexual relationships belong only in a biblical marriage context.
Policy
Romantic relationships where one member of the University community has evaluative or other supervisory responsibility for the other carry risks of conflict of interest, breach of trust, abuse of power, breach of professional ethics and perceptions of undue advantage. The relationships may, moreover, be less consensual than the individuals whose positions confer power believe, or may be perceived in different ways by each party, especially in retrospect. These relationships are deemed inappropriate and are prohibited.
Further, relationships between faculty and students are prohibited even where the student is not under the teaching or supervision of the faculty member. Romantic relationships between staff and students are not explicitly prohibited except in the case where a supervisory role is involved. Any exceptions to this policy should be approved in writing by the immediate supervisor of the faculty/staff, and any faculty/staff engaged in such a relationship must self-report the relationship to his/her supervisor.
To report an instance of an inappropriate relationship, follow the forms of redress as outlined in the Employee Handbook, Grievance Procedure Policies 4040 and 5080.
This policy does not change those instances covered by the Harassment of Employees and Students (Policy 2020) or Employment of Relatives (Policy 2100) policies.