Amorous relations change a necessary repair

By Staff Editorial     5/14/09 7:00pm

Not long ago, the television show South Park lampooned the recent spate of teacher-student relationships plaguing the nation. But instead of the stereotypical male teacher-female student power dichotomy, South Park showed that the headlines were dominated by female teachers, juxtaposing this illegal relationship with the hypocrisy with which society tends to view it.Ignoring crudeness for a moment, South Park was on to something. The relations between teachers and students - almost always improper and, according to law, non consensual - is no longer relegated to creepy older men, and has become all-too-prominent in our society.

As such, we are pleased with the steps taken by the Faculty Senate to change Rice's amorous relations policy (see story, page 1). What was once one of the least restrictive policies in the country has now caught up to the rest of America. Rice is right to pride itself on its uniqueness, but in this instance it is necessary to join the rest.

It is easy to understand where our decision comes from. Most undergraduates are of legal, consenting age, but that does not change the fact that the relationship between teacher and student relies on impartial trust. The second that relationship is breached or changed, the student's education is put at risk. And if one student suffers, so does that class, and so does the entire university.

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Since Rice is an institution of higher learning, anything that impedes striving for the utmost heights must be done away with. There is simply too much weight to deem otherwise.

Alas, we at the Thresher will now be looking for a new way to keep our grades afloat, as work at the paper certainly precludes the possibility of keeping up to date on our homework. Not that our English professor would go for us anyway, but we're just saying.

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