Professor D, Student X...The New Algebra of Student-Teacher Relationships

The Times reports about the changes to unversity sexual harrassment policy to ward off lawsuits, changes that now extend to any sort of sexual or romantic relationship for the University of California system. Here is the Unversity of Michigan's policy:

"Department Chair X is having a sexual relationship with Graduate Student D who is a member of Assistant Professor Y's laboratory in the same department," one example reads. "In managing the resultant conflict, Chair X would have to recuse himself from evaluative/promotional reviews of Assistant Professor Y's work while Graduate Student D is a member of the laboratory."

Another example concerns Student E and Professor D, who become involved the summer after Student E completes — and gets an A in — Professor D's class. As Student E prepares to graduate, she asks Professor D for a letter of recommendation. According to the policy, Professor D must disclose the relationship to his supervisor before sending out any recommendations.

Gothamist isn't sure even a Ph. D. would be able to understand any of this. If Professor B is traveling 50 miles towards campus at 20 miles per hour, and Student G is traveling 8 miles towards campus at 1 mile per hour but need to go to the mail center... It's like that impossible math equation Max Fischer dreams of at the beginning of Rushmore.