By Stephanie Goodhue
Nov. 5, Volume 47 Issue 2
According to the Spokesman Review, Joe Bekken, North Idaho College financial aid director, was fired on Feb. 2 for posting and pursuing an ad on Craigslist stating that he would give monetary compensation in exchange for sex.
This particular issue is a prime example on whether it is appropriate for faculty members to be involved with a student.
SFCC code of conduct states, “CCS expects all students to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with its high standards of scholarship and conduct. Student conduct, which distracts from or interferes with the accomplishment of these purposes, is not acceptable. Students are expected to comply with these standards of conduct for students both on and off campus and acknowledge the college’s authority to take disciplinary action.”
Not only does it give the student an upper hand in class, but it also presents unfair opportunities for the student to increase their letter grade.
“[The instructor] has power over their grade and [the student] cannot return the same act,” said Darren Pitcher, vice president at SFCC.
It places the instructor in a rough position. For instance, the instructor is testing the students ability to comprehend material from the previous day in lecture, and instead of looking through and grading the student’s, that he or she is involved with, the instructor awards them full points.
Ignoring the fact that the student may not have understood the material as well as they should have. This act is essentially setting the student up for failure or false hope because of the fact that the student is not truly grasping the courses content and is being awarded a grade for which they do not deserve, i.e. special treatment.
It could also be the case that, in a similar situation the student could force and or blackmail the instructor because he/she is involved with the faculty member and could threaten to expose the truth giving the instructor no choice but to comply with the demands.
CCS Code of Conduct states, “Unauthorized assistance in taking quizzes, tests or examinations. Acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the college faculty or staff.
Fabrication, which is in the intentional invention or counterfeiting of information in the course of an academic activity, and knowingly furnishing false information to any college official, faculty member, or the office including submission of fraudulent transcripts from other institutions”.
So it begs the question, is it allowed at the Community Colleges of Spokane to have a faculty member involved with a student? Nowhere within the Student Code of Conduct does it prohibit having relations between student and instructor.
“It is frowned upon”, said Darren Pitcher, Vice President of Student Services. “However it’s circumstantial. Here on our campus a student’s relationship with an instructor is not a significant problem because there are many cases where the student and instructor do not cross paths on campus.”
For example, if a young woman was an english major here at SFCC and she was in a relationship with a mathematician here teaching at SFCC it wouldn’t be as severe as if she were taking his course. I say that because, the instructor would have power over her grade and she cannot return the same act so it would then be a conflict of interest.
The CCS Administrative Procedure section 2.00.01-L states that depending on the severity of the case, such as the example just above, the consequence will vary.
“Depending on how long it has gone on and how Administration finds out will very in consequence”, Pitcher said. The Administrative Procedure does not clearly outline consequences for these actions however, it does state that e disciplinary consequences will be enforced. Frowned Upon