POLICY OF BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF PEARL RIVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Adopted: Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Reference: Personnel
Policy:
Pearl River Community College may restrict consensual relationships between employees and students and between employees.
Procedure:
No College employee shall enter into or maintain a consensual romantic or sexual relationship with a student of the College.
No College employee shall enter into or maintain a consensual romantic or sexual relationship with any other employee over whom they exercise direct academic, administrative, supervisory, evaluative, counseling, or extracurricular authority or influence.
All College employees must preserve the integrity of their relationships with students, and are expected to maintain at all times the highest level of professionalism with students, whether or not any real authority over the students exists. Therefore, situations which may present the appearance of a consensual romantic or sexual relationship between a College employee and any student of the College should be avoided.
Any student or employee who is determined to be in violation of this policy is subject to appropriate disciplinary action, which may include dismissal from the College, in the case of a student, or termination, in the case of an employee. Due process will be followed for any student or employee subjected to disciplinary action.
For purposes of this Policy and Procedure, the following terms are defined:
Employee: An employee is any person employed by Pearl River Community College as a faculty or staff member, whether full-time or part-time. Adjunct instructors are considered, for the purposes of this policy and procedure, to be employees of the College.
Student: A student is any person enrolled full-time or part-time in any instructional program offered by Pearl River Community College.
Consensual relationship: A consensual relationship is a sexual and/or romantic relationship, other than marriage, between two persons who voluntarily enter into such a relationship.
Note: Non-consensual relationships are addressed in the College’s Sexual Misconduct Policy.
