More from our inbox:
To the Editor:
Re “Sex Is the Enemy of Good Teaching,” by Amia Srinivasan (Opinion guest essay, Sunday Review, Sept. 5):
Based on my experience as a college professor for 20 years, I believe that Ms. Srinivasan’s depiction of professor-student sexual interactions — typically, a male professor pursuing a female undergraduate — may be behind the times. It is one part of a more complex story.
While there certainly are male professors who pursue (and prey upon) female students, in the interactions that I have personally experienced or colleagues have described to me, the roles are often reversed: A female student pursues a male professor.
These female students usually waited until the very end of the semester, when the teacher-student relationship was over, to push a piece of paper with their phone number across the professor’s desk, or to ask him if he would like “to get together off-campus.”
While I made it clear to students who approached me that their overtures were inappropriate, would Ms. Srinivasan have a problem if I had instead slept with them, as I was no longer their teacher? Such consensual sex would not constitute what she considers the real violation: Sex between professor and student precludes effective teaching.
Actually, the power differential between professor and student precludes consent, psychologically if not legally. Moreover, professor-student sex doesn’t just end the teaching relationship. It perverts it entirely.
Paul Siegel
New York
The writer is a professor at Westchester Community College and Purchase College, SUNY.
To the Editor:
The professor and the student are not the only ones involved in their relationship. The other students in the class, the professor’s other advisees and other faculty members are all affected by knowledge of the relationship. (Don’t think for a minute that such a relationship can be kept secret.)
Although the effects vary, none of them are good. All detract from the possibilities of teaching, learning and mentorship.
Beth Luey
Fairhaven, Mass.
The writer taught at Arizona State University and is the author of “Handbook for Academic Authors.”
To the Editor:
Although I know it’s an unpopular position in today’s political climate, I am against bans on professor-student affairs, unless the student is actually in the professor’s class at the time of the affair, in which case there is a clear conflict of interest, since the professor is grading the student.
The standard argument against professor-student affairs is that there is an inherent power imbalance, especially if the professor is male and the student female. But in what relationship isn’t there a power imbalance?
Moreover, it’s unclear that the power rests entirely on the professor’s side. Yes, professors have age, status, authority, degrees. But students may conclude that they don’t wish to continue having sex with this old person and dump him or her in favor of someone their own age. So does the professor really have all the power in the relationship?
It’s true that professor-student affairs usually don’t work out well. Nonetheless, institutions have no business interfering in the private lives of consenting adults and dictating what they can or can’t do in their bedrooms. It’s Big Brother all over again.
Henry Gonshak
Butte, Mont.
The writer is a professor of English at Montana Technological University.
To the Editor:
As someone who recently graduated from college, I found that Amia Srinivasan’s essay provided a refreshing dose of clarity and nuance about professor-student sexual relationships. But as many colleges resume in-person teaching, college administrators should think about how they can respond to lower-hanging fruit: the sexual assault epidemic that female students are taught to anticipate.
Consensual sex between a student and professor is one thing. Nonconsensual sex between two students is another. Before the pandemic, one out of every four women experienced rape or sexual assault during college, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network.
I’m worried about my sister, whom I recently dropped off at college, and her friends. Far too many students are raped, and often their perpetrators face only minor consequences. We’ve hurt each other enough during this pandemic. Can we change course?
Sarah W. Hirschfield
New York
‘Our Nation’s Health Is at Stake’
To the Editor:
Re “Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Is a Big Mistake,” by Robby Soave (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Sept. 10):
Mr. Soave thinks reasoning with the unreasonable is possible. It is not. The fact is the virus kills — not just people but also jobs, the economy and a nation’s spirit. We are reaching an inflection point that is not trending in our favor.
Reasoning with the unvaccinated has not worked. Their obstinance and defiance demand that they double down on their ignorance and their right to die — infringing on the rights of others to live.
President Biden’s job is to protect all Americans. If this means vaccination mandates, so be it — there is no other way. Our nation’s health is at stake.
Steve Talercio
Mahwah, N.J.
‘Erosion of Our Democracy’
To the Editor:
As a baby boomer I keenly understood that our golden years would be characterized by diminished resources, urgent climate challenges, fractious domestic politics, religious strife and the violence it inspired, anti-vaxxers and last but not least the Covid pandemic.
I did not anticipate the complete erosion of our democracy — voter suppression, a Capitol riot and the likely overturning of a woman’s right to choose — championed by the Republican Party.
Tom Goodman
Philadelphia
Add a Dental Benefit to Medicare
To the Editor:
Re “Congress Looks at Dental Plan for Medicare” (front page, Aug. 29):
It is encouraging that in the budget bill currently moving through Congress, Democrats are maneuvering to add dental benefits to Medicare, but disheartening that the American Dental Association supports only a limited government dental benefit for older Americans.
It brings back memories of the fierce opposition to passage of Medicare by organized medicine led by the American Medical Association. Edward Annis, president of the A.M.A., famously warned that Medicare would “put the government smack into your hospitals.”
Fast forward to 2021, when seniors show overwhelming satisfaction with Medicare and only 1 percent of non-pediatric physicians formally opted out of the program in 2020.
Hopefully, the American Dental Association will take to heart lessons from the past and back off on its opposition to a benefit sure to find favor with seniors.
Beryl Rosenstein
Pikesville, Md.
The writer is professor emeritus of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
"Opinion" - Google News
September 19, 2021 at 10:00PM
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Opinion | When Professors Have Affairs With Students - The New York Times
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