Dear Members of the University Community,

We write today to share the report we commissioned from the Consensual Relationship Policy Task Force. You can access the report here.

We want to thank the task force members for working collaboratively and deliberatively to develop their recommendations for a new, more detailed and clear policy governing faculty-student consensual relationships on our campus. The report outlines the components of the recommended new policy in detail with significant discussion of the research and reasoning that informed the task force’s work.

The task force members brought diverse backgrounds and competing perspectives to the process. And they actively and regularly sought the advice of stakeholders across the university. Groups consulted include the Provost’s Undergraduate Student Advisory Board, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, the Committee on Faculty Sexual Misconduct and several standing committees of the Academic Senate.

We are committed to working with Senate leadership and campus stakeholders to begin the process of refining and implementing the recommendations. We will also work with the System-wide Task Force on Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response in that process so as to ensure consistency. We are beginning to schedule conversations with key stakeholder groups across our university, and we will follow the appropriate processes and procedures to make these policy changes.

Maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity and professionalism is critical to our institutional mission. Having a clear and carefully constructed policy on consensual relationships between the university’s faculty members or other instructors and its students, will help us achieve the very high standards our state and nation expect from us.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Jones
Chancellor

Andreas C. Cangellaris
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost