Committee members, at a sparsely attended first meeting of the semester on Jan. 14, received a proposed "Code of Academic Ethics" governing relations with students drafted by the Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility.

The code states that "all amorous or sexual relationships between faculty and students are unacceptable when the faculty member has professional responsibility for the student, even when both parties have consented, or appear to have consented, to the relationship.

"Specifically, a faculty member should not have an amorous or sexual relationship, consensual or otherwise, with a student who is enrolled in his or her course, or whose performance is supervised or evaluated by that faculty member. Nor should a faculty member be involved in any decisions that may reward or penalize a student with whom he or she has had an amorous or sexual relationship, even outside the instructional context."

Consent will not be considered a defense if a complaint is brought, the code states, with the individual in the relationship with the greater power having to "bear the burden of accountability."

Faculty Senate Chair Peter Nickerson, professor of pathology, told senators he believes the senate needs to take some position on the issue, "since we have nothing at the present time. Other universities have had significant problems and, therefore, have addressed the problem after the horse was out of the barn. We probably need, as a faculty, to say something; the question is, what?"

Dennis Malone, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, disputed the need for such a statement.

"I'm surprised that an explicit statement like that is necessary," Malone said. "I don't object to it, but I find it hard to believe that there's anybody (on campus) who doesn't know" that this kind of activity "is not welcome" at the university.

Maureen Jameson, associate professor of modern languages and literatures, noted she had "trouble" with a proposal to institute such a policy when it was first raised last year, and she still had problems with it.

"The opportunities for conflict of interest are so numerous that it just seems to me unnecessarily prudish to single out sexual relationships when there are all kinds of things that might compromise the objectivity" of a faculty member's behavior, such as the desire to be promoted, she said.

Simon Singer, associate professor of sociology, suggested that there is "some need for due process" to be built into any kind of statement. He read the last sentence of the statement requiring the individual in the relationship with the greater power to bear the burden of accountability.

"A student can accuse, but how much that accusation is grounded in physical reality, is rejected on the part of the student," Singer said. "All of those are details that need to be worked out before making statements on the burden of accountability."

Malone recommended that if such a code is deemed necessary, it include provisions for how allegations would be investigated.

"Alleging that some kind of an amorous relationship took place covers a whole multitude of possibilities, and I would like to know who is going to decide and based on what," he said.

Nickerson said he would forward senators' comments to John Boot, professor and chair of the Department of Management Science and Systems and chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility. He also suggested committee members raise these issues when the proposed code comes before the full Faculty Senate at its Feb. 4 meeting.

In other business, the FSEC referred a proposed resolution on the New Paltz situation to the Committee on Academic Freedom and Responsibility and asked the committee to draft a statement commenting on the fact-finding report prepared by a review committee appointed by Chancellor John Ryan.

If the committee is unable to complete its work -- chair John Boot was out of the country at the time of the charge -- the FSEC will draft the statement, which is to be presented to the full Senate on Feb. 4.

The report, which is expected to be discussed by the SUNY Board of Trustees in executive session at its meeting on Jan. 27, supports the decision of New Paltz President Roger Bowen to allow a controversial conference on sexuality to proceed as planned.

On another matter, Nickerson reported that President William R. Greiner had responded to the Faculty Senate's resolutions on affirmative action by establishing a task force to address issues affecting underrepresented groups at UB.