Harvard University has adopted a ban on professors’ having sexual or romantic relationships with undergraduate students, joining a small but growing number of universities prohibiting such relationships. The move comes as the Obama administration investigates the handling of accusations¹ of sexual assault at dozens of colleges, including Harvard.

哈佛大学(Harvard University)日前颁布了一项新政策，明文禁止教授与本科生发生性关系或恋情，由此加入一个为数不多，但数量不断增长的禁止此类关系的大学之列。此举正值奥巴马政府对几十所高校处理性侵指控的方式展开调查之际。哈佛也是被调查的对象。

The ban clarifies an earlier policy that labeled sexual and romantic relationships between professors and the students they teach as inappropriate, but did not explicitly² prohibit professors from having relationships with students they did not teach.

这项禁令澄清了此前一项政策，后者将教授及其所教学生之间的性关系和恋情称作“不适当”，但并未明确禁止教授与他们没教的学生发生暧昧关系。

Harvard said Thursday that the change had been made after a panel reviewing the institution’s policy on Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, determined³ that the university’s existing policy language on “relationships of unequal status did not explicitly reflect the faculty⁴’s expectations of what constituted an appropriate relationship between undergraduate students and faculty members.” It said the policy had been revised “to include a clear prohibition⁵ to better accord with these expectations.”

哈佛大学周四表示，这项改变是在一个专家组复审了该校与教育法修正案第九条(Title IX)相关的政策之后做出的。该条款旨在禁止教育领域的性别歧视。这个专家组确定，哈佛大学目前关于“不平等地位之关系”的政策用语，“并没有明确反映学院对什么构成本科生和教师之间适当关系的期望。”该校声称，修订这项政策是“为了包含一个明确的禁令，以更好地符合这些期望”。

The change was recommended by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures. It was made public Monday in a document revising the division’s sexual harassment⁶ policy.

这项改变的推荐人是艺术与科学学院性骚扰政策和程序委员会(Faculty of Arts and Sciences Committee on Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures)。周一发布的一项文件修改了该院的性骚扰政策，这项改变随之公布于众。

Besides banning sexual and romantic relationships between professors and all undergraduates, the policy also bans such relationships between teaching staff, such as graduate students, and the students who fall under their supervision⁷ or evaluation⁸.

除了禁止教授和所有本科生发生性关系或恋情之外，这项政策还禁止教辅人员（比如研究生）与他们监督或评估的学生发生这种关系。

“Our rule is that if you are supervising, evaluating or grading someone, you should not have a sexual relationship with that person,” said Alison Johnson, a history professor who led the committee.

“我们的原则是，如果你正在监督、评估某人或者正在给其划分等级，你就不应该与此人发生性关系。”该委员会负责人，历史学教授艾莉森·约翰逊(Alison Johnson)说。

The American Association of University Professors does not recommend that colleges ban such relationships, but the organization has noted⁹ that they “are fraught¹⁰ with the potential for exploitation.”

美国大学教授协会(American Association of University Professors)不建议高校禁止这种关系，但该组织指出，他们“有很多潜在的利用机会。”

It says that intimate relationships between students and professors make consent hard to determine because of the unequal power dynamic, and leave institutions vulnerable to allegations of sexual harassment.

该组织表示，由于不平等的权力格局，学生和教授的亲密关系使得“同意”很难确定，从而让高等院校很容易受到性骚扰指控。

After the courts found in the 1990s that universities could be financially liable for sexual harassment, many institutions — among them, the University of California and Yale — adopted formal policies forbidding sexual or romantic relationships between faculty and students.

上世纪90年代，在法院发现大学或许要为性骚扰承担经济责任之后，包括加州大学(University of California)和耶鲁大学(Yale University )在内的许多高校，正式颁布政策，禁止师生之间发生性关系或恋情。