Corning Community College has a strong commitment to a community that promotes the exchange of ideas, builds mutual trust and respect, facilitates communication, and reduces misunderstandings. When faculty and staff members exercise power and authority over students and employees for whom they have current supervisory, instructional, or other professional responsibility, a power imbalance is created which makes consent within any sexual or romantic relationship between them problematic, and may impede the real or perceived freedom of the student or employee to terminate or alter the relationship. Corning Community College also recognizes that a sexual or romantic relationship under the conditions set forth above may result in a loss of objectivity and create a conflict of interest in any evaluative, supervisory, instructional, or other professional role.
The Consensual Sexual and Amorous Relations Policy applies to all faculty and staff , all job classifications, titles and types of appointments under College jurisdiction engaged in relationships with students or other campus faculty or staff where there is an actual or perceived power imbalance because of supervisory or professional roles of participants in the relationship.
It is the policy of Corning Community College that:
- Sexual or amorous relationships between Corning Community College faculty or staff members and students to whom such faculty or staff members have current or reasonably predicted future professional responsibility are prohibited.
- Sexual or amorous relationships between faculty or staff members and students to whom the faculty or staff members have no current professional responsibility are strongly discouraged.
- Sexual or amorous relationships between supervisors and non-student employees to whom such supervisors have current professional responsibility are strongly discouraged. Where such a relationship exists, it shall be the responsibility of the individual to inform the divisional executive and Human Resources in a timely manner, so that the supervisor may be removed from any evaluation of the employee, and from any activity or decision that may appear to reward, penalize, or otherwise affect the employment status of the employee.
- All parties have a duty to abide by this policy and cooperate in making alternative arrangements.
Members of the campus community are reminded that persons with the status advantage in such relationships could be subject to formal discipline for violating their professional and ethical obligations to a student or employee of the College (as per the disciplinary policies and procedures noted in the personnel handbook and respective collective bargaining agreements); to charges of sexual harassment should such a complaint be filed by a party in the relationship or to charges of discrimination should another employee claim to be adversely affected by the relationship (as per the Equal Employment and Education Opportunity Policy and Complaint Procedure).