California community colleges have no policies regarding faculty/student dating.

A Monterey Peninsula College counselor a few weeks ago pled no-contest to charges of threatening a student who rebuffed his advances. But interestingly enough, there is no policy at California community colleges prohibiting faculty and staff from engaging in romantic or sexual relationships, meaning that a come-on between staff and students may technically be okay. And, in the absence of such a policy, local community college officials say there is little, if anything they can do to restrict faculty and staff from engaging in relationships with students.

Officials at both MPC and Hartnell Community College concede that despite concerns over the risks and propriety of student/faculty relationships, there are no existing policies nor legal basis by which they can control or regulate what amounts to an adult decision.

"We don''t have a policy related to that, but as an institution we try to dissuade such activity because of the potential of sexual harassment as an issue," says MPC''s Public Information Officer Rich Montori, who admits no new policies are anticipated despite the recent events surrounding the MPC case.

"We''re dealing with adults, and although we don''t anticipate developing a policy, we do not encourage or promote [student/faculty relationships]."

For MPC Student Trustee Jamie Thompson, the incident involving counselor David Piper and a female student was an isolated one that isn''t reflective of student/faculty relations at MPC.

"I personally don''t know of any current relationships [between students and staff], and I think the Piper incident is very specific in terms of the choices he made," says Thompson.

While Thompson acknowledges the college would have difficulty implementing specific policies preventing dating between students and staff, she says MPC does have policies in place that implicitly discourage such activity.

"In general, the policies at MPC are set for student success and if a relationship hindered that success, it would be discouraged," says Thompson. "The idea of a counselor dating a student is a separate issue to me since any counseling position is more sensitive because you are always dealing with a vulnerable party. For a faculty member it should be left up to the individual."

According to California Community College Association (CCCA) Public Affairs Officer Kyle Orr, the issue of faculty/student dating hasn''t come to his attention among the 106 community colleges in California.

"Although I can''t answer with absolute authority, the issue has not come up across my desk in the last three years I''ve been here," says Thompson, who added that the CCCA has no existing statutes or regulations expressly dealing with the issue of faculty/student dating.

"The education code is pretty sweeping as it applies to community colleges and the question has never come up before, although a lot of times there will be policies established by district boards."

At Hartnell College in Salinas, there are also no fraternization policies in place to prohibit dating, according to Sally Savage of the Human Resources department.

According to Hartnell College Board President Joey Lasnik, such policies would necessarily run into legal difficulties if attempts were made to implement them.

"I don''t know how you could do that," says Lasnik. "I know it happens, and not infrequently, but I don''t see how you can limit it legally. It''s a bit of an invasion of a person''s privacy, and these are adults."

For MPC Counselor Pat Lilley, it is difficult to gauge to what extent faculty/student relationships occur on campus.

"You hear rumors but it is difficult to verify," says Lilley, who does, however, support some kind of school policy regarding fraternization.

"To me, it is certainly unethical for counselors and teachers to have any kind of relationship with students," says Lilley. "Everyone knows they shouldn''t be carrying on with students generally, and even if the student believes it''s ok, it really isn''t because the power structure is so different.

"The student is never equal to the instructor or counselor, and that would be taking unfair advantage of the student for whatever reason."