What actual legal distinction exists between “I was sexually harassed in the park” and “I was sexually harassed in my teacher’s office”? Colleges are assuming way more authority than they are entitled to — and it’s obvious why — their only purpose is to downgrade actual crimes to mere “impoliteness” which magically deserves no more than a frowny face.

And, if they’re going to have their own law “enforcement” then they should have their own prison system. Or be required to pay the public courts and jails when the need arises. It’s like they want their cake and eat it too. Tuition money pays for administrative judges with no public oversight, no consistency from school to school, and very little accountability for the criminal; yet the taxes of the student’s parents must still pay for public police protection so they’re paying twice.

Btw, I want to be a “school” or a “corporation” with this amount of authority, and anybody who suffers a crime in my jurisdiction has to allow me to be judge jury and prison. Seems fair.

I found it flattering, and a little sad, and it is a different scenario from unwanted advances because the student is hoping at least a little to be advanced upon. But I also recall being graphically aware of what a narcissistic a$$hat I would have had to be to understand such flirting as consent for me to take things to the level of sex/romance — or even flirting back.

But not all my colleagues felt that way. I think for some it was a way to play out feelings of dominance and power that they didn’t have access to among faculty colleagues, and in a way they felt they could not be punished for. For others, women and men, a peculiar haze enveloped them, in which they came to believe that no one else would ever know about this relationship with a student, and it would be a special thing that blended romance with nurturing this students intellectual gifts. Which was, of course, insane. And everyone around them knew, because you can tell when someone’s endorphins are going through the roof when they are with a particular person, but mostly folks didn’t have the ‘nads to say anything. I did say something, twice, and each time time the colleague responded with shame and fear, and then avoided me completely for the time it took for the affair to run its course.

It may be that most older White American faculty have no sexual interest in Black women. Although I have no idea how one would determine this. But, this hardly makes young Black women safe from sexual harassment at universities. Primarily, because there are a lot of universities in the world that are not overwhelmingly White even among the faculty. There are a lot more Black people in Africa than there are people total in the US. It would be nice if sexual harassment were not a problem at African universities. But, we haven’t eliminated it yet.

We have sexual harassment here in Legon very similar to what exists in the US and almost all our students are Black as are most of our faculty. Some older Black professors sometimes act in the same inappropriate manner towards female students as what is described in the post. The university is now cracking down on it. In large part as a result of pressure from active women faculty. But, sexual harassment is not something by any means unique to White people.