Relationship Management Policy

Title: Relationship Management Policy

Responsible Official: Vice President for Equity

Responsible University Office: Office of Equity

Review Period: 5 Years

Date of Last Review: Reviewed in 2023; Last revised on August 21, 2024 (formerly Consensual Relationship Policy).

Related legislation & University 

policies: Sexual Harassment Policy; Nepotism Policy

Relates to: All Faculty, Students, Employees, Postdoctoral Fellows and Scholars; Third Party (staffing agency, temporary and other) Employees;

Case Western Reserve University (“CWRU”) is a community that values learning and working environments of inclusion, trust, and respect. Due to intimacy and/or power imbalance, certain personal relationships between members of the CWRU community may create actual or perceived inequities, exploitation, or favoritism, all of which are detrimental to the university learning and working environment. 

A personal relationship in this Policy is a current or former dating, marital, romantic, or sexual relationship, or other interdependent relationship, that falls outside of the professional or academic contexts through which the persons in the relationship know each other. To be a personal relationship, the dating, marital, romantic, sexual or interdependent interactions must be substantial enough that a reasonable person, knowing of the relationship, would believe that actual or perceived inequity, exploitation or favoritism could result.

A personal relationship may involve a power imbalance between the persons in the relationship. Power imbalanced relationships may involve the following: 

1. Academic power: A person may have academic power over another through teaching, grading, advising, evaluating, supervising or collaborating on research, serving on a dissertation or other academic committee, overseeing academic progress and/or funding, when that person can impact or is reasonably perceived by the university to be able to impact the academic progress or academic standing of the other person. 
2. Professional power: One person has the actual or perceived ability, because of position, title, rank, or professional standing to act (such as writing a letter of recommendation, recommending a person for a position, hiring or terminating the employment of a person) to benefit the other’s professional advancement or damage the other person’s professional potential or professional reputation 
3. Coercive power: One person in the relationship can use the threat of punishment to compel the other to perform certain actions or refrain from performing others. 
4. Reward power: A person with reward power can incentivize the other person in the relationship to perform a certain act or refrain from doing so in exchange for a benefit. 
5. Financial power: One person in the relationship controls the others’ access to sufficient housing, food, medical care and other basic needs. 

1. Prohibited Relationships

There are certain circumstances when personal relationships, because of the power imbalance between the participants, are prohibited at CWRU. 

1. Undergraduate students. 
   1. Personal relationships between an undergraduate student and a faculty member or other employee of the university are prohibited as are efforts to solicit such relationships. 
   2. Personal relationships between an undergraduate student and a post-doctoral scholar or fellow are prohibited, as are efforts to solicit such relationships.
   3. Personal relationships between an undergraduate student and a student employee who, by virtue of the employment, is in a position of academic authority over the undergraduate student (such as Teaching Assistants for a class or lab in which the undergraduate student is enrolled) are prohibited, as are efforts to solicit such relationships.
   4. Personal relationships between a first-year undergraduate student and a student employed as a Resident Assistant when the first-year undergraduate student and the Resident Assistant reside in the same CWRU residence hall. 
   5. Personal relationships between an undergraduate student and a third-party employee (including but not limited to an employee of a staffing agency or third-party partner to CWRU) are prohibited, as are efforts to solicit such relationships. 

2. Graduate students performing research required to obtain their degree. Personal relationships between a graduate student and any person supervising the research being conducted by that graduate student in furtherance of their degree (including, but not limited to, the supervising principal investigator/academic advisor, a post-doctoral scholar or fellow, or others responsible for managing laboratory operations and personnel in the laboratory) are prohibited. Efforts to solicit these relationships are also prohibited.

3. Post-doctoral scholars and fellows. Personal relationships between a post-doctoral scholar or fellow and any person to whom the post-doctoral scholar or fellow reports, including, but not limited to, the supervising principal investigator/supervisor, or others responsible for managing laboratory operations and personnel in the laboratory, are prohibited because of the inherent power imbalance between the participants.  Efforts to solicit these relationships are also prohibited. 

Exceptions. The Vice President for Equity has discretion to consider whether personal relationships that are prohibited under this policy involve pre-existing or unusual circumstances that indicate that an otherwise prohibited relationship may be permitted in a manner that does not impair the intent and goals of this policy.

2. Permitted Relationships Requiring Management

There are certain circumstances in which a personal relationship, because of the actual or perceived power imbalance between the participants, may be permitted, provided the relationship  is disclosed to the Office of Equity and managed pursuant to this policy. These relationships include: 

1. Personal relationships between a university employee (including, but not limited to faculty and staff members, post-doctoral scholars and fellows, and third-party employees) and another university employee, over whom the first employee is in a position of authority or where a power imbalance exists. These relationships include: 
   1. A university employee who directly supervises an individual with whom the employee has a personal relationship;
   2. A university employee who indirectly supervises an individual with whom the employee has a personal relationship, or directly or indirectly supervises an employee who evaluates or supervises the individual in a relationship with the first university employee.
   3. A university employee who has authority to make or influence a hiring decision for an individual with whom the employee has a personal relationship;
   4. A faculty member who has authority to vote on or recommend the appointment, promotion or tenure of an individual with whom the faculty member has a personal relationship;
   5. A university employee who has authority to make decisions that favor an individual with whom the employee has a personal relationship by prioritizing, funding, or allocating resources to the individual’s work areas or assignments, or who has authority to cause negative treatment of an individual with whom the university employee is in a personal relationship; and
   6. Two university employees, who are in a personal relationship with one another, are peers in the same unit and do not directly influence one another’s employment, but reasonably could do so in the future. 

2. Personal relationships between a university employee and a graduate or professional student over whom the employee is in a position of authority. These relationships include:

1. A faculty member who grades the work of a graduate or professional student with whom the faculty member has a personal relationship; and
2. A faculty member on a committee that is tasked with making a decision that will impact a graduate or professional student’s academic progress or standing, such as a dissertation committee, academic standards committee, or other committee.

3. Personal relationships between a post-doctoral scholar or fellow, and a university employee, over whom the post-doctoral scholar or fellow is in a position of authority. 
4. Personal relationships between an undergraduate student and a student employed as a Resident Assistant employee when the undergraduate student and the Resident Assistant reside in in the same CWRU residence hall.

3. Responsibility to Disclose Personal Relationships 

When a permitted personal relationship, as described in Section B above, exists, both parties in the personal relationship must promptly disclose the relationship to the Office of Equity. 

Faculty, staff, post-doctoral scholars and fellows, and student employees with supervisory authority over other faculty, staff, post-doctoral scholars and fellows, or student employees, or academic power over students, who become aware of a personal relationship as described in Sections A or B above, have a responsibility to report the personal relationship to the Office of Equity. 

D. Permitted Relationship Management Policy

The university is committed to managing permitted personal relationships to preserve its learning and working environments and avoid actual or perceived inequity, exploitation or favoritism. The Office of Equity has the final authority to approve management plans.

1. Permitted personal relationships must be managed by: 

1. Removing a party to the relationship from the position that creates the power imbalance; or 
2. Effectively mitigating the power imbalance through management of the relationship.

2. Permitted personal relationships between a faculty member and a graduate or professional student must be managed by eliminating the faculty member’s authority over the student. This may require: 

1. Moving the student to a different course not taught by the faculty member;
2. Removing the faculty member from assignment to teach a course, or serve on a committee or from any other position which is the source of the power imbalance; and 
3. Removing the student out of the faculty member’s authority in a manner that does not materially disadvantage the student. 

As appropriate, based on the parties to the relationship, a responsible administrator designated by the Office of Human Resources, the Office of the Provost, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, Residence Life, or other appropriate office, must develop a  written management plan to promote impartiality in subsequent employment or academic oversight and decision-making. The management plan should be developed and implemented in consultation with school or department personnel with relevant knowledge of the academic, research, residence hall or business areas involving the parties.  Both parties to the permitted relationship, as well as any other individuals serving a role in the management of the relationship should sign and comply with the management plan.  The  completed management plan shall  be updated annually and shared with the Office of Equity. 

A management plan may involve the following: 

1. Restructuring the conditions of the employment or academic association of the parties in the personal relationship; 
2. Removing the hiring, termination or other employment decision-making authority from one of the parties;
3. Reassigning one or more job responsibilities (such as evaluation) of one or both parties to someone else; 
4. Arranging for one or both parties to recuse themself from certain evaluations or decisions impacting or potentially impacting the other party; and/or
5. Make no changes to employment decision-making, and include a neutral third person, with authority or position that equals or exceeds that of the more senior party to the personal relationship, to participate in decision-making and annual evaluations regarding the more junior party.  

The more senior university employee (including faculty, staff, post-doctoral scholars and fellows, and student employees) in the personal relationship that is managed pursuant to this policy section and the responsible administrator (as designated above) have a professional responsibility to annually evaluate, or cause an annual evaluation to occur, of the more junior person. 

A management plan may continue after the personal relationship ends. 

5. Reporting Concerns to the Office of Equity 

Conduct between persons in prohibited or permitted personal relationships may become unwelcome or nonconsensual, which can create concerns about the presence of sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment. Persons in personal relationships covered by this Policy with concerns about sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment (which itself includes quid pro quo sexual harassment, hostile environment sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, stalking, online harassment and sexual exploitation), or others who become aware of such concerns, should report those concerns to the Office of Equity, the Title IX Coordinator or the Office of Equity anonymous concern form.  

6. Right to Remedy Unprofessional Conduct

Persons engaged in permitted or managed personal relationships are expected to conduct themselves so that neither they, nor their personal relationship, negatively impact the academic or professional environment or become a significant and/or continuing distraction to others in the university’s academic or professional environment. Conduct which may negatively impact the academic or professional environment includes, but is not limited to: 

1. Treating the other person in the relationship differently from others similarly situated, such as withholding documents or information, or behaving in a hostile or demeaning manner, or employing a hostile or demeaning tone of voice or approach.
2. Disparaging the other person in the relationship to university employees or students, for purposes other than to receive support, and who do not have an academic or work-related reason to know the information.
3. Engaging in verbal or physical displays of physical intimacy not appropriate for the location and/or time.
4. Sharing personal information unrelated to academic or professional aspects of the university with university employees or students, for reasons other than to receive support, and who do not have an academic or work-related  reason to know the information. Such information may include, but is not limited to, details about a person’s sexual activity, interests or fetishes; reasons for a break-up, divorce or separation; issues of contention or disagreement in divorce or dissolution proceedings; relationship or marital infidelity; descriptions of a person’s real or hypothesized mental health condition or prescriptions taken for mental health; and accusations that a person has an addiction or has violated a state or federal law or regulation relating to personal, family or domestic matters. 

The Office of Equity, in conjunction with the Office of the Provost, the Office of Human Resources, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, Residence Life or other appropriate office will investigate reports that one or more parties to a personal relationship are engaging in conduct that negatively impacts the academic or professional environment. If needed to preserve the academic or professional environment, and in accordance with applicable university policies, interim action may be taken, up to and including removal of one or more parties to a personal relationship from the academic or professional environment. To preserve the academic or employment environment, not only for the parties to the relationship but for others in the environment, the Office of Equity may issue, as appropriate, No Contact Directives or Persona Non Grata orders which, depending on the parties’ positions, may be perceived by one or both parties as inconvenient or burdensome.   

7. Noncompliance with Policy

Allegations, reports, or other information relating to prohibited or undisclosed permitted personal relationships will be investigated. Any alleged failure to comply with a management plan or alleged conduct negatively impacting an academic or professional environment will be investigated. Faculty, staff, post-doctoral scholars and fellows, and student employees with supervisory authority over other faculty, staff, post-doctoral scholars and fellows, and student employees, or academic power over students, post-doctoral scholars or fellows, must report all allegations of violations of this policy to the Office of Equity. 

Persons in violation of this Policy are subject to discipline pursuant to the applicable university policies and procedures. 

8. Policy Administration

Any faculty member, staff member, student or post-doctoral scholar or fellow may seek advice about this policy from the Office of Equity. 

References: Faculty Handbook; Student Handbooks; Academic Program handbooks; Staff HR policies; policies promulgated by the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, Residence Life, Human Resources, and the Office of the Provost; the CWRU Nondiscrimination policy and statements, and the CWRU policy prohibiting sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment.