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[polly_mer]

My opinion, while not supported by data, is that such relationships rarely happen  because queer women with PhDs are usually acutely aware of (and made queasy by) the imbalance of power in such circumstances.

Huh.  My opinion based on how many people have confided in me about having such relationships is that the people involved are simply more discreet than the heterosexual couples.

[parispundit]

Once upon a time, Henry Kissinger was asked why so many beautiful women found him sexually attractive, despite the fact that he was physically ugly (we'll leave out the politics). His answer was that power is sexy.

This seems to be the case even at our level, and regardless of sexual preference. There is nothing rules or laws can do about it. Ethics have a long history of transgression when it comes to sex. Furthermore (see Plato, not to mention Jane Gallup), there is an inherently erotic aspect to the teacher/student relationship. It is the original "transference", to use Freud-talk.

In short, regardless of the faculty handbook, I personally would STFU, UNLESS 1) you had direct evidence of coercion, or 2) you had direct evidence of academic cheating, in which case you address those, not the sexual relationship per se.

[ruralguy]

Crumpet-

We were really just trying to make the point that if you have evidence, you can go forward if you wish, but if you don't , then don't.
You do not have to tell us any details, but that then does lead some of us to suspect that the evidence is light. And no, you wouldn't have had to witness a specific sex act to have evidence of a relationship.

Again, I think its crappy for an older guy to have a relationship with a mentally disturbed, presumably younger,  female  student (if that is her issue), but I can see how, from their perspective, they are just having some fun or whatever. 

[sixer3]

Crumpet, read through the policy handbook, and highlight any information pertinent to faculty-student romantic relationships.  Then, meet with your chair and let him know that there is a rumor that is being spread about an inappropriate relationships  going on in the department.  You don't have to name names, but ask the chair if you can give a brief spiel about regulations in regards to information in the policy handbook.   And then hopefully, the faculty member will change his behavior, and if not, other faculty will also be on the lookout for any inappropriate behavior between students and faculty. 

[usukprof]

My university has an office to deal with serious student issues; I assume most do.  I'd probably STFU except that if I thought that someone with real mental issues was being exploited, I'd consider contacting this office.  Pre-tenure I would have certainly done it anonymously.  Now I don't know it would matter  The bottom line is that with a sexual abuse case (remember PSU?) I'd have done due diligence in reporting the case to those that ought to determine how to follow through.

And this clearly doesn't seem to raise to the report-to-police standards, but it did make me think of PSU.  I'm happy that my university's chancellor made a statement shortly after PSU that even though our policy was fuzzy on the matter they would expect any suspected sexual abuse to be reported to both campus and city police.  They followed it up by adding this explicit statement to university rules.

[kcdavis6274]

Crumpet: this is a passive-aggressive tactic, but if you're not tenured yet it's wise to cover your own rear. Download Tor (https://www.torproject.org/) and use its browser to create a single-use Yahoo/Hotmail/whatever email account. Alert your department head about what you know, then abandon the email account forever.

Tor will mask your IP and encrypt data packets, making the source of the email difficult to trace. It's about as close to anonymity as you can get, assuming you don't write the message in a characteristic way.