It really is the one, universal rule that is repeatedly pointed out to career academics, from when you start TAing onward: do not sleep with your students. Thi

It really is the one, universal rule that is repeatedly pointed out to career academics, from when you start TAing onward: do not sleep with your students. This rule has existed for an enormous length of time, and exists at essentially all universities. It so continually repeated that its repetition, even to the exclusion of pretty much anything else that might be useful, like training about actual teaching, is a common joke. This isn't even just to protect the student, and I expect that the rule was originally developed when universities didn't care about the potential for the student being abused: it also causes a potential for unfairness to everyone else, especially when the relationship is clandestine. Academia is somewhat unusual in that relationships within research communities and universities need to be allowed, are rather common and accepted, and often even need to be accommodated by universities. Strict restrictions on them at some universities in the past actually caused serious problems at times. Many situations are accepted, so long as they are appropriately handled, even when there are close professional connections involved, and even, sometimes, between faculty and graduate students, when the student isn't their student. But sleeping with your students has always been a deadly sin in academia. And this appears to be a case of someone trying to argue that, while he slept with his student, she wasn't really his student at the time. That's a difficult argument to make.