Had Warburg Professor of Economics John Kenneth Galbraith met his wife today, they probably would never have tied the knot.

Under the present Harvard regulations for sexual harassment, relationships between students and their professors are completely off limits--including the one that launched the courtship and marriage between Galbraith and his wife 55 years ago.

"We liked each other and were interested in the same things," Catherine M. Galbraith '36 says. "I never felt harassed...In the olden days, people had better manners."

But the "olden days" are over, and as sexual harassment remains a serious problem nationwide, debates about the restriction of faculty-student relationships have drawn considerable attention.

Harvard has one of the oldest policy statements on sexual harassment and unprofessional conduct among colleges nationwide, and it has set an example for policies on many other campuses.

Harvard's policy prohibits amorous relationships that occur between any teacher or officer of the University and any student over whom the person holds a position of power, even when there is consent at the outset. It also strongly discourages romantic relationships between students and teachers that occur out of the instructional context.

In March, the University of Virginiatried to ban all romantic relationships--even "overtures"--among professors and all students at the university.

The proposal did not pass, and Virginia adopted a less-restrictive policy similar to Harvard's. But the attempt set off a string of nationwide debates about the legitimacy of relationships between students and teachers.

The basis for these regulations is that there is an inherently unequal power relationship between faculty members and students which can lead to difficulties both inside and outside of the classroom.

Administrators, professors and students, however, appear to have different ideas about the murky line between a friendly coffee break to discuss math problems and a private rendezvous that oversteps the boundaries of professional conduct.

"Any relationship between an official and a student is asymmetric in nature," says Assistant Dean for Co-Education Virginia L. MacKay-Smith '78. "A personal relationship [between a students and his or her professor] opens up the possibility for widespread misinterpretation and abuse."

Even when there appears to be mutual consent between the two parties, administrators say an unequal power relationship still exists.

"There can be no consentual relationship when there is an asymmetrical relationship," says Margot N. Gill, dean for student affairs in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. "Because there is a hierarchical relationship and one party is responsible for judging the work of another, the parties can never predict when that relationship will go sour...this inevitably creates a bias."

Despite the restrictions, however, neither students nor administrators deny that there are many "illicit" relationships on campus.

"We know it exists here," says Joseph J. McCarthy, assistant dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for academic planning. "There's a lot of it going on."