“At no point, before or after, did the policy seem unclear,” Bennett says.

Still, not all Harvard resident tutors follow the rules.

Wilson says he had a friend who applied to be a proctor four years ago, and although the Freshman Dean’s Office “loved him,” his girlfriend was a junior at the time and so he was turned down.

Wilson also says a tutor in his House is currently dating a former student of his, although the relationship didn’t begin until well after the student graduated.

While most tutors and officials cite termination of tutor responsibilities as the obvious reason not to break the rules, others see breaching the limits of an appropriate relationship as detrimental to doing the job itself.

“It seems like a phenomenally terrible idea, crossing those boundaries, if for no other reason than that I don’t think the job would be very fun anymore,” Bennett says.

Some have reasons extending beyond the call of duty. “I must admit that it drastically drains one’s eligible dating pool and feels a bit doctrinaire, but there are certainly many situations where it could undermine your effectiveness as a resident tutor,” Moulton says. “The way I view it, a night of fun isn’t worth a year of rent.”

—Staff writer Bari M. Schwartz can be reached at bschwart@fas.harvard.edu.

—Material from the Associated Press was used in the reporting of this story.