One person’s heartfelt erotic fantasy is another’s Exhibit A in a sexual harassment suit. That’s why every workplace is supposed to have rules about lovin’, touchin’, squeezin’ another while on the clock. Paul Abramson, alas, feels the rules at his workplace are too strict. Abramson teaches at UCLA.

Abramson, a psychology professor at UCLA, has written a new book arguing that a little professor-on-student romancing isn’t a problem if done right, and rules against such couplings should be removed. Of course, those rules are there in the first place because such things are almost never done right, and even the suggestion of making the student-teacher relationship more hands-on can produce a feeling of intimidation (and possibly, mild to severe nausea).

Recognizing this, Abramson proposes the introduction of written “love contracts”, which of course will solve everything since no one ever violates a contract. Just ask any lawyer. Or any of Abramson’s three ex-wives.Professor Abramson takes a relentless high-minded approach to his subject, and if you don’t, tough– his book, Romance in the Ivory Tower: The Rights and Liberty of Conscience, has nothing to titillate you. According to the L.A. Times:

Readers looking for sexy material will be disappointed by his 172-page volume, unless they get turned on by constitutional law and copious references to Jefferson, Madison and the 9th Amendment. There are no steamy scenes of stolen kisses in library cubicles.

The Times also quotes a number of critics of Abramson and his love contracts, such as the president of UC’s systemwide student association, Oiyan Poon. But Abramson isn’t going to let the thoughts of Poon or others stand in his way. He’s fighting for liberty. He’s fighting for love.

Tags: Love, Oiyan Poon, Paul Abramson, Romance, Sexual Harassment, UCLA