Mutual respect, honesty, and fairness are critical in any collaborative scientific efforts involving two or more people but perhaps no place is it more important than in the student-teacher relationship. Recognizing the uniqueness and importance of this relationship, many professional organizations even discuss it in their creeds. For example, the American Chemical Society’s Chemist’s Code of Conduct states:
"Associates. Chemists should treat associates with respect, regardless of the level of their formal education, encourage them, learn with them, share ideas honestly, and give credit for their contributions."
In part this is due to the status and power differentials in the relationship. Clear communication on both sides of the advising relationship is key to minimizing difficulties – advisors and their students often are from different cultures, generations, and family backgrounds. Significant problems don’t arise very often but when they do, they are often graphic and extreme. Examples of abuses of the faculty-student relationship might include advisors asking students to do personal work such as baby-sitting, mowing lawns or raking leaves, photocopying exams, etc. (exploitation) or advisors imposing unwanted emotional or physical demands on students in the form of unwanted physical contact (e.g., touching), sexual or racial jokes, sexual comments about your body or physical appearance, social or sexual requests, etc. (sexual harassment)