BERKELEY - Six months after UC Berkeley's law school dean resigned in the face of a student's sexual harassment complaint, the University of California Academic Assembly voted to prohibit romantic relationships between faculty and their students.

The policy, which still needs UC regents' approval, would forbid professors from dating current students or students they could reasonably expect to have academic responsibility over in the future.

As it now stands, UC does not have a detailed policy governing faculty-student relationships. The proposed policy was adapted from the Yale University faculty handbook after UC faculty members researched policies at a dozen universities, said Gayle Binion, chairwoman of the Academic Council, the administrative arm of the Academic Senate.

"There are relationship boundaries in all professions where you have to deal with other people," she said. "Doctors don't date their patients. Lawyers aren't supposed to date their clients. ... It's an inappropriate crossing of boundaries."

The faculty assembly voted Wednesday 32-12 in favor with three abstentions. The UC regents will likely take up the issue at their July meeting, where it is expected to pass.

UC Berkeley students expressed some reservations but generally approved of the proposed changes.

Junior James Hammer said the preferential treatment that might develop from a faculty-student relationship could damage the integrity of the grading process. And he said it's smart for the university to detail where it stands on the issue to protect itself against possible lawsuits.

"This is a common-sense step," he said. "In the world we're living in now, it's better for the university to have it spelled out."

Karen Petroski, a second-year student at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, said some change is probably necessary, but wonders whether the proposed policy is too broad and "would cover relationships where there's no abuse of power going on."

The policy change had been in the works long before Boalt dean John Dwyer resigned in November, said Binion, who described the timing as coincidental.

A former student accused Dwyer of sexually assaulting her following a night of drinking while she was still a student and filed a sexual harassment complaint. Dwyer described the relationship as consensual.

In developing the change to the Faculty Code of Conduct, UC faculty reviewed policies at Stanford University, William and Mary and Harvard, among others. Binion characterized the level of strictness in UC's policy as somewhere in the middle of the policies they reviewed. William and Mary, for example, prohibits faculty from dating undergraduates, regardless of the circumstances, without the dean's permission.

Some UC faculty had argued for a "conflict of interest" policy whereby faculty would "recuse" themselves from the student's education if a romantic relationship developed. Others contended the university's existing sexual harassment policy was sufficient. But the assembly wanted to go further, Binion said.

"A faculty member doesn't know if an advance is welcome or unwelcome until the student turns them down, and no student should be put in that position. It's only harassment if you continue to ask. That's not enough protection for the student."

Several students said they didn't know any professors who dated students, although they had heard of graduate student instructors becoming romantically involved with undergraduates. The proposed policy addresses only full faculty members, but Binion predicted the university would place the same prohibition on other academic personnel such as instructors, lecturers and teaching assistants.

The penalties for violating the policy will be determined on a case-by-case basis at the campus level and will range from a letter of censure to dismissal.

In defending the policy, the Academic Assembly explained that a faculty member could reasonably expect to have future academic responsibilities over a student if, for example, the professor teaches a course required of all majors.

On the flip side, few professors could reasonably expect a graduate student enrolled in a different school to take their graduate courses.