Is it okay for university professors to be "friends" with studets on Facebook?

Question

I think this guy is a loser, desperate for "friends" and that's why he has linked himself with these ex-students.

Answer 1

No. better not.

Answer 2

I happen to be a university professor [undergraduate philosophy and mathematics mostly] and so am the best qualified person here---by the odds-- to answer this thorny ethical dilemma.

And I can assure you that I am not the friend of ANY of my students, rather the converse, a mortal enemy who stands in a position of Satan.

I actually had a sot of a female who was POed about an abyssmal score on a philosophy exam threaten to sue me for sexual harrassment if I didn't change the grade from an F to at least a B.  I said "Go right ahead you filthy w***e, everybody on the faculty knows I'm openly g*y."

In another class a certain ignoramus decided to interrupt the class I was teaching [something I'd never seen in the UK] and started mouthing off so I locked his *** in an Aikido hold and dragged his bloody **** in the hall and took him straight to security.

My students either love me as a type of wise old curmudgeon like Lao Tzu or utterly despise me and wish me dead because of the difficulty of my classes, some of which are mandatory, and the fact that I'm a severe critic of the Political Correctness movement and the phony liberalism in the USA.

At least the liberalism in Europe or the UK is for real.  I have no time to waste on sexual escapades with my students and it is not sexual desire that overcomes me from time to time but rather homicidal desire to choke the living **** out of some ignorant product of America's failed education system.

But this aging professor isn't the typical nerdy type. With a 97-2-3 record in mixed martial arts tournament and with service in the British SAS, I'm not going to take any **** from some loud-mouthed ignoramus of a bloody Yank.

Answer 3

This is a tough one. On my account, I have had past professors add me ad their friends (both men and women), but it was never done during the semester. I agree that a professional distance should be kept, but when I attended a small ivy league university, the classes were so small you developed a friendship with the professors while still keeping a "professional distance."  In the case of your fellow students, your school needs to know about this particular professor. Girls can have a hard enough time getting through the college experience without having some pig professor oogling them. I would try to convince these girls to report him as soon as possible and save some other students some grief.

Answer 4

No.  It is not profesional for a teahcer or professor to be friends with students.  They have to keep their distance.  Sorry, that is life.  If the professor does cross "the line", then he and the students will have problems in teaching and learning.