Whether it's seeing them have one too many at the bars on Friday night or reading about them being charged with drug possession, its clear to students that professors aren't perfect.
In a city such as Chico, the decisions professors make outside school can have a significant impact on their professional lives. But how much?
"When you're influencing people at a level as high as an educator, you should be cautious of how the choices you're making in your personal life are affecting your professional life," said graduate student May Her. "Ideally I think professors should be role models."
Others think the opposite applies and condone a professor's right to act like a normal person.
"Professors shouldn't be held to a higher moral standard than anyone else," said Phillip Eddy, a freshman psychology major. "They are real people with real issues and frailties. Sometimes it's inevitable that students will be affected by their baggage."
Although appropriate professor behavior exists more as an unwritten code of conduct, the Faculty Personnel Policies and Procedures state professors must "assiduously avoid any behavior that would interfere with or bring dishonor to the university."
Robert Burton, a professor in the English department, said the executive memorandums don't address every scenario.
"They cover a wide range of behavior that is appropriate in the classroom and beyond," Burton said. "But a lot is left unwritten."
Professors may not be obligated by contract to do or not do certain things, but they have a responsibility to the students and the university.
"As a professor, you are representing something bigger than yourself," said Jessica Reaber, a junior recreation major. "If you don't give a crap about the establishment, that's fine. It's your choice."
What a professor chooses to do on his or her own time is not a big deal, but those choices should not have a negative impact on the professor's reputation or his or her performance in the classroom, Reaber said.
"If I see a professor out, that's totally cool," Reaber said. "But not plastered. I feel like I don't want to learn from or work with someone I don't respect."
To ensure this, some students think professors should steer clear of popular college hangouts altogether, said Jamela Pugh, a sophomore social work major.
"I don't think they should even be at the same bars as students," Pugh said.
Russell Shapiro, a geological and environmental sciences professor, tries to avoid potentially awkward social situations with his students altogether, he said.
"It is nice to see students at say, Farmers' Market, but I avoid concerts because it would be awkward to see students in more party-type situations," Shapiro said in an e-mail.
Burton said despite the gray area between what students and professors deem appropriate behavior, professors should know where to draw the line.
"As a professor, you'd be silly to over-drink or over-indulge when you're aware there's students around," he said.
Another major point in the faculty manual is that although faculty "may follow subsidiary interests, these interests never hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry or the dissemination of knowledge."
As far as seeing students in a context outside the classroom, Burton enjoys it, he said.
Recently, one of his students bartended for him at Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and said the situation was not awkward because he wasn't trying to keep up the student-teacher relationship.
"At that point, you are no longer their professor, and they are no longer your student," Burton said.
Chico doesn't make it easy for awkward student-teacher run-ins, but some professors think the small town fosters fluidity in the relationship.
Religious studies professor Sarah Pike said she enjoys running into her students outside class because she likes them to see she is a real person, she said.
"It shows students that we don't just live in a vacuum," Pike said. "We have lives, and we are real people."
Amanda Drew can be reached at adrew@theorion.com
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