University Etiquette

[snowdragon]

Also for online classes: do not copy from the other class participants. particularly do not cheat off your classmates and then get angry when those you cheated off of call you on it.

background: in my art ed class the teacher has the 'post first' option as default - meaning you can't see other's work til you post yours...well, several my classmates have taken to copy and pasting the questions and copying their answers from others. yesterday I did my work, and posted and then found out that half the people in the class had done the copy and paste thing, with none of their own work there.  I've stated asking if they have tech issues that this happened. One girl called me witch spelled with a b and told me to mind my own business. This same girl lifted whole sections of my work last week, which is how I caught on.  Sorry toots, if you cheat off me it *IS* my business.

[Miriam]

Also for online classes: do not copy from the other class participants. particularly do not cheat off your classmates and then get angry when those you cheated off of call you on it.

background: in my art ed class the teacher has the 'post first' option as default - meaning you can't see other's work til you post yours...well, several my classmates have taken to copy and pasting the questions and copying their answers from others. yesterday I did my work, and posted and then found out that half the people in the class had done the copy and paste thing, with none of their own work there.  I've stated asking if they have tech issues that this happened. One girl called me witch spelled with a b and told me to mind my own business. This same girl lifted whole sections of my work last week, which is how I caught on.  Sorry toots, if you cheat off me it *IS* my business.

Wow tell your professor. All colleges have MAJOR issues with plagiarism. I would keep a copy of your post time and all those who have copied after you.

[poundcake]

Adding some of my class rules.

Remember that the classroom is a community. All the members are important. Don't grandstand, monopolize, or humiliate.

My class is not a place for religious or political discourse.

Do not come to my class stoned or drunk.

Do not eat or drink anything smelly or noisy during my class. A coffee cup is fine. Slurping a Big Gulp through a straw and shaking the ice around repeatedly is not. A candy bar is fine. A meatball sub is not.

Do not come to my class late. If you are late, there is an alternate assignment posted. Once my classroom door is closed, you are late. Do the assignment. Do not come in and argue with me about how you weren't really late.

If your phone rings during my class, I will answer it for you.

Do not bring guests to class. That includes your baby, your little kid, your dog, your SO, your parent, or your friend who is visiting.

Do not record my class or anything in my class without express permission from me.

Do not come to me the week of the final and ask what you have to do to get an A/pass.

Do not ask if you can do extra credit.

Do not ask anything that is not answered clearly in the syllabus. It only shows me that you don't take time to read it.

This is a lecture and discussion class. Do not bring your laptop/iPad/gadgetry unless you need it for a medical purpose or are physically unable to use a pen and paper.

Contact me, as stated in the syllabus, only via university email or in person during my office hours.
 
(I usually hit my students with all the mean teacher stuff up front. Then they are all scared of me, and end up being surprised by how much fun we have and how much they learn during my classes.)

The difference between high school and college classes is huge, and I think it is partially our responsibility to remember that most incoming students (or students returning after years away from a campus) have no clue that what was acceptable in Mr. K's math class is not acceptable in Professor Smith's Topics in Western Civ seminar. I try to lay out even what seems like the most obvious things, because otherwise, students think that they are scoring points by asking if they can do extra credit, record lectures, or want to call me at home/text/be FB friends.

[Jaelle]

I'm just curious. Why are you not OK with recording lectures? I thought it was a very common thing these days.

[violinp]

I'm just curious. Why are you not OK with recording lectures? I thought it was a very common thing these days.

Not poundcake, but I'm assuming that it's a sneaky way to cheat on the final. The brother of a kid I knew recorded the audio of the lectures, then put it on his iPod and listened to that during the final.

[NyaChan]

I'm just curious. Why are you not OK with recording lectures? I thought it was a very common thing these days.

At our school, when kids know class is getting recorded, the attendance drops by half since students figure they can just get the recording later.  Profs are required to record makeup classes though since technically students didn't agree to attend class at any time other than what was originally listed.  Another reason one of my profs asks us not to record classes beyond what she does officially is so that if she says something in class that isn't exactly professional (makes a joke, uses a bad word, or criticizes something at the institution) there won't be an audio/video recording of it that might either be turned in or go viral on youtube.

[Milash]

I'm just curious. Why are you not OK with recording lectures? I thought it was a very common thing these days.

Not poundcake, but I'm assuming that it's a sneaky way to cheat on the final. The brother of a kid I knew recorded the audio of the lectures, then put it on his iPod and listened to that during the final.

He was allowed to listen to his Ipod during an exam?? We are not even allowed more than a few pens and that is it when we do a final. ( Obviously people who need to write their finals in another way are accommodated at another venue) The majority of our lectures are recorded but we have to agree that we will only use the recordings for our own study. Maybe its a copyright issue and they don't want their original lecture notes handed to other professors or put in academic papers as other students ideas.

[violinp]

I'm just curious. Why are you not OK with recording lectures? I thought it was a very common thing these days.

Not poundcake, but I'm assuming that it's a sneaky way to cheat on the final. The brother of a kid I knew recorded the audio of the lectures, then put it on his iPod and listened to that during the final.

He was allowed to listen to his Ipod during an exam?? We are not even allowed more than a few pens and that is it when we do a final. ( Obviously people who need to write their finals in another way are accommodated at another venue) The majority of our lectures are recorded but we have to agree that we will only use the recordings for our own study. Maybe its a copyright issue and they don't want their original lecture notes handed to other professors or put in academic papers as other students ideas.

Yup. They were allowed to listen to iPods. And the kid I knew was so embarrassed that her brother would even think to cheat that way.

[kherbert05]

This relates to residential life as well as general university ettiquette.

12) Don't slam doors at 2 a.m. The people on your hall have class in the morning and want to go to bed.
13) If your school doesn't let you have certain things in the dorm, please don't bring them. Or if you do, don't throw a fit when you're caught with them.
14) If it's illegal, don't keep it in the dorm room. The roommate(s)/suitemate(s) could get in trouble even if they never knew about it.
15) For discussion-based classes, be prepared to actually speak with the rest of the class. It's frustrating to be the only person besides the professor talking for the whole time.
16) Don't say things in class which are disproportionate to what's going on. Not talking in class ≠ putting one's classmates in slavery (actual thing said). That one's just plain offensive, actually, but y'all get the gist.

If you (admin/RA's) tell students that they will be held criminally libel if campus cops find illegal drugs/acholol in the room, do not say there is nothing you can do when an honest/non illegal substance using student reports her high as a kite can't walk down the stairs because she is floating roommate. Suggesting she has undiagnosed diabetes is not a good excuse for not doing something. Also your it is a free world we can't question students like this doesn't hold water after I was question for an extensive period of time after someone broke into my room to steal my epi kit to try and harm herself. Thank goodness she bent the needle and couldn't inject herself (this is before epipens)


While on that subject of epi, RA's should be told that the proper response to help me I can't breath because I've been exposed to Peanuts is not Leave me alone I have a party to get to. (Thankfully other people heard and got me to the ER) (To give them some credit she was not an RA the next year)


Sensitive subject in white


















Do not let the RA's and their supervisor hold Inquisitions dragging the roommates, suitemates, and  friends of a girl that attempted suicide in front of panels to be question about why they didn't stop her. Once I realized what was going on (I thought it was some type of mandatory counciling.), I got up told them I would not be answering their questions and my lawyer was X at  X firm in Houston - and dragged the other victims out of the room. Put them in a car and went to my cousin's house to call my parents and our lawyer. Then I had to talk my cousin and her DH out of stringing the whole lot of them up by their toenails.  You can bet there was an about face in attitude after that - most of the RA's and SA's gave me a wide berth after that. (Side note - our lawyer is also my "uncle". He and Dad went to K - University together.)

[cabbagegirl28]

This relates to residential life as well as general university ettiquette.

12) Don't slam doors at 2 a.m. The people on your hall have class in the morning and want to go to bed.
13) If your school doesn't let you have certain things in the dorm, please don't bring them. Or if you do, don't throw a fit when you're caught with them.
14) If it's illegal, don't keep it in the dorm room. The roommate(s)/suitemate(s) could get in trouble even if they never knew about it.
15) For discussion-based classes, be prepared to actually speak with the rest of the class. It's frustrating to be the only person besides the professor talking for the whole time.
16) Don't say things in class which are disproportionate to what's going on. Not talking in class ≠ putting one's classmates in slavery (actual thing said). That one's just plain offensive, actually, but y'all get the gist.

If you (admin/RA's) tell students that they will be held criminally libel if campus cops find illegal drugs/acholol in the room, do not say there is nothing you can do when an honest/non illegal substance using student reports her high as a kite can't walk down the stairs because she is floating roommate. Suggesting she has undiagnosed diabetes is not a good excuse for not doing something. Also your it is a free world we can't question students like this doesn't hold water after I was question for an extensive period of time after someone broke into my room to steal my epi kit to try and harm herself. Thank goodness she bent the needle and couldn't inject herself (this is before epipens)


While on that subject of epi, RA's should be told that the proper response to help me I can't breath because I've been exposed to Peanuts is not Leave me alone I have a party to get to. (Thankfully other people heard and got me to the ER) (To give them some credit she was not an RA the next year)

That is terrible that an RA would act like that. Our RA's do funny stuff sometimes, like have lightsaber fights with people or tease them a little (they do also write people up when necessary), but I'm sure that a lot of punishment would come down swiftly if they treated residents that way.

[Mopsy428]

Professors: if you are going to use a guest lecturer who is giving the same lecture for different classes , please tell your students, especially if most of them are taking both classes.

I took two classes on the same day, and the first class we had a guest lecturer That was fine. I took notes. The class ended. 3 hours later, in a different class with the same professor, we had a "surprise" guest lecturer. It was the same guest lecturer, and yes, she was giving the exact same talk that she did 3 hours before.  Many of us were not amused and left.

[poundcake]

I'm just curious. Why are you not OK with recording lectures? I thought it was a very common thing these days.

Cheating potential aside, it personally makes me very self-conscious, and hampers class discussion. No, I don't want to end up on YouTube!  It's also becoming more common for some classes to be recorded for online streaming by the university, and can actually create a conflict of "who owns the material?" the student or the school, so yes to the copyright issue as well.

[jeni]

I'm glad I found this thread! I can really relate to some of the issues mentioned.  I work full time and study part time at uni, sometimes on campus and sometimes online.   When I actually get to campus, I really hate it when:

- students carry on conversations during lectures, that's just so rude, why do they even bother going, clearly they are not listening.
- students sitting behind you in lecture theatre put their feet in between the seat you are sitting in and the one next to you - just gross.
- when they kick or jiggle the back of your seat

When they do these things I just move when I can or turn and ask them to stop.

I hate giving presentations and one time it was an important one, and two students were giggling and chatting and it was so distracting. I really should have said something but I didn't, I was too nervous, and their behaviour put me off completely.

I would like some advice on something. Currently I'm in a class that varies between 10-15 people and in tutorial sessions we are supposed to actively engage in discussion on whatever the weekly tutorial tasks have been.  The problem is only about 3-4 people have ever actually done the questions before the tute class (the lecturer asks) and only about 3 people will ever speak.  You guessed it, I'm one of them.  After the first few weeks when this pattern became evident, I now sit back as long as I can and wait, wait and wait for someone else to speak before I say anything.

Sometimes I just say nothing at all and the lecturer launches into an explanation (sometimes I feel like an idiot because I do know what she is talking about), but I don't want to be the only one to speak.  Occasionally the lecturer has pointed to individuals and asked questions and they have just ignored her! I feel it's disrespectful not to answer, even if you're not sure surely a simple 'I'm not sure' is better than ignoring the lecturer?

My question is, how long to wait before offering an answer or asking a question myself?

[kitty-cat]

It's finals week at my uni and here's what I've seen:

Ya know that big sign with a cell phone in a circle with a line through it. With the caption that says "3rd and 4th floors are designated quiet areas". That means don't talk on the 3rd or 4th floor in anything above a slight whisper. This is why the good lord invented paper and pencil for notes and texting with your phone on silent...

[Wulfie]

I'm glad I found this thread! I can really relate to some of the issues mentioned.  I work full time and study part time at uni, sometimes on campus and sometimes online.   When I actually get to campus, I really hate it when:

- students carry on conversations during lectures, that's just so rude, why do they even bother going, clearly they are not listening.
- students sitting behind you in lecture theatre put their feet in between the seat you are sitting in and the one next to you - just gross.
- when they kick or jiggle the back of your seat

I only wish this ended when people graduate!!  In order to keep my license, I have to attend at least 8 hours of continuing ed each year. My company requires MUCH more than that however.  I recently went to 2 classes the same week and at both of them, I saw exactly these kinds of things.

 The first one was about mental health for social service providers. We had two people doing a part of the class called "In their own words". These were two people who have been battling serious mental illness and were there telling us what it was like from their point of view.  I had a bunch of people start talking about this party they were going to after class. These were people in their 40s! They were the same people that slammed around getting coffee and bagels during the morning part of the class disrupting everyone's concentration.  Fortunately the instructor heard them and at the break called them aside and laid into them.  They sat their for the rest of the afternoon kicking seats, shoving tables when they went past them and in general, acting like 2 year olds.

At another class 2 days later on immigration law for the non-lawyer. I was late so grabbed the first seat I saw which was up in the front corner The people behind me were city council members for one of the smaller suburb cities. I learned all about what was going on in their city. Some of it was stuff I am pretty sure should not be discussed in public like it was! One of the ladies kept kicking my seat.  I mean CONSTANTLY kicking my seat. She was swinging her foot in a huge arc and kicking the back of my seat every single time. I finally turned around and asked her to stop as it was getting very painful. She told me where I could go and what I could do when I got there! I got up and moved to another area of the room during the first break. One of the presenters came to me during the break and asked what was going on, they had seen me say something to the woman behind me during her talk, I explained and apologized for disrupting her. She told me that this city council group is well known in the area for their poor behavior and they were probably only there to make a show of supporting immigration reform since it is an election year for most of them.