The Connections class for fall 2006 is going to do a session on SHU etiquette centering around how students can appropriately present themselves to faculty and staff on campus. E-mail, phone, meetings, classroom, verbal encounters are all open for discussion.
With this in mind, will you please give your replies to the following so that we can relay to the students what SHU expects of them.
E-mail me your comments when done.
YOUR COMMENTS WILL BE ANONYMOUS!!!!
Thank You,
Lynda Sukolsky
Please share with others on campus that will have some comments to make on this subject
What is your best piece of advice on how to interact with faculty/staff appropriately?
What is your pet peeve in the classroom around student behavior?
How would you instruct a student to e-mail and/or phone you?
When meeting with a student, the student should….
Additional advice or “don’t ever do this”.
BONUS– anyone have any real life stories they can share of what not to do? ALL PARTIES REMAIN ANONYMOUSWhat is your best piece of advice on how to interact with faculty/staff appropriately? (Seton Hill University — Connections)
It’s our obligation as members of an educational community to tell our students what behavior is appropriate, and to reinforce our expectations on a regular basis. Asking students to investigate the boundaries is a great opportunity to get them thinking about such expectations. This time of year, I’m sure plenty of SHU faculty and staff will share horror stories.
But I’m concerned that our contributions may contribute to the impression that we hate students, or that we think they aren’t capable of improvement.
It’s not only students who violate social norms. I’ve worked with professors or staff members who put girlie pics on their screen savers (visible from the hallway), abused their positions of authority in the classroom during election season, mocked students behind their backs, misused university equipment (taking laptops home over the weekend so their teenagers could play games with it, then returning the laptop on Monday infested with a virus that incapacitated the software I was hired to use… I’m still bitter about that, in case you can’t tell), hit “send” without thinking, and left telephone messages when they were too angry to see straight.
And while I have plenty examples of student missteps to contribute, every day I work with students who are better writers, more advanced thinkers, more socially conscious citizens, and simply better human beings than I was when I was an undergrad.
Arnzen’s Top 5 Piece of Advice to Students:
1) Address me as “Herr Doktor Arnzen” in the hallways; in class or during office hours, you can drop the accent.
2) Never offer me a drink from your cup if you use glitter-encrusted lipstick.
3) Raise a hand if you have a question. No stretching allowed. If your muscles need stretching, then think.
4) If you do not have a hand, one will be provided for you; however, it will be a used one from the previous term and may be, um, slightly soiled.
5) Always wear a corporate logo on a conspicuous article of clothing when attending class. Undergarments that say “just do it” don’t count.
I keed, I keed! But I share the same concerns. And having read Foucault, I’m all too aware that manner guides always encode a class difference, to separate the “trained” from the unclean masses. Etiquette is always ideology.
Of course, it’s still nice when a student doesn’t interrupt the learning environment.