You can do your part to ensure a welcoming, professional classroom climate by:

• Speak to your classmates, course assistants and instructors with courtesy and professionalism. The classroom atmosphere is informal, but avoid off-color jokes, rude language, and anything non-course-related that might offend classmates, your instructor, course assistants or visitors.
  • If you wouldn't say it in front of your grandmother, don't say it in our class!
• Be supportive of your classmates. Offer help where appropriate. Help your classmates feel confident and welcomed.
• Project respect to classmates, course assistants and instructors. (And tell us, as described to the left, if you feel anyone is being disrespectful of you or others in the classroom.)
• Be sure that your computer screen shows only courteous and professional images and words, at all times during class.
• Avoid words and behaviors that might be perceived as confrontational or aggressive. Strive to avoid negative “you” phrases like “you are wrong” or “you need to ...”. Instead:
  • Use neutral “I/us” phrases like “I think that that approach is not right” or “Perhaps it would be helpful for us to …” or "I wonder if ..."
• Whenever possible, arrive to class on time.
• Set your phone to a “silent” mode, turn off notifications on your computer that might distract classmates, and make sure that it displays only courteous and professional images and words, at all times during class.
• Don’t do anything that will detract from your learning or that of people around you. Such things include talking loudly, chewing gum noisily, and not taking adequate care of your personal hygiene.
• Restrict all your conversations in class to things related to the class, except for times when your instructor allows you to do otherwise (as in a between-periods break, for example).
• If you need to check email or do non-class-related things during class, try to sit in the back row so that you minimize any disruption of classmates.
• If you are experiencing issues that may make you less able to be respectful to others in the classroom, consider alerting your instructor to that fact. Additionally, we strongly encourage any student who is feeling stress or experiencing any sort of difficult issue to contact Counseling Services. They are an excellent resource available to students for free.

If at any point, you are not comfortable in the classroom, for ANY reason, or you observe any behaviors by ANYONE (classmates, course assistants, your instructor or visitors) that may make the classroom climate feel less welcoming for students: please tell us.

Ways to do so include:

• Ask to meet with your instructor privately. Or, explain your concern to your professor after class or by email if you feel comfortable with that and the issue does not require a conversation.
• Talk with any instructor in the department with whom you feel comfortable. If you don't know any professors well, you might start with any of the following, all of whom have agreed to be an ombudsman to help ensure that our classroom climates are welcoming to all.
  • Professor Amanda Stouder. Her office is Moench F218, phone 877-8138, email stouder AT rose-hulman.edu.
  • Professor Kim Tracy. His office is Moench D216, phone 877-8343, email tracy AT rose-hulman.edu.
  • Professor Robert Williamson. His office is Moench XXX, phone 877-8758, email williarj AT rose-hulman.edu.
• All your professors will do their utmost to ensure your confidentiality, but sometimes you might feel the need to say something anonymously. You can do so via the link on our class’ Moodle page labeled Expressing Concerns Anonymously. All we ask is that you not use it just to vent when you are momentarily frustrated. Take a deep breath, count to 10, and if you still want to express a concern, by all means use the Expressing Concerns Anonymously tool in Moodle.
• Know your campus resources beyond the CSSE department as well. These include your faculty advisor, your RAs and SAs, and the Office of Student Affairs.
• Or, if you want to express concerns in a completely confidential way, the office of Counseling Services is an excellent resource.