Ability and Disability

Students of all abilities and backgrounds want classrooms that are inclusive and convey respect. For those students with disabilities, the classroom setting may present certain challenges that need accommodation and consideration. A statement in your syllabus inviting students with disabilities to meet with you privately is a good step in starting a conversation with those students who need accommodations and feel comfortable approaching you about their needs.

You may want to include the following components:

• Let students know times they can meet you to discuss the accommodations and how soon they should do so.
• Contact information for the Disability Services Office, or your university’s equivalent.
• How does ability diversity play a role in how the class is conducted or the content discussed?
• How might students come talk to you about accommodations or make you aware of situations they want (or need) to disclose?

Sample Statements:

• This class respects and welcomes students of all backgrounds, identities, and abilities. If there are circumstances that make our learning environment and activities difficult, if you have medical information that you need to share with me, or if you need specific arrangements in case the building needs to be evacuated, please let me know. I am committed to creating an effective learning environment for all students, but I can only do so if you discuss your needs with me as early as possible. I promise to maintain the confidentiality of these discussions. If appropriate, also contact Student Access Services to get more information about specific accommodations.
• The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is committed to making educational opportunities available to all students. In order for its faculty members to properly address the needs of students who have disabilities, it is necessary that those students approach their instructors as soon as the semester starts, preferably on the first day of class. They should bring an official letter from the Student Access Services explaining their specific needs so that their instructors are aware of them early on and can make the appropriate arrangements.
• If you have a learning or physical disability, or if you learn best utilizing a particular method, please discuss with me how I can best accommodate your learning needs. I am committed to creating an effective learning environment for all learning styles. However, I can only do this successfully if you discuss your needs with me in advance of the quizzes, papers, and notebooks. I will maintain the confidentiality of your learning needs. If appropriate, you should contact Vanderbilt’s Student Access Services to get more information on accommodating disabilities.

Academic Integrity

As we have stated in other guides, “Although students can be expected to know about cheating and plagiarism in the abstract, they’re not always clear on what they can and can’t do in particular courses and on particular assignments. It’s a good idea to spell that out for your students in your syllabus.” In other words, your students are already subject to the guidelines of the honor code in enrolling in your class. Providing an outline and a reminder of what this means for your course can aid students in fulfilling these obligations.

You may want to include the following components:

1. A link or url to the university’s honor code along with a summary or quotation from it.
2. An outline or description of what constitutes plagiarism or a violation of the honor code, as well as a brief description of the penalty for violating it.
3. Descriptions of the writing center, library resources, and the honor system for students to access campus resources that will help them avoid violating the honor code.

Sample Statements:

Vanderbilt University provides the following Faculty Checklist of Recommended Practices:

• Put a statement of the application of the Honor Code on your syllabus.
• Sample syllabus statements:
  • “Vanderbilt’s Honor Code governs all work in this course (e.g., tests, papers, and homework assignments).”
  • “All academic work at Vanderbilt is done under the Honor System.”
  • Also provide helpful details for your course, such as permissible and impermissible behaviors:
    • Students may collaborate on homework, but not . . .
    • Rough drafts must include proper citations . . .
    • You are permitted and encouraged to discuss the answers to the suggested problems with other students, TAs, and faculty

Providing a more descriptive example, Derek Bruff, former Executive Director and Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, cites the honor policy and outlines resources to avoid plagiarism in a concise statement on academic integrity in his syllabus on cryptography:

Academic Integrity

Please familiarize yourself with Vanderbilt’s undergraduate honor policy. I’m encouraging a lot of sharing and collaboration in this course, but your work on your essay assignments should be your own. Please be careful not to plagiarize. The Undergraduate Honor Council has a very helpful guide to understanding plagiarism, and the Writing Studio has a great set of resources on working with sources in academic writing. We’ll spend some class time exploring plagiarism and academic integrity more generally.

If your life is falling apart and you are tempted to plagiarize to save time or get a good grade, please see me instead. I would rather grant you an extension than send you before the Honor Council for plagiarism—but I will send you to the Honor Council if it comes to that.

Andy Van Schaack, in Vanderbilt’s Department of Human Organization and Development, provides a much more detailed example in his syllabus on “Systemic Inquiry.” The statement covers a full page of single-spaced type and can be found on the fourth page of the syllabus, immediately following the class’s assignments. In addition, he closes a list of student expectations immediately preceding the class schedule with this concise statement:

Honesty and Integrity
This is absolutely the wrong class to cheat in. I work very hard to ensure that all students are provided the same opportunity to succeed. The penalty at Vanderbilt for cheating is severe—it is not worth it.

Copyright Infringement

The readings, handouts, and other materials we provide students in our courses are typically meant for our students’ personal educational use. You might give students access to a journal article through a Vanderbilt library subscription, provide students with a PowerPoint slide deck you created for a lecture, or hand back to students a graded test that you designed for your course. Students are encouraged to use these learning resources while they are taking the course, but, depending on the resource involved, you may not want them to share the resource with people outside the course or access the resource after the course is over.

For instance, students might have access to that journal article only during the duration of the course, depending on the licensing arrangement the library has worked out for the article. Or you might have used some images in your PowerPoint slides that are licensed for educational use, but not for general use, so you wouldn’t want a student to post your slide deck on the open Web. And that test you wrote is likely your intellectual property, and students shouldn’t post it to an online test back without your permission.

Students aren’t often savvy about intellectual property rules, copyright laws, and related matters. You can help them make informed choices about how they use and reuse course materials through discussions with your students and through statements you make on your syllabus.

Sample Statement:

Many of the materials and readings for this class have copyright protections. They are for your sole educational use and should not be shared, copied or distributed without permission of the instructor or the copyright holder. Please refer to the Student Handbook for details on your responsibilities regarding copyright and penalties for copyright infringement. If you have questions about sharing specific materials outside the course, either with colleagues at Vanderbilt or on the internet, please ask me.

Acknowledgements

As Katherine Harris writes in a helpful blog post on syllabuses, “[Acknowledgement sections] act as a citation and is a marker of the intellectual rigor and scholarly communication that’s inherent to the construction of any syllabus, assignment, or rubric.” In other words, the acknowledgements section allows you to give credit for the contributions of other instructors, classes, or programs from which you are drawing in designing your course. With this section, an instructor will not only mirror the proper academic integrity that we hope to teach our students, she can also provide links, urls, or other citations to the work of other scholars, allowing students who are interested to know more about the origins of the class and the work of its sources.

You may want to include the following components:

1. Either an acknowledgements section at the end of your syllabus naming the instructors or classes you are drawing on in constructing your syllabus or footnotes under specific items, like a midterm assignment, that names where it originates.
2. Links on a digital syllabus, urls on a paper syllabus, or traditional citations so that students can follow your sources.

Sample Statements:

For an example of an acknowledgements section on an online syllabus citing the course design of another instructor, see this section from Rob MacDougall’s syllabus “Digital History” for the University of Western Ontario:

• Acknowledgements: This course was originally designed and has been taught since 2007 by my colleague William J. Turkel. I have followed his syllabus closely. I have borrowed liberally (right down to the color scheme of this site) from other Digital History courses as well, as taught by Jeremy Boggs, Amanda French, Jo Guldi, Mills Kelly, Jeffrey McClurken, Paula Petrik, William Thomas, Ethan Watrall, and others. Trailblazers all!

[Notes: Students can then click on these links embedded in the names MacDougall cites in order to view the work and contributions of these figures.]

For an example of an acknowledgement on a paper syllabus for language taken from another source in various statements on a syllabus, see this section from Jeremy Price’s syllabus “Learning Communities in the Digital Age” for Fairmont State University:

• Acknowledgements: I have adapted the ideas and language from the work of several educators for this syllabus, and I appreciate their contributions to this syllabus. The language concerning Universal Learning is courtesy of the “Accessibility Statements on Syllabuses” on the ProfHacker blog (http://bit.ly/1bAXeDN). The language concerning the respective responsibilities of professor and students is courtesy of Dr. Terry Murray of the State University of New York at New Paltz. Language concerning definitions of Teaching for Understanding terms is from the Harvard Graduate School of Education website.  The Unit Maps are based on the graphic organizer in the Teaching for Understanding Guide by Tina Blythe and Associates. All comics panels are from Rhymes with Orange by Hilary Price (http://rhymeswithorange.com).

[Notes: Though students will not be able to click on these links directly if the syllabus is in paper form, they can still access the contributions named in the section when they are provided with urls or other citations.]

If you would like to make a quick acknowledgement that you are re-using an assignment designed by another instructor, you can simply add a footnote after the title of the assignment on the syllabus:

Midterm: Pastoral Listening Exercise¹

___________________

1. This midterm assignment is adapted from Prof. Bonnie Miller-McLemore’s course “Introduction to Pastoral Theology and Care,” taught at Vanderbilt University in the Fall Semester of 2014.

Though students will not be able to access the work of this professor, she is still properly given credit for her contribution to the syllabus.

Focusing on Assessment for Learning

In their 2011 article in the Journal of College Science Teaching, Ludwig, Bentz, and Fynewever emphasize the role of the syllabus in preparing students: “Your Syllabus Should Set the Stage for Assessment for Learning.” They describe three levels of information for students to use to assess learning as it happens:

Specific learning objectives.  Their example for the first chapter of a General Chemistry includes

The student will be able to

• given written or graphic descriptions, distinguish between pure substances, heterogeneous mixtures, and solutions.

• given a temperature in one scale, convert between temperature scales (°C, °F, K)

• given conversion factors, perform dimensional conversions of any kind.

Feedback mechanisms to students, posed as questions to help students learn to reflect on their learning. This reflection can be immediate, or it can take place over the course of the semester. Here are a few excerpts:

• Online Homework: Have you submitted and resubmitted the homework until it is mastered (a perfect score)? These problems were chosen because they match the course objectives.

• Clicker Questions and think-pair-share discussions: During a given class period, we will have about three clicker questions. Often these questions will be followed by a discussion with your nearest neighbor. Are you doing well on these questions? Can you explain your thinking clearly to your neighbor?

• Self-reflection: Look over the list of learning objectives for the chapter that we are studying. Are you confident that you are proficient at these objectives? Your confidence is a good (but not perfect) predictor of your achievement.

Feedback mechanisms to instructor, which are sometimes the same as those for the student, such as clicker questions, think-pair-share activities, and minute papers, in addition to homework and written work. Contextualizing these activities as feedback opportunities for the instructor on the effectiveness of their teaching adds another dimension to student perception of them. Here is some of the language Fynewever uses in his syllabus:

How will I know if my teaching is helping you read the learning objectives?

• Clicker questions: After you answer the clicker questions, we will see a histogram displaying what percentage of students made each choice. If there’s clearly disagreement, then I’ll know that we need to spend more time on this topic.
• Think-pair-share and small group discussions: While you are talking with your neighbor or in small groups I will circulate amongst the class and “spy” on you. If it sounds like there’s a lot of divergent ideas or uncertainty, then we will discuss your thoughts together as a class.

Civility

We all hope for students in our classes to grant one another respect and dignity, even when discussing challenging subjects regarding, for example, sexual/gendered inequality. To help support this approach, below is sample text focused on gender and sexuality drafted by Vanderbilt’s Project Safe for Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response. You may choose to incorporate other subject matter into your syllabus statement or encourage broad values of civility and mutual respect. If you would like to discuss with a consultant, please contact the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching.

Sample Statement:

In this course we may discuss a variety of sexually explicit and/or violent behaviors, practices, and viewpoints on those behaviors and practices, some of which are controversial. Our readings and discussions will provide you the opportunity to develop a language for and comfort level with discussing a full range of topics related to gendered and sexual violence in the classroom in a respectful and articulate way. In this course, the aim of our inquiry is critical understanding. No student will be expected to reveal or discuss their own sexual experiences, preferences, or desires. You will be expected to participate in our class discussions in a way that is respectful of others. If you do not feel comfortable hearing about, viewing, and discussing gender-based violence, sex and sexualities in a frank and respectful way, you may wish to reconsider your intention to take the course.

Including Language about Emergency Preparedness in a Course Syllabus

You may be interested in including information in your course syllabus regarding emergency preparedness on campus.  Here are several potential approaches:

• Vanderbilt University offers several web-based guides to emergency preparedness, including a guidebook available for download. Consider providing students with a link to Vanderbilt’s comprehensive downloadable pdf guide in the electronic version of the syllabus.  The guide includes information about what to do in a range of situations, from thunderstorms to active shooter situations.
• Create a one-page document with safety and emergency essentials relevant to your campus location and discipline, and include it in your syllabus. To do so, cut and paste desired sections from the downloadable pdf guide. You may want to include information on what to do in case of a chemical spill if your class will be interacting with chemicals, for example, or evacuation guidelines specific to your location. Here is an example of a one-page emergency preparedness pdf offered to instructors at George Washington University as a syllabus insert.
• You may wish to simply use this brief blurb with essential emergency information:

“The safety of students, faculty, and staff at Vanderbilt University is of the utmost importance. As a Vanderbilt student, you are automatically enrolled in AlertVU, which is used in emergencies which pose an imminent threat to the community.  If you need to contact the Vanderbilt Police in an emergency, call 911 from any campus phone or (615) 421-1911 from any other phone. Additional information about emergency preparedness is available online.

Explicit Content (with the trigger warning)

If your course involves discussion of gender-based violence or abuse, you might want to provide a trigger warning to your students on your syllabus. The following sample text was drafted by Vanderbilt’s Project Safe for Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response. Contact Project Safe for more information.

Sample statement:

This course and course materials may involve the use of explicit language, including descriptions and examples of sexual situations, violent and abusive behaviors, to discuss gender-based violence and forms of abuse. The situations and behaviors examined will include physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect.

Participating in class discussions, reading course materials, and completing course assignments may remind you of experiences that you, a friend, or family member may have gone through. If you need support and/or would like to talk to someone about questions or concerns relating to power-based personal violence, please contact the Project Safe 24-hour hotline at (615) 322-SAFE (7233) or visit the Project Safe website in order to learn more about on and off-campus resources.  Project Safe is a confidential (limited) resource; other confidential resources on campus include the Psychological and Counseling Center, Student Health, and the University chaplains.

Reports may be made to and assistance is also available through Vanderbilt’s Title IX Coordinator (615-343-9004) and VUPolice Department.  A non-campus local resource, the Nashville Sexual Assault Center also offers a 24-hour hotline: 1-800-879-1999.  Many resources are available; please see instructor for further assistance.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for Digital Learning

Instructors are increasingly including online, web-based, and public digital assignments including Web publishing, blogging, and social media participation. The reasons for doing so are many: Intellectual interaction among fellow students or even the general public; building digital literacy and responsible digital citizenship; and creating electronic portfolios of academic work; among others. All course assignments must protect student’s privacy rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA also known as the Buckley Amendment; see here for Vanderbilt’s FERPA guidelines). Under FERPA regulations, instructors cannot, without permission, disclose student’s personal information, grades, or course enrollments. It is the issue of course enrollment that is particularly tricky with publicly available online assignments.

FERPA may be violated if students are forced to publicly contribute to online websites like blogs or discussion boards, if grades are left where others (including their classmates) can see them, or if student grades are sent via email. You may choose to consider having a FERPA statement in your syllabus if you intend to have an online component to your course (beyond Blackboard/Canvas/D2L — at Vanderbilt, course management systems like Blackboard, Canvas, and D2L are considered secure for posting grades. See the Vanderbilt Registrar’s website for more Vanderbilt specific information).

There are some easy measures you can put into place to protect your students rights when it comes to digital projects.

Recommendations:

1. Make participation requirements in online assignments very clear in the syllabus at the start of term. Not only will this set participation policies, it allows students to choose to enroll or unenroll in course with full knowledge of course requirements. You may take their continued enrollment as consent regarding your policies.
2. Encourage students to manage their own privacy settings. Giving students the choice of when to use an “alias” and when to publish under their given name not only gives them control of their personal information, it provides an exercise in digital citizenship and literacy.
3. If full participation under a given name is a necessary component of the assignment, have students sign this consent form. Using this consent form isn’t required (see point 1 above), but it’s a good practice.

Sample Statements:

• The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law designated to protect the privacy of a student’s education records and academic work. All files, records, and academic work completed within this course are considered educational records and are protected under FERPA. In this course, we will be working with third party applications online (i.e. wikis, blogs, and social media applications like Twitter). It will be your responsibility to read the privacy documentation at each site. You will be allowed to use a pseudonym/alias in order to maintain your privacy as long as you notify me of that username. The online component is required as part of this course. I will take your continued enrollment in this course as consent regarding this policy. If you still have concerns, please contact me as soon as possible to discuss your options.
• As part of this course, you will be required to post to a course blog weekly in order to engage in current political discourse. This blog is publically available on the internet and may be viewed by persons around the world who are not enrolled in this course. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), you may choose to limit what information you share, including your real name and other personally identifying characteristics. Please sign the attached consent form acknowledging that you have read and consent to this policy.

Title IX Statement

Title IX prohibits all forms of gender-based discrimination, including sexual assault and harassment, in federally funded education programs. Title IX reads: “[N]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Title IX applies to academic programs and extends to sponsored off-campus programs. Though a private institution, Vanderbilt receives federal monies to support financial aid packages.

If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you can call the Project Safe 24-hour crisis/support hotline at 615-322-7233 and you can find a list of resources at Project Safe. You may also contact the University’s Title IX Coordinator (615-343-9004).

Inclusivity and Diversity in the Classroom

Classroom inclusivity is an umbrella term denoting that the classroom environment will be respectful of differences in background and identity between students and the instructor, including differences in race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and class. An inclusive classroom does not mean that differences are ignored, but rather that students can expect that they will not be excluded, stereotyped, or judged based on their differences. In addition, an inclusive classroom will mean that students have space to bring their various identities into conversation with class material as they find helpful, but are not expected to represent or speak for an entire group of people who share aspects of an identity.  The following statements are meant to convey expectations for a classroom environment as well as student and teacher expectations that help to create an inclusive classroom.

You may want to include the following components:

• A statement declaring that the class will respect differences in background and identity as well as an exact description of what that respect will look like from day to day.
• A link to the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion or other official campus offices and statements outlining the institution’s commitment to inclusivity.
• Links to Student Access Services, the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Life, the Black Cultural Center, the Women’s Center, and other services that may offer support for students from historical minority groups on campus.

Examples:

The Feminist Pedagogy CFT Guide provides links to the following helpful examples:

California State University’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion provides the following three statements (along with statements on inclusion/diversity particular to academic disciplines). Taken together, they provide the most detailed and thorough syllabus statement on inclusion of the three examples offered here.

Diversity Statement

Respect: Students in this class are encouraged to speak up and participate during class meetings. Because the class will represent a diversity of individual beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences, every member of this class must show respect for every other member of this class.

Safe Zone Statement

I am part of the Safe Zone Ally community network of trained Chico State faculty/staff/students who are available to listen and support you in a safe and confidential manner. As a Safe Zone Ally, I can help you connect with resources on campus to address problems you may face that interfere with your academic and social success on campus as it relates to issues surrounding sexual orientation/gender identity. My goal is to help you be successful and to maintain a safe and equitable campus.

LGBTQ Equality Statement

I am firmly committed to diversity and equality in all areas of campus life, including specifically members of the LGBTQ community. In this class I will work to promote an anti-discriminatory environment where everyone feels safe and welcome. I recognize that discrimination can be direct or indirect and take place at both institutional and personal levels. I believe that such discrimination is unacceptable and I am committed to providing equality of opportunity for all by eliminating any and all discrimination, harassment, bullying, or victimization. The success of this policy relies on the support and understanding of everyone in this class. We all have a responsibility not to be offensive to each other, or to participate in, or condone harassment or discrimination of any kind.

The University of Northern Colorado’s Diversity and Equality Committee offers a more concise but descriptive statement of the inclusive learning environment:  

Inclusivity Statement: The College of Education and Behavioral Sciences (CEBS) supports an inclusive learning environment where diversity and individual differences are understood, respected, appreciated, and recognized as a source of strength. We expect that students, faculty, administrators and staff within CEBS will respect differences and demonstrate diligence in understanding how other peoples’ perspectives, behaviors, and worldviews may be different from their own.

Please visit the CEBS Diversity and Equity Committee website for more information on our commitment to diversity.

West Virginia University’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion provides a statement that links classroom inclusion to its accommodations statement. It is the most concise and therefore least descriptive of these examples.

The West Virginia University community is committed to creating and fostering a positive learning and working environment based on open communication, mutual respect, and inclusion.

If you are a person with a disability and anticipate needing any type of accommodation in order to participate in this class, please advise me and make appropriate arrangements with the Office of Accessibility Services…For more information on West Virginia University’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives, please see http://diversity.wvu.edu/.”

Mental Health & Wellness

Example statement:

If you are experiencing undue personal and/or academic stress during the semester that may be interfering with your ability to perform academically, Vanderbilt’s Student Care Network offers a range of services to assist and support you. I am available to speak with you about stresses related to your work in my course, and I can assist you in connecting with the Student Care Network. Student Care Coordination (SCC) is the central and first point of contact to help students navigate and connect to appropriate resources on and off-campus, develop a plan of action, and provide ongoing support. You can schedule an appointment with SCC at https://www.vanderbilt.edu/carecoordination/ or call 615-343-WELL.

The Student Care Network also offers drop-in services on campus on a regular basis. You can find a calendar of services https://www.vanderbilt.edu/studentcarenetwork/satellite-services/.

If you or someone you know needs to speak with a professional counselor immediately, the University Counseling Center offers Crisis Care Counseling during the summer and academic year. Students may come directly to the UCC and be seen by the clinician on call, or may call the UCC at (615) 322-2571 to speak with a clinician. You can find additional information at https://www.vanderbilt.edu//ucc/.

Layout and Graphic Presentation

“It is easy to dismiss design – to relegate it to mere ornament, the prettifying of places and objects to disguise their banality. But that is a serious misunderstanding of what design is and why it matters.” —Daniel Pink

Linda Nilson’s 2007 book The Graphic Syllabus and the Outcomes Map: Communicating your course is a detailed resource for thinking about the visual impact of the layout of your syllabus. How the syllabus looks  affects our students’ perceptions of the class and of us as instructors. It also helps students learn to organize their knowledge in meaningful ways. “Visuals communicate the structure and interrelationship among the topics to be covered and the abilities students will acquire. […] They can also be designed to communicate an instructor’s approachability, sense of humor, and caring for the students.” (13)  With more and more syllabuses being available online, there are fewer restrictions on using images due to the cost of printing in color. We could even include links to relevant videos to explain our expectations.  Something as simple as separating the calendar of readings into visually distinct and meaningful thematic groups can help students organize their learning over the course of the semester.

Other professors have shared their attempts to apply Nilson’s principles. For example, in 2010 Billie Hara shared visuals from her syllabuses, which categorize visually the kinds of learning objectives her students will achieve.

Here is one example from a philosophy course by  Mark Smillie at Carroll College (Helena, MT) which illustrates Nilson’s suggestion that the layout of the syllabus can suggest “competition and complementarity” among elements of the course:

The weeks are numbered to the left, and the readings are organized visually into meaningful groups. This helps students construct a model for schools of philosophy which all answer the same question (“Philosophy: What is it, why do it?”) but have distinguishing characteristics from one another.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that visuals in a syllabus serve as a model and guide for the students as they navigate the content and requirements of the course.

Learning Environment

The learning environment in the classroom or laboratory is guided by norms and rules of discussion, whether or not these are clearly articulated and set by the syllabus. A statement on learning environment expectations will help students understand how to engage the class, instructor, and one another in a way that best promotes respect, critical thought, and learning. An instructor may want to include statements on how to participate in open discussions, how to articulate and substantiate an argument, and how to handle disagreements.

You may want to include the following components:

• Concise statements of what the students should expect from the instructor and from one another as they each contribute to the classroom’s learning environment.
• A description or list of norms and behaviors that best facilitate an open and respectful classroom environment (e.g. critique ideas, not people; do not interrupt, etc.).
• An explicit connection between classroom inclusivity and learning environment expectations.

Sample Statements:

The “Classroom Climate Guidelines” at Carleton College in Northfield, MN gives a bulleted list of classroom expectations across the university.

The Carleton Classroom, Studio, and Laboratory are therefore:

• Spaces in which faculty, staff, and students strive to create positive atmospheres that value the diversity, backgrounds, and perspectives of all members of our communities.
• Spaces for discussion and experimentation with ideas and opinions where students, staff, and faculty interact in a variety of ways. Together, we present information, work in groups on problems or projects, build and criticize arguments and opinions, and develop creativity and critical thinking.
• Spaces in which individuals should feel at liberty to express their considered views on relevant materials and issues, to challenge their fellow students and instructors to explain or refine views, and to ask questions when they need clarification or further explanation.  At the same time, these are spaces where they should be prepared to be challenged by others in the service of the learning process.
• Spaces in which generalities, labels, assumptions, and stereotypes may be identified, interrogated, and challenged,  and ideas, interpretations, and hypotheses will be proposed, refined, and criticized.  Challenging ideas and opinions respectfully does not constitute a form of disrespect but is an aspect of the learning process.
• Spaces in which individuals treat themselves, their classmates, and their instructors with respect and consideration in what they say and the manner in which they say it so as to foster a productive learning environment.

See also “Sample Civility Statements” from the Teaching and Learning Initiatives at Mount Holyoke College.

These “Guidelines for Class Participation” by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan provide another list, but it is more succinct than the first one above:

1. Respect others’ rights to hold opinions and beliefs that differ from your own. Challenge or criticize the idea, not the person.
2. Listen carefully to what others are saying even when you disagree with what is being said. Comments that you make (asking for clarification, sharing critiques, expanding on a point, etc.) should reflect that you have paid attention to the speaker’s comments.
3. Be courteous. Don’t interrupt or engage in private conversations while others are speaking.
4. Support your statements. Use evidence and provide a rationale for your points.
5. Allow everyone the chance to talk. If you have much to say, try to hold back a bit; if you are hesitant to speak, look for opportunities to contribute to the discussion.
6. If you are offended by something or think someone else might be, speak up and don’t leave it for someone else to have to respond to it.

Finally, for an example that mixes pointed lists of expectations with more descriptive paragraphs about how the classroom environment contributes to the goals of the class, see Nancy Chick’s syllabus statement in the link below:

Mandatory Reporting

All faculty, many staff, and some students are “mandatory reporters” who are legally obligated to report any allegations of sexual misconduct (assault, harassment, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking and child abuse) and any suspected discrimination (about age, race, color, cree, religion, ancestry, national or ethnic origin, sex/gender, sexual orientation, disability, genetic information, military status, familial status or other protected categories under local, state or federal law) to Vanderbilt’s Title IX Coordinator (615-343-9004).

This means that students who discuss such things with their peers and faculty do not have confidentiality.  Students should be aware of that fact so they, both have choice about reporting, and options for other, confidential resources on campus. Title IX calls on the University to address the “impact” of sexual harassment and violence, so there are no time or geographical exclusions to what must be reported.  Your reporting obligation extends to incidents that occur or occurred off-campus and to those that occurred prior to a person’s affiliation with the University. Also, your reporting obligation applies in all situations, not just the classroom or in connection with a course. The only exclusion is a confidential support group setting, such as at the University Counseling Center or the Center for Student Wellbeing.

If you have any questions about the scope of your obligation, please contact the University Title IX Coordinator or the Director of the Project Safe Center.

The following is sample text to help explain this to students, as drafted by Vanderbilt’s Project Safe for Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response.

Sample Statement:

University faculty, many staff member, and some student leaders are required to report incidents of sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, and child abuse, as well as any suspected discrimination (about age, race, color, creed, religion, ancestry, national or ethnic origin, sex/gender, sexual orientation, disability, genetic information, military status, familial status or other protected categories under local, state or federal law) to the University’s Title IX Coordinator (615-343-9004), as required by University policy and state and federal law.

If you disclose an experience of interpersonal violence and/or child abuse to classmates with mandatory reporting obligations or to the instructor, whether in class discussion or through a course assignment, your disclosure will be kept as private as possible but may not be able to be kept confidential.

Please consult with your instructor with any questions before sharing a personal experience of intimate partner violence or that of another Vanderbilt-affiliated person. Note that this includes incidents that occur on or off campus, as well as incidents that occurred prior to your affiliation with Vanderbilt. If you disclose thoughts of harm to self or others, that information will also be disclosed to relevant parties charged with ensuring the health and safety of our campus community.

Personal Electronic Devices

Computers, tablets, cell phones and other electronic devices can be useful tools in the classroom when used properly, but they can also be a source of distraction.

You may want to include the following components:

• A description of how laptops will be integrated into your classroom activities. Laptops may make sense in some classes more than others. If your class is largely discussion-based, then it may be appropriate to adopt a policy that limits the use of laptops in class. If your class varies in format from one meeting to the next, you may want to define ‘laptop’ vs ‘non-laptop’ days.
• Information on the types of content, resources, and tools students can use during glass. For instance, if readings and other course content are made available through Blackboard or Box, you may want your students to be able to bring them up during class. The same might be said for courses that require students to use particular software like SPSS or Excel.

Sample Statements:

• As part of this course, you will be asked to vote on “clicker questions” using your laptop, tablet, or cell phone at least twice per class. I expect that you use these technologies only for course-related purposes while in the classroom. If you find your cellphone distracting, you can put it away between questions. If you have an emergency where you need to answer your phone, please exit the classroom to do so.
• This course requires you to be a mindful and courteous participant during in-class discussions. Therefore, laptops and cellphones are not allowed except in the following situations: fact-checking, referencing required readings, and finding relevant resources to aid in our understanding of the course content (such as YouTube clips or recent newspaper articles). If I find that you are abusing this policy, I will ask you to turn off the device. Repeated infractions will lower your participation grade.

Personal Pronouns

Students in your classroom may prefer to be referred to with pronouns that are different from the ones that accord with their biological sex assigned at birth. The Center for Teaching’s Teaching Beyond the Gender Binary in the University Classroom Guide provides a comprehensive introduction as well as a range of resources for classroom practices inclusive of gender nonconforming and transgender students. You should not assume that your classroom does not have gender nonconforming students in it. A good way to ensure that your class will be inclusive of all gender identities is to include a statement on pronoun preferences in your syllabus.

You may want to include the following components:

• A statement explaining that the instructor and the class will respect the pronoun choices of each individual class member
• A list of your own pronoun preferences following your name on the syllabus: “Dr. Richard Coble (he, him, his)”
• A supplemental pronoun etiquette sheet or pronoun guide explaining how to use pronouns respectfully and to correct for mistakes

• A link to Student Access Services or other official campus offices and statements outlining the institution’s commitment to inclusivity
• A link to the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Life, and other services that may offer support for gender nonconforming students and others around issues of gender identity in and outside of the classroom

Sample Statements:

The University of Colorado Boulder’s Gender and Sexuality Center provides a concise statement on inclusivity, ending with a request to make pronoun preferences known to the instructor:

Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, culture, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender, gender variance, and nationalities. Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student’s legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name or gender pronoun. Please advise me of this preference early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records.

Austin College’s Johnson Center for Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching gives the following example statement in a PowerPoint presentation on Safe Space for LGBTQ Students. It is more descriptive about name and pronoun preferences, providing some rationale and examples:

All humans have the right to be addressed in accordance with their personal identity.  Sometimes this means you’d prefer me to call you “Jim” rather than “James.”  Sometimes this means that though your given name might be “Helen,” you identify as male and would prefer to go by a different name and a masculine pronoun.  In all cases, students’ preferences of address will be honored.  If you have reason to believe that I may refer to you by the incorrect pronoun (“s/he”), please let me know how you would prefer to be addressed (she, he, they, ze, etc.) right away.

Finally, the University of Pittsburgh’s Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Program provides the following suggested syllabus statement. This statement is more abstract but also comprehensive in its presentation of how gender pronouns and preferences function in classroom inclusivity and exclusivity:

Language is gender-inclusive and non-sexist when we use words that affirm and respect how people describe, express, and experience their gender. Just as sexist language excludes women’s experiences, non-gender-inclusive language excludes the experiences of individuals whose identities may not fit the gender binary, and/or who may not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Identities including trans, intersex, and genderqueer reflect personal descriptions, expressions, and experiences. Gender-inclusive/non-sexist language acknowledges people of any gender (for example, first year student versus freshman, chair versus chairman, humankind versus mankind, etc.). It also affirms non-binary gender identifications, and recognizes the difference between biological sex and gender expression. Students, faculty, and staff may share their preferred pronouns and names, and these gender identities and gender expressions should be honored.

Promising Syllabus

Ken Bain describes the commonalities across syllabuses from college teachers across the country who consistently inspired their students to learn deeply.

Christine Courtade Hirsch, Assistant Professor of Communication at SUNY Oswego, changed her syllabus after attending a workshop with Ken Bain.  Overall she had a  very positive experience. Importantly, she reminds her readers in her written reflections on the experience that the course has to be in line with the promises articulated in the syllabus. She recommends six strategies for implementing the values of the promising syllabus into the communications classroom over the course of the semester:

1. Emphasize the different focus of the course;

2. Offer a foundational vocabulary,

3. Facilitate learning through careful listening in discussion and developing grading rubrics with students,

4. Be prepared to let students make decisions,

5. Ask a question for which you do not have answers,

6. Require a major project that allows students to illustrate what they know. (Hirsch 2010).

To read more about it, and see part of Hirsch’s syllabus, you can read her article in Communication Teacher vol. 24 (2010) 78-90.

Sexual Misconduct

Faculty may wish to include statements on their syllabi that provide links and resources to campus services. For any course, but especially those that may touch on issues of sexual and gender, you might want to include a statement on sexual misconduct. The following is sample text to help guide students, as drafted by Vanderbilt’s Project Safe for Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response. Contact Project Safe for more information.

Sample Statement:

Vanderbilt is committed to providing a community built on trust and mutual respect, where all can feel secure and free from harassment. Sexual misconduct including sexual violence, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence, and stalking, violates a person’s rights, dignity and integrity and is contrary to our community principles and the mission of the college. The University is committed to fostering a community that promotes prompt reporting of sexual misconduct and timely and fair resolution of sexual misconduct reports. Creating a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment is the responsibility of everyone at Vanderbilt.

We encourage all members of our campus community to seek support from the Project Safe Center; 615-322-7233. We encourage community members to report all incidents of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct directly to the Title IX Coordinator (615-322-4705).  Staff in these departments will assist in eliminating the misconduct, preventing its recurrence, and addressing its effects.

More Samples from different disciplines

This Profhacker post has links to creative syllabus formats from many disciplines.

U Mich Center for Research on Teaching and Learning: sample syllabuses for sections and labs – useful for graduate instructors! http://www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tssd

Syllabus tips from Harvard’s Derek Bok Center.