In Perspective: A question of civility

The biggest problem with incivility lies in its definition.\nAlthough Webster's New World Dictionary defines incivility as "a lack of courtesy or politeness" or just plain "rudeness," what individuals consider to embody disrespect and rudeness differ.\nA new survey of IU faculty conducted by the Bloomington Faculty Council and the Center for Survey Research shed some light on the subject. Professors and associate instructors define incivility as anything from threats of violence to students chewing gum to students who don't take notes in class. Each semester, students discover that while they might be able to eat lunch in one course, another professor might consider even gum or candy to be against the rules.\n"We've already found out that different faculty have different levels of tolerances of behavior in class," said Richard McKaig, dean of students. "(For me) it goes beyond just following the law to kind of creating a relationship where there is respect for the individuals in the process and a willingness for the individuals to be heard."\nConstructing the survey\nWorking with the survey research center, the BFC developed a survey on incivility, which it distributed to all professors and associate instructors. Kevin D. Vryan, project manager for the Center for Survey Research and a graduate student, said the survey was first researched by consulting academic literature and local feedback on incivility.\nAfter the first draft, developers met in person with some full-time faculty members and associate instructors to determine if any of the questions sounded incomplete.\nEvery educator on the Bloomington campus received a copy of the survey; 1,009 professors and 440 associate instructors returned a completed questionnaire. Vryan said this response is substantial compared with other surveys.\n"People who teach sometimes have to deal with incivility," Vryan said. "Therefore, it's a personal matter. Many of the people responding are asking to see the results of the survey."\nThe preliminary results have been divided into several sections. First, the survey gives several examples of uncivil behavior, from students sleeping in class to students threatening violence, and asks the faculty their opinion: acceptable or unacceptable. \nMcKaig said almost all uncivil behavior has one thing in common: It occurs because of frustration.\n"(Students) may have some frustrations in other parts of their lives and think that they have few alternatives left," he said. "Possibly, people have not learned well how to confront or at least challenge without letting anger or emotion be the driving force. Frustration drives it, and in choosing how to express frustration some people go well beyond what we would call reason."\nNext, faculty responded to how often the behavior occurred, how they handle the behavior, and the effectiveness of these methods. Finally, the survey asks whether incivility occurs more in smaller or larger classes and from graduate or undergraduate students. The gender of the students and educators was also included.\nThe data on ditching class\nAccording to the results, educators consider physical threats from students, students belittling other students and student vulgarity to most often define uncivil behavior and disrespect in the classroom. Most frequent examples were students arriving late for class, students cutting class or students being unprepared for class. George Malacinski, a biology professor, said he defines incivility as anything that interrupts the learning experience of students.\n"(I consider) wisecrack remarks, made in a voice loud enough to be heard by other students and often directed to the teacher to display the most incivility," Malacinski said.\nJames Sherman, professor of psychology and president of the BFC, said he found some items on the survey to be detrimental to a student's success in the classroom, not uncivil behavior.\n"Acting bored; that's not uncivil," he said. "If I'm being boring, then that's my fault. Cutting class, students are adults; if they want to cut class, that's their choice. But if you cut a class, you pay a price in most courses. If you don't want to be there, don't be there or stop flipping the newspaper." \nMost faculty members feel rude behavior most often happens in smaller classes, undergraduate classes and from male students directed against female instructors.\n"Almost always incidents occur from immature undergrads, virtually never graduate students," Malacinski said.\nSherman said the BFC plans to take the results and appoint a faculty committee to work with John Kennedy, director for the Center for Survey Research, and find a way to use the data to tackle incivility at IU.\nSome possible avenues the committee could take are finding out an "IU" definition of civility and speculating on why incivility occurs.\nHistory of Incivility\nIn recent years, IU has had its own problems with uncivil behavior in the classroom. In 1997, Chana Kai Lee, former professor of history, filed four separate complaints against students in her American history class. She cited several groups of students for creating continual disruptions, but she made serious allegations against three students who were members of the IU football team. \nLee alleged that one student made an obscene gesture at her by grabbing his crotch when she kept the three after class.\nIn October 1997, IU published "Guidelines for Dealing with Disruptive Students in Academic Settings" to provide a standardized manual for professors.\nAnother step has been the new survey on civility. The BFC decided to poll all IU educators to find out how often disrespect occurs and what they do to handle it.\n"There had been several pretty high profile public acts of incivility in the classroom," Sherman said. "Professor Lee is a prime example. While they may have been isolated incidents, it is important to try to assess the severity of the problem and to find out if there was incivility, what kinds existed."\nSherman said incivility is a problem that doesn't just touch his job at IU.\n"There is too much incivility around these days," he said. "I'm not just talking about IU, I'm talking about walking through cities or walking downtown. It may seem like a small problem, but it's very different when you're in a place where people are civil and friendly."\nMcKaig said even isolated incidents like Lee's can completely change the learning atmosphere for professors and students.\n"Incivility can warp the classroom environment of a course for an entire semester and can shake a professor's confidence and willingness to be in classroom setting well beyond that course," he said.\nChanging Climate Of Students\nPam Freeman, assistant dean of students, has been involved in several workshops concerning uncivil behavior IU and other campuses. Most recently, Freeman worked with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs faculty at IU-South Bend.\n"It was interesting because at most of the ones I've been involved with, the faculty has been very concerned about what to do at the moment when a student does something threatening," she said.\nFreeman said some students think incivility is warranted when their professors act disrespectful to students, such as canceling class without notice or changing the grading scale in the middle of the semester.\n"The message that has come through for me is that students want to be treated fairly and don't want faculty taking a cavalier attitude to what they've told their classes up front," she said. "Students want faculty to level with them and to be really organized."\nFreeman thinks incivility in classes has become a problem because students today expect their instructors to treat them as equals.\n"Some faculty are finding that difficult to understand," Freeman said. "As students are becoming more accustomed to active learning, they are getting less appreciative of mundane classes or classes where the same methods are used all the time and they are not involved. If a faculty member wants to keep students engaged, one thing they can try to do is to go someplace like the Teacher Resource Center and to get some new ways to present course matter. \n"This is not to say that someone who lectures every class deserves to have incivility, but it might be one way to prevent or minimize students coming late, leaving early and some of the things that do bother the faculty."\nClear Communication\nThe best way to combat classroom incivility is to be up-front about expectations, McKaig said.\n"In the first class session, a faculty member should clearly state expectations and, even better, have a syllabus, so there can't be any misunderstanding of what's expected and then dealing consistently and fairly in enforcing those guidelines," he said. "A student should talk with a professor about any incident. And if they feel uncomfortable dealing with the professor, then talk to a department head, as opposed to letting the matter go unresolved and adding to a reservoir of frustration."\nHaving a zero-tolerance policy on disrespect combats the problem for Malacinski. He advises students of this policy on the first day, and Malacinski keeps any student violating the policy after class for a one-on-one conversation.\n"I ask an offending student after class, alone, to sit in the back row," he said. Malacinski tells the student "If they are disruptive again, I'll call the police to remove them. Works every time"