Junior faculty on campus have seen a rise and have become more concerned with student’s behavior toward instructors and professors.
More specifically, younger, female faculty members are feeling as though they are being bullied by students through disrespect, physical intimidation and inappropriate sexual comments.
The concern about student behavior in the classroom has been discussed among many IUS faculty, and some professors feel it is time to take more action in fighting this increasing problem.
“I have been approached by some female faculty here at IUS expressing concern about problems they personally have had, which is the point at which I decided to take action,” Jean Abshire, associate professor of political science and international studies, said.
Abshire held a meeting for the female faculty in the School of Social Sciences, who were concerned about the growing problem on campus.
“Almost 100 percent of female faculty in the School of Social Sciences responded, but not everybody was able to attend the meeting,” Abshire said. “But almost everybody responded, and I think the volume of response is also an important indicator of the seriousness and also of how wide-spread the problem is.”
The meeting was held to discuss strategies to address the problem of bullying by students on campus.
Strategies discussed at the meeting included trying to get new material inserted in the First-Year Seminar program to help educate students about appropriate classroom behavior, as well as discussing the issue with the Ruth Garvey-Nix, vice chancellor of Student Affairs, on how the faculty can use the Student Code of Conduct better to address student behavior problems.
“I am seeing an increase of students being referred to me on uncivil or inappropriate behavior in the classroom,” Garvey-Nix said.
“In the last two years, it has increased, so, as a result, we’ve done more outreach to the faculty with sessions and workshops on how to respond and how to establish a learning environment and expectations from the beginning which might minimize these instances,” she said.
Training sessions are being planned due to the increase of concern and interest of this issue that is occurring on campus.
Gil Atnip, vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, said he is aware of this, as well.
“I am aware informally just from chatting with people that there is a concern among some faculty, particularly some of the women faculty, that they do have encounters occasionally with student who are aggressive, belligerent, and more in-your-face trying to intimidate,” Atnip said.
“I think faculty are asking for more training, and, so, if that’s what they think they need, then by all means we will do what we can to provide it for them,” he said.
Training sessions for faculty members are being planned to help address problems in the classroom and help develop ways to diffuse the situations before any disciplinary action must be taken.
“We are going to have a session in Social Sciences before next fall, in which we invite some people to talk about the issue with our faculty,” Cliff Staten, professor of political science and dean of the School of Social Sciences, said.
These particular sessions will focus on helping faculty know how to handle situations from texting in class to more serious issues, such as physical intimidation or blatant disrespect.
“Most of us who get our doctorate are not really trained as teachers,” Staten said. “We are trained as researchers, so many people have to learn to teach.”
Garvey-Nix is planning on working with Michael Day, IUS counselor, and Charles Edelen, IUS police chief, to set up sessions before the fall semester starts for any faculty member who is interested in coming.
“We have a good network of communication that is open and good, but sometimes faculty might try to work our something on their own longer than they need to,” Garvey-Nix said, “but there are other people that can help them deal with the situation.”
Garvey-Nix said since the fall semester began, there has been fewer than five cases of students being referred to her from faculty members concerning disorderly conduct in the classroom.
“It’s not a huge number, but it is concerned behavior,” Garvey-Nix said. “You hear of horrible incidents on some other campuses in the country, and it’s very concerning and nobody wants any situation to escalate to that level.”
Garvey-Nix said education and being proactive is important for both students and faculty to minimize the number of issues concerning bullying in the classroom.
The students need to be aware of the consequences for their actions.
“If a student is found responsible for any of those behaviors, harassment, verbal abuse, physical abuse,” Garvey-Nix said, “there are definitely consequences.”
Judicial conferences with judicial officers occur and each case is heard individually to see if there are any unusual circumstances.
By NIKOLETTE LANGDON
Staff Writer
nlangdon@umail.iu.edu