Community Guidelines

The Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science (MSCS) department is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for everyone, across race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, parental status, marital status, and political affiliation as well as gender expression, mental illness, socioeconomic status or background, neuro(a)typicality, or physical appearance. We are united by Macalester College’s values, and we celebrate our unique differences. The goal of these community guidelines is to help all of us build a pleasant, productive, and brave community, where everyone has an equitable opportunity to learn.

Expectations

• Be inclusive. Go out of your way and across cultures to include everybody; we want to build an environment where every individual feels welcome. Meet others where they are at, and consider the impact of what you say and how you say it. Challenge ideas, but do not demean or embarrass others. Do not make sexist, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, or victim-blaming comments. This community does not tolerate immature, aggressive, or disrespectful behavior.
• Be present. The department expects students to attend class and participate in a respectful fashion. Being present allows you to ask questions, learn material, and collaborate with classmates. Come prepared, engage in class, and make full use of the entire class period. Don’t spend class time working on assignments for other classes, surfing the internet, texting, or leaving early. These activities are both distracting and disrespectful to other students and your professor. If you are unable to come to class, discuss this with your professor in advance if possible. It is your responsibility to get notes from your classmates, review the material and complete in-class activities on your own. Come to office hours with specific questions — professors will not repeat an entire class.
• Ask for and offer help. Saying “I don’t understand” is a crucial part of learning, and helps your classmates and your instructor. Asking questions and getting feedback is a natural and important part of participating. It can be easy to think you are the only one not understanding, but this is rarely the case! Never suffer in silence. When answering other students’ questions, be kind, respectful, clear, and constructive. Give and receive feedback with an openness to improvement (growth mindset).
• Be collaborative. Be an ally to teammates when you see a need. Involve your classmates in discussions, brainstorms, sketching sessions, code reviews, problem solving, project planning, etc. Consider WAIT (why am/aren’t I talking?). Be humble: we all make mistakes, and we all have much to learn from one another. Impostor syndrome (wrongly believing that you don’t deserve to be here) is real and can impact everyone at different times or in different ways; we all bring value to the classroom!
• Be mindful of academic integrity. Academic integrity is about creating a positive learning environment for everyone involved. We support a collaborative community where people feel comfortable asking for help, but it is not acceptable to misrepresent others’ work as your own. Often this happens when you do not adequately budget your time to complete an assignment. In that case, it is better to ask your professor for an extension, or simply turn in what you are able to complete. To help provide some more concrete guidelines:

• Do not share your code or solutions with other students, and do not ask other students for their solutions.
• Do not obtain solutions to coursework from the Internet, past students in the course, or other prohibited sources.
• Do not communicate with each other during exams.
• Do not utilize or look at materials from past iterations of the course without instructor permission.
• Follow the Macalester College Academic Integrity Policy.

If you are not sure whether something is acceptable, then ask your professor.

Making Mistakes and Reporting Unacceptable Behavior

We are all human, and we all make mistakes in our behavior. We might encounter terminology that we’re not familiar with, and accidentally use a word or phrase that is hurtful. We might say something that is exclusionary without realizing it. These indirect, subtle, or unintentionally discriminatory actions against members of our community are called microaggressions. Our understanding of the ways language and grammar can both inflict harm and empower historically marginalized communities is constantly expanding.

If you hear a member of our community say or do something harmful, it’s OK to say: “That word/phrase/action is concerning. Can we use a different word or do something differently?” We should help each other be mindful of the unintended impacts we have on each other, and be open to making changes in the ways we behave and communicate. This learning is an important part of our education, just as important as the material we study in class. Hold each other accountable for educating ourselves about our mistakes and learning how we can do better in the future.

When you make a mistake, it is your responsibility to educate yourself and learn from it. First take a breath and be aware of your own defensiveness before responding. Listen to those who are calling on you to change. Sincerely apologize, then seek understanding on your own time and consider following up. Keep working on learning and improving yourself. Here’s a resource you might find useful when having these tough conversations: You’ve been called out for microaggression, what do you do? We encourage you to find other resources as well.

If someone constantly repeats a mistake after others have pointed it out, or such mistakes become a pattern, then they rise to the level of discrimination and harrasement. We will not tolerate this. Discrimination, threats, and abusive behavior are not welcome in our community. If you witness or experience this unacceptable behavior, then you should speak up. We are all responsible for keeping MSCS a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone.

You can report violations of our community guidelines in any of the following ways:

• Discuss the issue with your course instructor
• Discuss the issue with a trusted MSCS faculty or staff member
• Discuss the issue with your advisor(s)
• Bring it to the attention of the department chair (Susan Fox, fox@macalester.edu) 
• Report the issue anonymously on the MSCS Community Concerns Form
• Contact the VP for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Dr. Alina Wong (awong3@macalester.edu)
• For sexual misconduct violations (sex or gender-based discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, dating/intimate partner violence, domestic violence, or stalking) report to the Title IX office.
• Submit a Bias Incident or Discrimination Report.

We will handle reported violations of our community guidelines with as much compassion, delicacy, care, and confidentiality as possible. However, all faculty and staff are required to report Title IX violations to the Title IX coordinator.

Attribution

Some of the ideas and text for these guidelines are based on multiple sources, including: The Recurse Center user manual, Buffer code of conduct, Dr. Amrah Salomón J. (Department of English, University of California Santa Barbara) rules of engagement, You've Been Called Out for a Microaggression. What Do You Do?.