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Cynthia Eaton
The following article is part 3 in a review of the September 13 Navigating Controversial Topics on Campus workshop; if you have not yet done so please also read part 1 Considering multiple perspectives and part 2 What academic freedom does and does not mean. It’s not every day when a physical fight breaks out in the parking lot of the Eastern Campus, but it happened about a year ago. This and other challenging incidents were addressed by five faculty panelists during the Managing Hot Moments portion of the workshop. Below is a summary of each panelist’s anecdotes, advice and lessons learned. A rare Eastern Campus quarrel When Assistant Professor of English John Brush spotted the altercation outside the Corchaug Building, in that instant he felt torn. “Do I run over and try to break it up?” he asked himself, “or do I notify Public Safety and get help?” He made a split-second decision to run toward the students in hopes of preventing someone from being seriously hurt when it hit him: Those are my students! Earlier, during class, one student had blurted out an unfriendly comment to a classmate, which Professor Brush handled during class. Unbeknownst to him, however, after class ended, the situation spilled out into the parking lot, with a shoving and yelling match heating up. John fortunately managed to calm everyone down. “This is an extreme and fortunately rare example of a ‘hot moment’ on campus,” John said, “but I'm sharing it because I learned a great deal from that incident.” John indicated that among other things, he quickly came to understand that the college has highly qualified teams of people here—Public Safety, student services, mental health counselors and others—that we can rely on to help navigate hot moments like these. Not all such incidents can be anticipated, but being aware of their possibility and our college resources is an important first step. Communication breakdown Adjunct instructor of English Kailyn Giaccone, who works with John in the Eastern Campus writing center, shared an example of a hot moment that suddenly erupted between a student and one of the tutors. The student, upset at the suggestion they had plagiarized in their essay, felt disrespected, and the tutor was trying to explain—only to have the student’s anger become out of control. It was sudden and unexpected, but Kailyn described how she was able to get the student to leave to cool down for a bit and return, during which time she worked with the tutor about how to deescalate such situations in the future. “Because I started tutoring at age 22, I had to figure out early on how to set boundaries and keep everyone focused on the academic issues at hand,” Kailyn said, underscoring that there should be no yelling in any academic spaces on campus. Oversharing in psych class Dr. Courtney Brewer is vice president of the FA and, as a professor of psychology since 2011, she often enlightens colleagues about why we are seeing certain behaviors from students post pandemic. She acknowledges the challenges of classroom management since hot moments can put us in an uncomfortable position while 30 or more sets of eyes are watching our every move. “I set the tone early in the semester,” she explained, “because sometimes students do not realize how disruptive they being are to classmates.” Another issue she is seeing more often recently is students who overshare in psychology class, whether it be about their own diagnoses, involvement with the criminal justice system or use of illicit substances. At times she can see others in the class are visibly uncomfortable or upset with such oversharing. “At other times, however, I have also seen the most amazing support shared between students in these situations. I feel nervous that someone might say something mean to or about a classmate, but they really don’t.” Courtney advises colleagues to include written classroom behavior expectations in their syllabus, verbally review those guidelines in the first week and offer reminders as needed. “Most importantly, don’t pretend a hot moment never happened; you can always come back and address a situation at the beginning of the following class.” Library quiet, interrupted Late in the day about six years ago, an adult male in the Ammerman Campus library spotted another male student who was wearing a keffiyeh and a thawb. While librarian Deb Provenzano is not sure what provoked the confrontation, she is absolutely sure that she would not have been able to intervene once the fists started flying. With the sudden screaming and yelling, the quiet of the library was shattered. “These were very big, very tall men,” Deb said, “so I was immediately most concerned about the safety of all the students around them.” While a colleague called Public Safety, Deb calmly but firmly ushered the students to the other side of the library and out of harm’s way. The libraries on campus, she explained, like the cafeteria, parking lots and other nonclassroom spaces, are more open, so it doesn’t feel to students like there are the same “ground rules” for behavior as inside the classroom. Once the fight was under control, she was able to process what happened. Sometimes, there really are no warning signs that a situation is about to erupt; the best we can do is to try to stay calm ourselves and rely on the college resources that John Brush mentioned earlier. All the things you’re not supposed to discuss at Thanksgiving Because Christina Bosco teaches European history, she jokes that she has no choice but to cover “all the things you’re not supposed to talk about with your family at Thanksgiving,” including issues of racism, classism, sexism, religious conflict and more. “It’s all a part of history so I make clear we will do so respectfully," she noted. While most students engage in these conversations in appropriate ways, invariably a student will periodically say something truly controversial or provocative. Her technique when such things happen, Christina shared, is not to counter. Instead, she will simply and calmly ask, “What do you mean by that?” Often students will clarify their comment and talk it through. Periodically, however, a student will double down, such as one student who was aggressively defending Nazis. During that class, Christina said, “We are going to put a pin in this because others are getting upset,” and later followed up with all the students after class by email. She happened to know a German historian and provided their contact information so anyone in the class could get an expert’s responses. At semester’s end, the student wrote an essay about the experience and reflected on how he had learned to disagree with someone and still listen to them. How you deal with conflict, Christina concluded, can sometimes be what students most remember about your class. There are no easy answers because hot moments are necessarily context dependent, but at all times remember to lead by example. Stay calm, speak carefully, continue the conversation and rely on college resources and the support of your colleagues. The union-administration collaborative JEDI Institute offers workshops on how to handle hot moments every summer, so watch for an email from the college each spring to sign up for that program or contact Chief Diversity Officer Christina Vargas or FA Secretary Cynthia Eaton to let them know you are interested. |
