Except where I tell you otherwise, you are welcome to collaborate freely and to consult any sources you wish to in your work for this class. I love watching students work together like an elite volleyball team: bump, set, spike.

I want our virtual classroom to be a welcoming space, one where we all learn from the diversity of each other’s perspectives. The best comments are ones that help your colleagues learn. I will do my best to make the course interesting and enlightening regardless of your degree program, prior life experiences, or future plans. If there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.

I expect you to always act professionally and respectfully to your classmates (and our occasional guests). I will not condone harassment.

If anything in or out of class makes you uncomfortable, please talk to me about it. Not all discomfort is avoidable, but I will do everything I can to help that is consistent with the educational goals of the course. I will also respect any requests for confidentiality as far as my legal and professional duties allow.

If for any reason your preferred name is not the one that appears on the course roster, please let me know how you would rather be addressed. (For example, I regularly have students who go by their middle names rather than their first names, or who have changed their names as part of significant personal transitions.) It’s a small thing, but there’s no reason I should get it wrong. The same goes for preferred pronouns.

Support for students with disabilities

If you have, or think you may have, a disability (including an “invisible disability” such as a learning disability, a chronic health problem, or a mental health condition) that interferes with your performance as a student in this class, you are encouraged to arrange support services and/or accommodations by contacting Associate Dean for Student Affairs Kristin DiBiase (Office 210E, kdibiase@seattleu.edu. Disability-based adjustments to course expectations can be arranged only through this process.

Notice on Religious Accommodations

It is the policy of Seattle University to reasonably accommodate students who, due to the observance of religious holidays, expect to be absent or endure a significant hardship during certain days of their academic course or program. Please see, Policy on Religious Accommodations for Students (https://www.seattleu.edu/media/policies/Policy-on-Religious-Accommodations-for-Students---FINAL.pdf).