Responding to Angry or Disruptive Students
Classroom instructors face many challenges in teaching a diverse student
population, and it is expected that students at a university will
experience a wide variety of emotions. While many students will be
attentive and engaged in the classroom activities, others may be
day-dreaming, bored, distracted, or pre-occupied. Many instructors have
their own effective techniques for working with these students. Those
students who come to class under the influence of drugs or alcohol,
express extreme anger, or become disruptive, present a greater
challenge.
On occasion a faculty member may recognize that a student is under the
influence of alcohol or other drugs. Faculty members may handle this
situation as they choose, but should be mindful that they have the
option to refer the student to the University Judicial Council by
sending a written complaint to the Office of the Dean of Students.
Those faculty members reporting such behavior should be as thorough as
possible in providing details of the incident. The University
Counseling Center and the Health Promotion unit in the University Health
Center provide support for students with alcohol or drug use problems.
It is more likely that faculty members will encounter students who
become angry in class. This anger might derive from differences among
classmates, discussion of a controversial topic, or a disputed grade on a
paper or test. This is to be expected. Anger in a student is not a
violation of the Student Code of Conduct nor is it necessarily a threat
to classroom order. When a student's anger manifests itself into
disregard for University authority or disorderly conduct, the faculty
member retains the same right to report that student to the Office of
the Dean of Students.