Walk into the typical large lecture hall, and chances are you will see students reading the newspaper, sleeping and sending text messages. Other students walk in late and leave halfway through class. Wait long enough and a cell phone may ring.

Every instructor has experienced such distracting behaviors.

Music professor D. Kern Holoman, who has seen his fair share of littering, gum chewing and cell phone ringing during his more than 30 years on campus, decided to take up the issue last year.

He met with Student Faculty Relations Committee Chair Jack Goldberg, religious studies professor Naomi Janowitz, Interim Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies Fred Wood, Student Judicial Affairs director Jeanne Wilson and others to discuss academic dishonesty and general classroom behavior. The meeting resulted in a flurry of judicial affairs presentations for instructors on cheating and classroom disruption.

Wilson said instructors first must decide what they will and will not allow in their classrooms. What might be appropriate for a drama class could wreak havoc in a large lecture hall, for example.

Mixed views

Individual professors also have different takes on what is disruptive. Academic Senate Chair Dan Simmons, who teaches 20-student law classes, called cell phones "minor irritants" that don't disrupt his teaching, whereas Holoman said the phones are "instruments of the devil."

Once rules for classroom etiquette are decided, instructors need to make students aware of their policy, said Delaney Kirk, a Drake University management professor and author of the 2005 book Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher.

"We as professors need to establish our expectations for acceptable behavior," Kirk wrote in an e-mail. "If I set classroom policies on tardiness, attendance, late papers, etc. and convey my expectations to my students, they are more than willing to accept those rules."

Holoman uses the same strategy with his classes, with good results.

"I'm candid about things that bother me," he said. "Once the bar is set, there are fewer problems."

Psychology professor Dean Simonton, who now teaches upper division classes, said he has fewer issues with the juniors and seniors in his lectures than the freshmen he used to teach. He pointed to student maturity as the biggest factor.

"The only difference between a first-year college student and a high school student is a summer vacation," he said.

Another factor also limits disruption among his students, Simonton said: "the advantage of senioritis. Students don't feel like they have to go just to have their bodies there."

As a result, only the students who want to learn regularly attend class.

If problems do arise in the classroom, the teacher must enforce his or her rules, said neurobiology, physiology and behavior major Tejal Pandya, a senior.

"The professor has responsibility to control the class," Pandya said. "People talking in the back are not necessarily going to listen to me when I tell them to shut up, but the professor is more of an authority figure."

Simonton said simply asking a student to stop disruptive behavior usually works for him.

"Most people will agree if you ask politely," he said. "After all, students are adults."

If the instructor is unable to quell a disrespectful student, Student Judicial Affairs or the Teaching Resources Center can be consulted.

"We advise faculty that they don't have to take disruptive conduct," Wilson said. "There are resources."

SJA helps professors work out issues individually with students causing trouble, but can also meet informally with students who do not respond. Wilson said only one or two students are officially referred to SJA for disruptive conduct in the classroom each year.

Technology

Most people involved agree that breaches of classroom etiquette have evolved over time. Wilson, who's been on campus for 22 years, said technology is partly to blame.

"People didn't have cell phones in 1983; they couldn't text message," Wilson said. She also added that growing class sizes have created more crowd control issues.

Kirk has noticed an overall degradation in student behavior, and she points to societal and educational trends.

"There appears to be a general lack of civility in the 'real world' and that trickles down to the educational system," she said.

"The emphasis many universities now have on the student as a customer also contributes," Kirk added. "Faculty are afraid of making the students upset as this reflects on tenure, promotion and salary decisions."

'Common decency'

Whatever the societal causes are behind classroom disruptions, most feel that students need to take responsibility for their actions in the classroom. Pandya said she does not mind an occasional accidental cell phone ring, but conscious disruptions like talking in class are unacceptable.

"The things they didn't do on purpose are all right," she said. "But if it's something that could have been prevented by being more conscientious, that bothers me."

Holoman agreed. He also would like to see more prudence in his students.

"What I find galling and vexing is not the action itself," he said, "but the lack of thought behind the action — not realizing that another student in the class or even the teacher might find your actions offensive."

Or, as Simmons summed up, "so much just comes down to common decency and courtesy."

Holoman thinks the campus Principles of Community provide a good guide for how students and instructors should behave in a classroom environment. Statements such as "We promote the open expression of our individuality and diversity within the bounds of courtesy, sensitivity and respect" could be taken to heart.

"I am a great fan of the Principles of Community," Holoman said. "I would have them engraved on the walls of classrooms. I think of them as the Ten Commandments of university life."

Despite the occasional breach in student etiquette, Holoman is quick to point out that the vast majority of students create no problems at all. He, like most instructors, relishes his time in the classroom.

"I really do look forward to teaching large crowds," he said. "I enjoy the students."