Academic Poll: Classroom Atmosphere

We're talking college students, in lectures no more than an hour and a half?

1) No, but I'm sure I will be alone in this opinion, and it wouldn't be worth enforcing.
2) Eating: no. Drinking: yes, politely. I do not want to hear you crunching cheetohs and crinkling papers.
3) No, not unless you have a medical condition.

And while we're on the subject:

4) No, you cannot use a computer unless required by the class. Stop surfing the web-- no one believes you're taking notes, because if you were the keyboard would be clacking unacceptably loudly.

Hats: OK for gals, because no gal is going to pay any attention to what a male nerd's fashion opinions are anyway.
Dudes? Only if you put the brim forward fer cryin out loud yer not a damn catcher are you?

Food: Geez, I though we settled this in kindergarten. Did you bring enough for everybody?

Bathroom: What year did they start doing that? Nobody did when I was an undergrad?

The only things I prohibit in class are things that disrupt your neighbors. No cell phones or talking.

I have no problem with hats - although I did once have a student ask if they were allowed to wear a hat during an exam, since apparently students can cheat by taping answers to the underside of the visor. I just blinked a lot.

I have no problem with eating in class - in fact, I hand out candy at exams. And each year I've had at least one student with blood sugar issues ask specifically for permission to eat in class, due to timing. Only one student has ever taken advantage of this policy, and his classmates took him down for me - eating buffalo wings in class is really just kindof loud, messy, and distracting. And gets fingerprints on things.

I avoid people walking in and out of class by arranging class with a 4 minute bathroom break in the middle of the lecture. It lets people come back with an increased attention span.

I was much, much stricter when I first started teaching. At some point, I realized that I was never going to keep the students who didn't want to be there paying attention, and that I was creating a lot of resentment in the other students by setting policies by the bottom. So I relaxed, and the number of students who fail miserably instead of scooting by with a D increased... but the students in the A to C- range were much, much happier with the class, and performance increased in the middle segment based on exam results.

Speaking as a student, recently of college, and now of law school...

Hats: Never thought about it. I think it looks weird, I suppose. Why would you wear a hat indoors?

Drinking: Sure, as John says, if politely and quietly.

Eating: As one of my professors put it last week, if it's discreet. No full, multi-course meals, but a PowerBar or the like (if you minimize the crinkly sounds)...

Bathroom slip-outs: Again, if you can manage to do it with minimal interruption to the class--say, through a back door--I can't see why there would be a huge problem. But then, law school classes (which run two hours on average) have a break halfway through for this reason.

And finally, laptops. In law school, it's not about allowing laptops, it's about forbidding them--unless the professor specifically says no, the entire class has laptops out.

Some professors are OK with the laptops, and very much not with the Internet access (there's Wi-Fi in the law school building), some don't care, some say no laptops. Depends on the class, the professor, and the like. And yes, there are always students who goof off.

But law school's different than college.

I haven't taught enough to comment from the teacher's perspective, but as a student I would say:

1) Yes, unless it's blocking the view of the person behind you (that means no sombreros!). Hats are just clothes, who cares if they stay on.

2) Yep.

3) Absolutely. Sometimes, you just have to go.

Speaking as faculty, anything goes as long as it doesn't become a distraction. Then again, teaching mostly upper level UG and graduate courses, I rarely have to deal with any such issues, people come to learn. When I taught larger classes of sophomores (modern physics, in fact) I had my share of discipline issues (which is the main reason I like teaching those less, the material is actually really nice). My biggest issue was people surfing the internet, I wish I could switch off the wireless router at that lecture hall.

Status: faculty

1) Hats, yes. I never understood why people have a problem w/ hats. I occasionally wear a hat while teaching.

2) Food/Drink: As long as it's not disrupting, no problem.

3) Bathroom breaks: Not specifically banned, but students getting up and moving about is a major distraction to me and other students. I make it clear that distractions aren't the path to my good side. They're adults and they should know to go before class.

I will also say that what I find acceptable is very different depending on the size of class - my post above was aimed at the 75+ student lecture hall. It adds enough distance that students in the back of the room get a lot of leniency because they don't disturb the students in the front/middle (the ubiquitous "T").

Novak - several students really do use their computers for note-taking (or at least following along in handouts) in my class. That one is a difference between when we were in classes, and ten years later. And if it's a choice between a student being in class, surfing the web in the back row and catching the main points, and a student not being in class, unable to even passively absorb anything - I'd rather have them in class.

The only thing I enforce with computers is that if students need to plug them in, they wait until after class starts to stretch a cord across the aisle. That one is a disaster in the making.

My general rule is: I don't care what you do as long as you don't bother other people. Come to class, don't come to class, it is up to the student.

I hate to say it, but the people that try to make students do things may be confusing learning with obedience. So, to answer the questions most of these will not interfere with other students.

1) Yes (can't see how a hot would bother someone unless it was like that huge hat in the seseme street episode where the girl had the huge hat on in the theater).

2) Eat and drink during class. The only problem is that if they make a mess. That kind of bothers other students. In general, I say yes.

3) Depends on the size of the class, but in general people can leave without really bothering other people, so I say yes.

From a prior life as a college instructor:

1. No hats, please

2. Drinking - yes Eating - generally no

3. We'll have a scheduled break mid-way the class period
but does your place of work schedule your potty
breaks....?

1) Only hats that are acceptable to me.

2) Eating no. Unfair to others and too distracting. Drinking yes. But nothing made in a martini shaker. Too distracting also.

3) Bathroom break? Why didn't you go before we left???

Will, you must not be in the south. The only guys who routinely remove their hats here (the campus I attended and now work on, UofAL) are ROTC in uniform. My father is one of the few men I know who always removes his ball cap (and any other hat) upon entering a building. His mother would be very proud.

As a former student, I'd say no to anything other than ball caps because they can be distracting and/or block someone's view. Cowboy hats are rare on campus but they do show up occasionally. Eating and drinking needs to be discreet. In some buildings or rooms on our campus food and drink were specifically not allowed (new carpeting, etc).

I once heard an interview with a law professor who had banned computers from his classroom. He was afraid that the students typing notes would simply type everything he said with out processing any of it, the was stenographers do. IMHO, some will and some won't. Keyboard clacking could be a problem, if only a few people are doing it. The internet may offer more options for goofing off but I don't think it has an irresistible pull - if a student's going to pay attention they won't bother to open a browser.

From a student perspective...

1) I agree with winnebago. What is the problem with hats? Unless they're so big people can't see around them, I suppose. But a baseball cap? Who cares? I'd rather look at someone's baseball cap than at their hat-hair anyway.

2) I nearly always brought drinks to class, so I'd be annoyed at someone who banned them. I often brought food to lunchtime classes as well, but I realize that probably bothered some people and would understand banning it.

3) Bathroom breaks you simply have to allow at the college level. Can you imagine a "no bathroom breaks" rule at a convention or a public lecture? I thought it was sort of infantalizing even in high school when teachers would try to regulate that. It's incredibly undignified to be required to sit there for up to an hour and a half, learning nothing because you're distracted by your bodily needs. Adults need to respect each other's right to quietly excuse themselves. If there is someone who is incapable of choosing the proper moment and doing this discreetly, you can talk to that person and ask them to please try to be less disruptive. But effectively locking your students in the room while you lecture at them is unacceptable, and grounds for the students to complain to the administration, I'd say.

I think that anything is ok as long as it does not infringe on other students' right to learn. Hats, drinks, bathroom breaks, and even sleeping are ok as long as they are not distracting to the teacher or other students. However, talking and ringing cell phones are not acceptable, and there were plenty of times in college when I wish teachers had enforced these rules. Also, if students do sleep in class, they must accept the responsibility for it. They are adults, and if they can't manage their time, they don't deserve to be in the class.

There are obviously exceptions though. Baseball caps should not be allowed during exams because it makes it easier to cheat. Food and drink should not be allowed in any laboratory for safety reasons.

However, if a teacher does make rules about these things, students should follow them as long as they are reasonable. Prohibiting students from leaving to go to the bathroom is not reasonable.

Forgot the bathroom question: I agree with Mary. There's no reason to not allow students to quietly excuse themselves if they need to.

Student still but..
1) hats: OK.
I think if I were a prof I'd recommend people with huge ones sit in the last row, but I'd recommend that for the freakishly tall giants, unless the lecture hall is unusually well designed with ample space to see over giant heads.
As a shivering student I implore the faculty- please don't insist students take off hats or jackets- some of us have no circulation and simply can't learn while cold. Also, anyone who think being cold "keeps you awake" deserves to be mauled by a bear who hibernated through the winter and is looking for spring snacks.
2) drinks: OK. Food: did you bring enough for me? But I wouldn't actually be offended at food if it were relatively quiet/clean/not-strong-smelling
3) bathroom breaks: I am disgusted and appalled this even came up.
I do have some minimal sympathy for inner-city high school teachers with 40 kids in their class who feel they have to insist on controlling access to the restroom. I have absolutely zero for a college professor doing the same. OMGWTFBBQ?

I certainly did all of those in college and in grad school: hats for bad hair days (just ball caps, though), food and drink, and leaving to go to the bathroom. This was in the dark ages before laptops and internet access, so I never used a laptop in class, but I did sometimes read a magazine in class, and I've been known to skip classes. I wasn't blowing off the class, the pace just moved too slowly to occupy my attention. I was there to learn, and I cared about the class, but it was a class where I grasped the material quickly, and others didn't.

Whoa! Are we talking public or private schools? Who's paying for this "education"?

Is it acceptable for students to wear hats in class? Public, no. Private, yes.
Is it acceptable for students to eat or drink during class? Public, no. Private, maybe.
Is it acceptable for students to get up to go to the bathroom during class? No, either way. If you have to leave don't come back to "class".

I'm both a grad student and work in a middle school, so I would say that these rules do apply a little differently on each level.

1. No to hats.

I'm of the opinion that one should take their hat off indoors. But I will say that while at the middle school level it should be and is duly enforced, once in college obviously you're not policing the halls. In a big lecture, I'd say don't bother enforcing, but in a small group class it's fine to bring up this tiny bit of etiquette.

2. No drinking or eating, but water is permissible.

At the wee tykes level, no on everything of course. At university, I think it's a politeness level to just keep things quiet and tidy. However, that rule loosens for the four hour long evening classes I take, and the professors have been gracious enough to acknowledge the time and freely allow food, so long as it's not overly aromatic.

3. Yes to bathroom breaks.

Again, longer lectures, larger campuses, and I lived with a really packed schedule during undergrad days. Quietly getting up and leaving your stuff is a pretty obvious sign you're taking care of some brief business. For kids? I usually don't care if they need to go either. They get a shorter and shorter time between classes in order to help fight off fraternizing.

I'm both a student and an instructor, and to be honest, I think saying "no" to any of these things is a sign of being incredibly out of touch with modern learning methods. College is not kindergarten, these people are adults, and as such should have the freedom to go to the bathroom or eat a granola bar in class. Being strict about these things will make your students annoyed and uncomfortable, and they will not learn nearly as well. Have you tried focusing in class/work if you REALLY have to use the bathroom? It doesn't work. Furthermore, many students have multiple classes or labs in a row, and can't find the time to go to the bathroom, eat lunch, or grab a coffee in between.

1) No, it's better if they don't
2) No
3) Yes, of course

The really difficult issue is, What is your policy on tin-foil hats in class?

A stand-up-and-stretch break in the middle of any class, even a 50-minute one, is a good idea. In addition to that, there are always natural punctuations in any lecture's rhythm. Any minor disruptions, like ducking out to the bathroom or rooting around in a backpack for a sharper pencil, are even less distracting if students realize that some moments are far better than others. Like right after the conclusion of a complicated derivation, instead of in the middle of it. I say permit 'em, but drop a hint to be sensitive to timing.

(And hello to marciepooh - fellow Tuscaloosan here.)

I agree with several others here that the guiding principle should be whether or not the activity disturbs others. College kids are adults but are permitted to be eclectic.

For hats: an absolute ban on headwear might eventually bring up religious tolerance questions, and to avoid defining what qualifies as a hat or as a religion, it's best to just allow unless it's a disturbance.

Food: crumbs and vermin are a real problem. But students who end up with difficult schedules should be supported. In a small class, where students sit around a table, and completely clean up, and don't disturb anyone, it might be OK.

Drink: OK, but could enforce spill-proof closures.

Bathroom: the only other situation where adults who need to go and who are close to restrooms but are prohibited from using them is airplanes when the fasten-seatbelt sign is on. Can you leave faculty meetings to go to the bathroom? It shouldn't happen regularly, and could be prohibited during exams.

I was only ever a TA who handled recitation (discussion) sections, so based on my limited experiences:

1.) Never cared, although I did insist on them being removed for quizzes due to the potential for someone to cheat.

2.) I didn't really care as long as they weren't obnoxiously loud about it. Although I don't recall anyone really do any eating in class, although water bottles and such were pretty ubiquitous amongst the student body. I echo the comment above that both of these were of course huge no-nos when it came time to laboratory classes.

3.) It was never really much of an issue, mostly since the recitations only were 50 minutes in length.

Based on my experiences as an undergraduate, no one really seemed to worry much about these issues, except that I do recall being asked to remove my hat during exams.

From experience at Penn State, yes on all three.

1. Hats, gloves, coats, boots, scarves, and even ski goggles when coming in from 30 below and the winds are raging, as at 8am the classroom hasn't warmed up yet.

2. Scheduling may force a student to have classes that would preclude meal breaks. Many students also have jobs and cannot eat at work.

3. Penn State had 75 minute classes with 10 minutes to get from class to class across a large campus, so there were times a bladder break couldn't be squeezed in.

Keep in mind, this isn't the Army, the teacher's job is not to dominate the boots: these people are paying customers.

I have a colleague who doesnât allow students to wear hats, tank top, short shortsâ¦, etc. All the restrictions just give students more things to complain about her when they donât understand well in her "low-level" MATH classes.

The fact that we are telling them what not to do or how to behave can probably create resentment.

Hats, eating and going to toilet donât bother me. I think most students know how to behave. I find that if we respect students, they will in turn respect us.

When a student has an unreasonable request, all I need to say is -âwhat would you do if you were me?â This usually solves the problem without any further complaints.

Oh, I do have rules - students may not walk out my classroom (except going to the toilet). They can skip any classes, but it's their own responsibility to make it up. No class notes, no office-hour help either.

I had a teacher back in secondary school who taught us the one rule you need to play by in this sort of thing.

Subtlety.

If no-one notices or cares, you should be fine. Don't test the limits, but don't be overly strict about things that don't matter. If the room isn't allowed food or drink, don't take in an open mug of coffee and plate of grub. But having a chocolate bar and bottle of coke in your bag isn't going to be a disaster.

Of course, that teacher was slightly deported, so...

I really have a problem with any adult who thinks they have the right to control another adult's access to a bathroom. If you never have to leave a room to go to the bathroom, yay, that earns you a cookie, but nothing more.

Hats: Doesn't bother me as long as they don't block someone's view.
Food: No.
Drink: Yes.
Bathroom: Absolutely. Sometimes ya gotta go.

Mostly a student, here, although I've guest-lectured high-school classrooms a couple of times. And most of my lectures were in *big* rooms - 150-seat theatres at the smallest.

Hats: Depends on the temperature in the theatre, but generally as long as it's not obstructing anyone else's view, who cares?

Drinking: Absolutely allowed.
Eating: Is it quiet and does it not stink? You're okay. Loud or stinky food is bad.

Bathroom breaks: don't disturb the others. Carefully open and close the room door. Don't block views, and, if you're in the middle of a crowded row, wait. But as long as you're not distracting anyone else, go ahead.

Laptops: Novak, what the hell kind of laptop are you using where the sound of typing is louder than the sound of pencil scritching or page turning? Or are we talking a really poundy gorilla-fingers typist?

If the laptop makes noise, it goes away, just like cellphones, PDAs, etc. If the video game, web site, or movie you're watching is distracting the people behind you, it goes away. Other than that, who cares what you're doing on it?

I admit that I've been a little stricter than that with high schoolers, but that's not quite the same situation.

Hats: This varies by geographic and age cultures. For example, western style "cowboy" hats are generally proper for wear inside a building, while other types of hats aren't. One consideration is that students often don't have any place to leave their optional clothing (Some classrooms have coat/hat racks, but some don't.). As long as wearing a hat doesn't cause a problem for other students (and isn't being used for cheating), then why not allow it?

Food/drinks: The main objection is whether eating/drinking causes a disruption for other students (or for the professor). In professional settings (e.g., the business world), it's not considered inappropriate to have a drink (soft-drink only, no alcoholic beverages!). Food is a bit trickier, but, in general, as long as they don't make a mess or cause a disruption, it shouldn't be a problem. And, there's the point about being a medical necessity for some students.

Bathroom breaks: The question really becomes which would be preferred: a student quietly slipping out for a few minutes, or having a yellow pool (or brown pile) under the student? I think everyone will agree that allowing the student to discretely slip out will be the better alternative.

Dave

Speaking as faculty:
1. Women yes, men only when it is a tenet of their religious faith - jews, sikhs, quakers, .... but absolutely not to red necks with gimmie caps
2. No. Unless it is part of a classroom exercise or experiment.
3. So long as it creates no disturbance in class. And on the second trip, remain absent.

Amazingly, common sense wins! From a student perspective, who spent many hours running 100 level physics labs:

Hats: Ok. I've heard the 'no hats indoors' rule, but in my experience, that rule is dead. Virtually no one in college these days takes a hat off at their home, at a store, or anywhere else, unless it is a more formal occasion, in which case they probably weren't wearing a hat before.
Food/Drinks: As long as it isn't noisy, messy or stinky. Some semesters, there is no way to schedule your classes other than to have a 4 hour block from 11am to 3pm with no breaks and snacks are very necessary to remain alert in class. It should remain clear, however, that the student is snacking during class, as opposed to inviting someone to lecture during their 3 course meal.
Bathroom breaks: Of course. If you've gotta go, you've gotta go.

I haven't seen any of the comments above mention the difference between massive lectures with 300+ students (I had classes with as many as 700+) vs. senior level classes with 10-20 students. You can let a lot slide in a big class where the professor is not expecting much student interaction. However, students need to be more polite (less eating, real effort to limit bathroom breaks) when in a small class. In that case, it really is distracting for a professor to see students blatantly ignoring him/her or munching on some tacos. A distracted professor hurts the entire class.

) Bathroom breaks you simply have to allow at the college level. Can you imagine a "no bathroom breaks" rule at a convention or a public lecture?

I was once at a university convention where we were specifically told that we were not permitted to leave the hall, even when the platform party left for a few minutes. The whole procedure took over six hours. I did not attend the following year.

1) Baseball caps worn indoors annoy me greatly. I'm neither old nor southern but I still think it's impolite and tacky. And since professors get to be the dictator of their classroom, I'd veto them.

2) Sure, as long as you're not loud and the food's not overly stinky. There were lots of times as a student that I had no chance to eat except in class. I can't recall ever being bothered by another student eating, either.

3) Of course students should be allowed to go to the bathroom. All of my longer classes had a break in the middle, though.

Part-time student (late 20s).
General principle: Students are responsible for making sure their behavior doesn't disrupt the class or annoy/distract other students.
Hats: I've never noticed hats being worn in class; everybody around here treats them as outdoor gear that comes off when they get inside. No problems in principle with them being worn in class.
Food/drink: When I have morning classes, I usually bring my breakfast (coffee+muffin). I make sure everything is unwrapped before class starts so eating it is just a matter of quietly picking it up and taking a bite. If I were told (by a prof or another student) that this was causing problems, I would change the way I do things to stop the problem (but not necessarily by not bringing food), and if other students were causing problems that affected me I would make sure they're aware of that. Restrictions to avoid crumbs or spillage are perfectly acceptable. I would be unhappy with blanket bans, but not unhappy enough to complain about them.
Bathroom breaks: If you need or want to leave (or arrive late), go ahead, but do it as unobtrusively as possible. I don't care why you're leaving. (But it's far better to arrange things so that you don't have to leave.) Also, I'm with Emory K. @#22 on timing.
Laptops: If you're doing anything other than taking notes (laptop or not), sit in the back. If you're not causing problems, there's no reason for anybody else to care whether you're paying attention or not. (Just don't be the people in the last paragraph of <http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~plragde/teachessay/going-to-lecture>.)

Student, yes, yes, and yes.

As long as there is no disruption, why would you even care?

All three of my answers are predicated on my personal belief that, as long as students do not disrupt class, they can do what they want. They're adults. They're responsible for the material. If they're not paying attention, that's their problem. My only rules are no talking (unless it's an interactive portion of the session) and cell phones must be off.

1. Yes. Does a student wearing a hat in class interfere with teaching? As an older gentleman in my church once asked, "why is it acceptable for women to wear hats indoors but not men?" Granted, women don't wear fancy hats as much as they used to, but it's a hat. Who cares? When the Sox won the World Series I wore my Sox hat while teaching. It's just a piece of clothing. Plus, we have a large Muslim student population on our campus (even though we're a small Catholic college - go figure) and most of the women wear head scarfs. Our reasons for wearing head coverings all differ and it isn't my business to judge.

2. Yes. The reality is that many students (pre-med and engineering majors for instance) have insanely full schedules. I would guess the majority of science majors at my institution have at least one day where they do not get a break for lunch (usually due to a lab). In addition, as I can personally attest, some people get low blood sugar and just need a little food to keep them going. I expect them to clean up their mess, but I've never had a student be totally disrespectful and turn their lunch into something distracting.

3. Yes (see number 2.). Our bathrooms sometimes develop a backup between classes and students might have to trudge quite a ways from one class to another, so sometimes they just have to go. And, quite frankly, how do you know they don't have a medical condition? I've had students with such conditions. As long as it isn't disruptive, I don't care.

My answer to all three questions is: yes, it's acceptable as long as it's not a distraction for the other students (or professor).

Specific thoughts on each of the questions:

1. Is it acceptable for students to wear hats in class?

I know there are some people who get very upset by anyone wearing a hat indoors and as far as I can tell it's just some social rule that was made a long time ago. Of course, if a person is wearing a large 10 gallon hat with bells and whistles on it, then the person wearing it is clearly an asshole. But for the most part, I don't care whether someone wears a hat inside or not (and most ball caps are not any more of an impediment to seeing the front of the room than the head that is contained within).

2. Is it acceptable for students to eat or drink during class?

This is tough because most of the food we're talking about is from a vending machine, implying that its wrappings are crinkly. If the student can negotiate that without disturbing others, I say go for it. Also, spillage is an issue. But, I err on the side of teaching student responsibility: let them be adults, which means letting them make up their own mind about this.

3. Is it acceptable for students to get up to go to the bathroom during class?

I vote yes, just because there may be a medical necessity to it. I recall having a kidney stone and attempting to flush it by drinking lots of water. It was very difficult to go more than an hour without having to go to the bathroom. Of course, good judgment should be used on the part of the student, particularly if it's a habit.

By the way, I'm amazed there's a question missing from your list: What to do when a student's cell phone goes off?

In my humble opinion, cell phones are far more of a distraction than all of the above put together. I personally think that the first time a student's cell phone goes off she/he should automatically fail the class. I am willing to bet that after an instance or two of that students will become more mindful of their cell phone's noise settings. And maybe it'll help make them less annoying once they reach The Real World(TM).

My answers are predicated on the observation, through several rounds of schooling, that while 90% of people know how to behave, the rest don't and are willfully obtuse about it.

Therefore, hats annoy me although it's not worth fighting about.

Also therefore, having seen the note taking on laptops going on from the students' perspective, I gaurantee it takes a small fraction of a second to tab away from the browser and back to the notes page. It's also not what kind of laptop I use, but what kind of laptop the willfully obtuse member of the 10% uses. Which is to say, noisy.

And on bathroom breaks, barring medical exisgencies, we're not keeping the clas schedule a secret are we? I'm also assuming an instructor clever enough to schedule breaks during classes longer than an hour.

In short: Get me my damn walker, you young whippersnappers.

I'm a professor.

Hats: sure, wear them if you want. Though I may mentally identify you as "the guy with the red hat," and have no idea who you are if you come to class without it. (Beards that come and go give me trouble, too.)

Food and drink: Fine under most circumstances; the exceptions are when we're working in a computer classroom. (Some of my students don't have any time in their schedule for lunch. In fact, once I required the students to take turns bringing snacks because I had a long class period scheduled at lunchtime.)

Bathroom breaks: I don't have a rule against it. I would rather that students don't wander in and out of a lecture (lab's ok), but if it's an emergency, that's fine, and I won't ask questions. (My classes are all 50 students or smaller, so it's hard to leave the classroom without a disruption.)

I would add that when I was pregnant, I broke the rules myself. (Eating during class kept me from having to run out with morning sickness.) I'm not going to hold students to rules that I've been unable to keep.

My teaching experience is in small classes that run 2 - 4 hours. My most recent student experience is night classes running 4 hours.

1. Hats indoors are uncouth, but tolerable. My students were stunned when I told them I was raised to believe gentlemen do not wear hats indoors. I've got enough trouble getting students to attend and turn in work without picking etiquette fights.

2. I've usually got a water bottle with me when I lecture, so I can hardly ban drinking in class. On the first day of class, I do point out that covering your classmate in Mountain Dew is a bad idea. Banning eating isn't going to work for night classes, so I ask students to avoid noisy and odorous foods. If we're in a lab, it becomes a safety issue, and that's a different kettle of fish.

3. I break for ten minutes out of each hour. If they can't wait to take a break then, I figure it's a serious need.

Laptops: Argh argh argh. Lots of serious students use them to take notes, and they're a popular alternative to our computers in the labs, but they're also an enormous distraction for less serious students.

My perspective is somebody who was a student for a VERY LONG TIME.

I'm assuming that you are talking about university-level (undergrad & grad) education, not high-school or below.

Hats: I really don't get why anybody would object to hats. What is this, the 1940s?

Drinks: Allow. Expecting students to pay attention during an 8AM lecture without coffee on hand is inhuman. And if you allow it then, there's no rationale for disallowing it at other times.

Food: depends on the food. A granola bar or a donut? Yes. Ribs smothered in barbeque sauce? No. Anything stinky? Absolutely no.

Bathroom: Maybe it's just the schools I went to, but people didn't up and leave class for no reason--they didn't want to miss important information. So, anybody who left to go to the bathroom *really* needed to go. So, yeah, I say allow it, as long as students don't abuse the privilege.

1) Hats are fine unless it's an exam. I want to see where they're looking.

2) Food is fine. Some people have classes all day long, and, being a mom here, it's better not to snarf your food down. Just don't be noisy about it.

3) Oh geez. Some of us are not prone to scheduling our bodily functions. So, just go, and try to be not noisy.

Also, in points 2 and 3, some people have medical issues or whatever and I wouldn't want to single anyone out. (And I have, in fact, gotten letters from doctors or disability services about students who have issues like this, so I'm not making it up.) It's best to allow it as long as people are being discreet.

Cell phones bother me a lot more, but given I am one who is prone to forgetting to turn them off herself, I handle it by saying, "Could you please put that on silent? Thanks."

What *really* bothers me is people reading the newspaper. Being well versed in current events is great, but please don't do it during class.

(Grad Student with an ABD)

The point of instruction is to instruct. Faculty can either lay out a long list (encompassing much more than fashion, food, and bathroom breaks) of dos and don'ts, or a simple guiding principle can be laid out in which the environment of instruction is the primary reason for holding the class, and anything that is detrimental to that is not allowed.

hats? really? unless Carmen Miranda is sitting in front of me and her pineapple is obscuring a part of the board, why do I care about hats? do we make exceptions for yarmulkes?

food and drink? sure crunchy things, smelly things, et. al. should be disallowed because they are distracting. do we make exceptions for medical conditions such as diabetes?

bathroom breaks - if one quietly gets up, leaves, and returns with spilling their books all over, stepping on a dozen toes, etc. why not? do we make exceptions for female hygiene?

In every case of a restriction, special exceptions and rules will need to be created. Instead go with the guiding principle, and disallow specific behavior that goes against it.

What *really* bothers me is people reading the newspaper. Being well versed in current events is great, but please don't do it during class.

Wow! That takes some serious cajones unless it's a huge class! Actually, I don't think in 8 years of teaching I've ever had a student take notes on a laptop. That's weird isn't it? I mean, I know they all have them.

I'm at the student/teacher transition (grad school). I have no issues with eating/drinking/getting up and leaving, with the universal caveat that whatever you do in class shouldn't interfere with other student's efforts to follow the lecture. I think the rudeness of hats is being undersold by some of the other commenters, though. In particular, many people wear baseball caps pulled far enough down so that I can't really see their faces. This doesn't matter in any decent-sized lecture, but in something like a small-group recitation it prevents me from seeing the effect of what I'm saying on my students. So, I definitely think students shouldn't wear them (or should wear them in such a way that this is a moot complaint). I wouldn't ban them (unlike, say, leaving your cellphone ringer on), but I might make a comment about the politeness of it.

Hats: It's not okay in any indoor situation, actually. Especially when you're sitting down in a lecture hall, though, a hat can get in the way of a viewing angle for the participants behind the person wearing the hat, so I'd say that it's just polite to not wear it. Besides, what are you losing, removing it? What, were you born in a barn, you uncouth lout?

Eat: No way. Drink? Yes, so long as they're not noisy about it.

Bathroom: For God's sake, yes. Jesus Christ.

Novak: Seriously, remind me to never attend one of your lectures, should you ever give them. I'd like to be able to use the bathroom when my bladder demands it, rather than sitting there stewing in it. Jesus F'in Christ.

Eating? drinking? Who cares. The thing you should ban is the clicky pen that idiots loudly click up and down all hour. Extremely annoying.

I'm not faculty, just staff, but here's how I would run things.

Hats: The "as long as it doesn't bother your neighbors" rule is a good one. Baseball caps (as long as they aren't pulled so far down as to obscure your eyes) and yarmulkes are fine. Please remove that ten-gallon Stetson or Carmen Miranda hat so that the people behind you can see the board. I, too, was brought up to think that it was rude for a man to wear a hat indoors, but that social rule is out of date (and some are required for religious reasons to cover their head).

Food/drink: OK in lecture if it's not too smelly and you clean up your own mess. Prohibited in lab for safety reasons. I'm assuming there is some kind of lounge near the lab where people who need to eat/drink can do so.

Bathroom breaks: Again, don't be disruptive about it. No restrictions in labs, as expecting someone to get through three or four hours without a bathroom break is unreasonable (and you would at most be disrupting your lab partner).

Cell phones: What do you think vibrate mode is for? Use it!

Kenn:

I wouldn't lock the door, per se, even to keep out the chronically tardy, because I am not a barbarian. I still find it extremely distracting to have people wandering in and out of a lecture.

I teach at a liberal arts college, physics classes across the undergrad curriculum up to 24 students per class, and answer based on that kind of setting...

1. hats - I am not the fashion police; the students are far better equipped for that. I'd only say something if the hat were somehow disruptive (blocking other students' view, for instance)

2. food/drink - I've never promulgated a policy on this; in general, food is bad, drinks OK. I've had a few students come to small upper-level courses with food and tend to use it as something to tease them about. That tends to happen because many students actually don't have time to eat lunch (thanks to some institutional problems) so I'm a bit lenient about that without actually encouraging the practice.

3. bathroom breaks - if you've got to go... but please, not during an exam. That's a popular method of cheating here.

Laptops - I explicitly ban their use unless I ask them to bring them for class. I've also learned to be very selective about sharing materials with them - I used to use PowerPoint for a lecture outline, mostly for my own use, but found that students would download and study from them in ways I'd never intended. I used to post them before class and found that students would just click along and not really engage the material. After that I imposed my laptop ban

Acceptable:

Yes, all are acceptable.

The problem is, in reality-land, all three are abused. People get up and leave not just to go to the bathroom, but to answer their cell phones. Several times in a class period. People don't just bring a cup of coffee, they bring a crinkly bag of doritos, or a smelly breakfast sandwich. They don't just wear hats, they pull them down over their eyes and slump down in their seats so you have no idea whether they're paying attention to anything going on in class.

So wearing hats, eating and drinking, and using the restroom are fine. Having a disrespectful attitude towards classmates and the instructor are not fine. Such an attitude is often displayed by wearing hats, eating and drinking, and leaving the classroom.

55 responses? Wow :).

[Faculty at large state U. Very *junior* faculty :)]

Prohibited in my classes: cellphones etc. (the syllabus states that I will answer them, and I have/will).

Not prohibited: food/drink (I need a drink to talk for that long; I often teach at what for the students is breakfast time, and some of my work shows the beneficial effects of blood glucose on cognitive performance), hats, laptops, sleeping (although I would like to!), anything else that does not actually interfere with others' learning nor my teaching.

I'm a first-year undergrad studying Spanish and Russian at a British university.

1. Wearing hats: sure, why not? Lots of people in our classes do.

2. Eating and drinking: depends. Eating is almost always a no, I think. I have yet to see anyone eating in any of my classes, and I'd be a bit annoyed if someone was eating something noisily distracting. Drinking I think is usually a yes. A sip of water now and then is good, and lots of people seem to like coffee in morning classes -- don't see any harm in that. But hissing coke cans are annoying. Or would be annoying -- I've yet to see anyone open a coke can in class.

3. Bathroom breaks: sure, if people need to then they need to. It could get a bit annoying if folks were constantly wandering in and out, but again I've yet to see that happen.

I'm answering from a student perspective.

1, 2 and 3: Yes, but don't be a dick about it.

3a: Were I the professor I would reserve the right to say snarky things about repeated leave-takers, e.g. "I had no idea there were so many superheroes in my class."

These all seem like obvious "yes"es, with the possible exception of food. I'm remembering someone who would frequently come to a lunchtime seminar -- when people were explicitly told they could bring their lunch -- who would bring a big plate of something he would eat with fork and knife, the knife loudly scraping on the plate through the entire talk. That was going a bit far.

As a professor, my answers are:

1 - I don't care about hats, but I do make people either take them off or turn them around (if they have horrible hat head) for quizzes and exams.

2 - I typically don't care about eating or drinking in lecture, but then again I'm usually teaching at lunch time. No food in lab, though - too many germs floating around since we share with the microbiology lab.

3 - I prefer people be discrete about leaving, but I give them a lot of leeway.

The only thing I actively ban is cell phones. I don't want people texting in class or having the phone ring in the middle of my lecture.

I'm sure CCPhyscist has some interesting contrast, maybe I'll wade through and find it. I've had mainly night classes, so these are easy

Is it acceptable for students to wear hats in class?
Student's choice. If it doesn't affect anyone's ability to learn, it doesn't matter. Also, distinctive hats can help you in learning names.

Is it acceptable for students to eat or drink during class?
Night classes. Duh, of course food has to be allowed. Many students have been fighting traffic just to get there, will be there for 3 hours, after a full day on the job. The day classes, it's a bit less of an issue and can be more of a distraction, but that's because night classes have a totally different demographic.

Last spring people brought food for the whole class a few times. That totally rocks, especially when there's a crockpot going while you talk about thermodynamics.

Is it acceptable for students to get up to go to the bathroom during class?
3 hour sessions. Damn skippy bathrooms are ok. At some point you have to stop and breathe, take a sip of water, have them stretch legs, etc, just to get focused again. The benefit from allowing them to remove this distraction as needed far outweighs the distraction to the class (as long as they are quiet going about their business). During activities where people are up, taking data in labs, etc, it really doesn't even distract classmates anyways.

Is it acceptable for students to wear hats in class? Depends on the hat and depends on the course. If we're talking to a labratory course, probably not. If we're talking about a small seminar course, why not?

Is it acceptable for students to eat or drink during class? Again, this depends. If we're talking a full course buffet, of course not. If we're talking a small cookie during an 8AM course, sure.

Is it acceptable for students to get up to go to the bathroom during class? No, it's far more acceptable for them to urinate on the floor during class. Of course, so long as it's done in a manner that doesn't distract attention from the professor (and if they professor has a bathroom protocol in place...it is followed).

And just quickly @John Novak, I used a laptop in most courses in my undergrad (which only took 3 years), my Masters (another 2 years) and thus far into my PhD (2 years) and I don't think I've ever once even tried to connect to the internet. But I do know I've always had the most immaculate notes in outline format and that I've never gotten lower than an A in a course (in part) because of it.

Dumb question from a non- hat wearer- but why are hats seemingly so verboten? They truly are just a piece of clothing, and I have never understood the aversion to hat wearing. There is a LONG time ahead to focus on being a grownup in adult clothes and follow a dress code, but as a professor why would you set up a power struggle over that. If anything ought to be banned it is low rise jeans on the person in front of me who is wearing a bright pink thong and whose lovely crack I can see from every angle. That is disturbing, and I know because as a FEMALE I was a bit annoyed by the view. I see it in my line of work as well, and I find it silly that forty year old women do not have the sense to see how they look before they leave in the morning. A belt is not an option in this situation.

Food- please. Unless you KNOW what a student's life is, you have no idea if what they are eating in your class is the only thing they will eat that day, or for many more hours. As an adult student I was working, taking kids to sports and going to classes, while running a household. If I was hungry the last thing I was going to do was worry about who might be offended by me eating something quick and quiet on the run.

And- as for the bathroom- Are you kidding me? Please- do you really have to micromanage that badly. I have friends who must use the bathroom when nature calls or they will have issues. The last thing they need is yet another person to explain themselves to. I know myself that there are times when after a nasty GI infection I had no control over when nature called, and I was embarrassed to have to excuse myself, but I had no choice. Luckily I was working with people who had more sense than some of these professors.

High school teacher in an alternative/credit recovery computer lab.

1) During daytime, no, during our pm class, no problem - we have older students at night and the focus is more on academics than the dress code (at least as far as hats are concerned).

2) Not really, but we've allowed closable drink bottles, and allowed them to eat at our table away from the computers sometime (we have a lot who work and come in straight from that, so we let them eat).

3) In our class, it is self-paced, so that is no problem. When I was teaching in a classroom, I did not have too big a problem with this, but it started to get towards the out-of-control with a few students, so that was tightened up. It also depended on what the day was (lecture, activity, etc).

"Cell phones: What do you think vibrate mode is for?"
I think there are multiple correct answers to that question ;-)

Yes, Yes, and Yes; although, strictly, it's against policy for anyone to eat and drink in class at my college (for maintenance reasons). I can see how in some circumstances you'd want to limit people going in and out, but are there really professors who refuse to let students go to the bathroom?

Student here:
Yes, yes, and yes. Hardly anyone abuses them, at least in the classes I take. If you have to go to the bathroom and miss a bit of lecture, it's your own loss.

I am currently a student (still in high school, if it makes a difference).

1) No, hats that are not required by religious beliefs should not be worn indoors, period. It's just etiquette, though, so I would admit there are more important issues at hand.

2) My favorite-ever teacher (a history teacher, but smart as heck and a Trekkie to boot) allowed only "subtle food" in class, and I loved the policy. Quietly eaten food and drink were allowed, the criterion being that it did not disturb other students.

3) Absolutely, but students out of respect for their classmates should exit the classroom as inconspicuously as possible.

From a student perspective (years later):

1) As long as they aren't distracting or in the way, sure.

2) Absolutely yes. My biggest problem in college was concentrating through all my classes because I hadn't eaten. That said, keep it discreet. A sandwich is fine but don't be putting it together in class when you ought to be taking notes.

3) Yep, and for those who say "be adult enough to go before hand" maybe you don't recall or realize that students sometimes have no more than 10 minutes to make it from one end of a large campus to the other. There's not always time before and after classes.

These really shouldn't be issues at the college level. College is teaching adults, not 5 year olds and if profs really want them to act as such they need to be treated as such.

Having TA'd many into science courses--
All three are clearly acceptable.

Anyone who has to think twice about these needs to worry less about what students are doing and worry more about being a better teacher. Five minutes spent telling students why hats worn indoors is bad (it will give them teh AIDS?) is five minutes that could be used actually teaching.

Status - faculty

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes

I teach classes that are all 2-4 hours each, so occasionally people do need to get up and leave. If they have a UTI, I certainly don't need to hear about it to allow them to run out now and then. For pete's sake, they're adults in a learning environment, not kids at a military academy.

Those are kind of strange points to hang classroom professionalism on; I think the concentration of students and respect for the presentation of the material is much more affected by errant cell phone rings, newspaper reading, sleeping, and chatting.

Yes, yes, yes. I know I'm a softy, but (unless these are disruptive, and this has never come up) I have more important things to deal with. When I go to a seminar, I certainly feel free to leave for the bathroom, or to eat if it's at lunchtime. (Though this apparently not universal... I used to bring my burrito to a 12:30 math seminar, but the second or third time one of the regulars politely said `Joe, you bring your lunch, how interesting...')

How about dozing, or reading the newspaper?

Are you going to process these data and summarize in a nice pie chart? ;-)

Faculty.

1. I could care less, except during exams. I want to see their eyes during exams. Take off your hat and put it on again? Inspection time. Easier to just ban them during exams. Phone rings during an exam? Let it ring.

2. College policy: no, but take a look around during a faculty meeting in a classroom! Lab policy: Absolutely no. Lecture policy: don't bother anyone. As a grad TA, I drew the line at eating peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon at 10 AM. That was several decades ago. I've yet to have anything approach that. Yet.

3. Rarely a problem for most classes, but I have a long night class where some do have to get up. They usually sit where it is not disruptive.

From the perspective of a TA who runs labs and discussion sessions:

1. Hats are of course permitted.
Take off your hat in church or during the national anthem, and perhaps when you meet an older lady. If you still cling to this old piece of etiquette in any other situation, you are seriously out of touch. And my brim will point backwards and to the left, thank you very much. I don't ask you to stop tucking your polo shirts into your khakis, do I?

2. Only water permitted in lab. Labs and discussions are collaborative endeavors, so if it doesn't keep you from pulling your weight in your group, then it's fine.

3. Yes, but don't abuse it. I find it kind of funny when students ask me for permission to use the restroom, because I'm barely older than they are (and in some cases, not at all).

As for laptops and cell phones (from the perspective of a student), I say that if you're giving participation grades, then feel free to restrict their use. Otherwise, the student is only hurting himself if they waste time on the internet or texting during class. If someone's cell phone goes off and disturbs class, no big deal. Maybe give them a good chiding to try to prevent it in the future.

As a current full time college student (and being 22) and having taught classes during the summer once, I'll speak up.

Hat, why not? Seriously it's not a job interview, if someone wants to wear a hat indoors why should I care? The rules that you can't wear a hat indoors really aren't followed anymore by anyone expect the military.

Eating and Drinking, prefer not too, but as long as you are quiet, sure. Students are busy and sometimes you wind up having classes back to back during the afternoon with no chance to have a lunch. Or what I had is evening classes and I snack my way through my evenings.

Bathroom breaks, same as above, quiet go right ahead. The information is not that vital that you should be forced to suffer.

Laptops, go ahead. Of course I'm a CS major so in my classes, the entire class room is just laptops going away. Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) once gave a speech and joked that it was weird seeing no one with a laptop because at Google he was used to never seeing anyone's eyes as they would all be working on a laptop. Being on a laptop doesn't mean that I am not paying attention, if anything I can pay more attention, by researching and looking up secondary information relating to the topic or making comments online about it to other class members.

1. Only if they make me laugh.
2. As long as they aren't crunchy or smell so good everyone wants to stop listening and start eating. Sandwich ok, In and Out Burgers are way out.
3. You gotta go you gotta go.

I'm faculty (UK university professor). Yes to all three, provided consideration is shown for other students. I've come across people sitting in lectures with a bag of fish and chips - I'd say that's about where the line needs drawing.

I'm faculty. Anything goes as long as disturbance is kept to a minimum.

Funny, around here (France) I never saw a student try to keep his hat, and they do not eat in class, at least not conspicuously (and if nobody sees it including the teacher, it is ok in my book).
For the bathroom... Well, sometimes, you really just need to go, and very frequently (been pregnant, anyone ?). University students tend to be in the fertile age range, and they really don't need additional discrimination. But then you tend to know this and sit somewhere where you will cause the least disturbance (next to the door, in the end of a row of seats...).

If I do it they can do it.

1. I don't wear hats indoors, ever. Full stop.*
2. I don't eat in class. Full stop. I occasionally drink from a cup. Full stop.
3. I use the toilet before arriving in class so that I can make it 75 minutes before going again. Full stop.

It's a matter of respect for *everybody* in the class.

*Perhaps you don't subscribe to older social graces--such as taking off hats, shaking hands, wearing clean clothes, looking at somebody when you speak to that person, arriving on time for appointments, saying "please" and "thank you", etc--but perhaps you should.

@frumpy
I think you just burst my self esteem. I always thought I got good student evaluations because I worked hard at teaching well. Now I see students have to put up with nitwits like you on a regular basis. I could be a trained chimp standing at the front of the class and get rave reviews by comparison. Your logic is horrifically flawed--watch, "I hit up my rich relatives for tuition money, therefore I never waste time taking out loans in the financial aid office. Full stop." So that means none of my students should need aid either, right?

I have to wonder if we're all taking about the same thing when we use the word "hat". I'm thinking of an article of clothing worn on the head by baseball players and skiers. I haven't been able to figure out why wearing these indoors would be bad. I understand that many people were told as youth that it is bad manners to wear a hat indoors, but aside from "that's what I was told and firmly believe", is there a cogent argument for why one should remove a hat? Honestly, I don't get it.

Just finished undergrad degree last year.

1. As a hat-wearer (I love my Akubra), I take mine off for classes, mostly so the people behind me can see the board. I would hope other people would be similarly considerate.

2. Drinking? Sweet buttery owls, yes. Especially in summer when the aircon's barely working and the classroom was clearly designed by people who'd never heard of the Australian climate. And yeah, if you expect me to attend 8am lectures without coffee, you'd better be prepared to listen to my snoring. Especially since I didn't live on campus and thus had a two-hour commute to uni. Come to think of it, I remember some of the lecturers bringing in their coffee for those lectures too.

Food I'm iffier on - I'll admit to snarfing the occasional muesli bar during lectures, but seeing people bring in tubs full of hot food from the cafeteria was a bit much. On the other hand, being the survivor of a schedule which included a day with seven solid hours of lectures and labs with no break, I'm aware that sometimes it's eat in lectures or not at all. Obviously, no food or drink in labs, though.

3. Toilet breaks? Yeah, I think the negative consequences of _not_ allowing students to dash off to the loo can far outweigh the negatives of allowing it. Sure, you'd hope most students would take the opportunity between lectures, but some times it's just not possible.

@Ian Paul Freeley,

I'm not sure the contexts are sufficiently similar to make the comparison between taking out loans and behavior in classrooms useful.

On a different note, what's wrong with being a trained chimp? Primates are usually quite popular with the kiddies at the zoo.

Perspective: Ex-student, ex-academic staff, remembers when Reagan still walked the earth, grew up in the northern midwest, just moved to Chicago from 13 years in Texas.

First, spend a few hours reading Rate Your Students and imagine the spectrum of students. Snowflakes, clods, keeners, and a fair number of unremarkable kids taking classes seriously, despite the odds.

Hats: Unless you're the pope or planning on a career in food service, get out of the habit of wearing a hat indoors. This goes double for those with baseball caps who do not play baseball and cowboy hats for those who don't string fence or wrangle cattle. I suspect a negative correlation between indoor hat wearing and displayed intelligence so if there is a causal relation, making the kids take off their hats should make them obviously smarter. It certainly couldn't hurt.

Also, the "hat trick" is a personality detector - if one is terribly put out by being asked politely to remove their headwear, how big of a disrepectful entitled asshole will one be when the student is confronted with serious expectations - delivering original work in a timely fashion, using proper grammar and spelling, participating in class discussion, etc.? One doesn't have to be a petty control freak but on the other hand, the classroom isn't a bar or a corral.

Oh, speaking of religious headgear: unobtrusive hat, habit, turban, fez, beanie - ok. Full-face veil, scarf, helmet - no; it gets in the way of discussion. This isn't the eighth century and you're not really a Sith lord. The rules regarding loose clothing and open flame or rotating machinery still apply.

Food & drink: Ah, the days of my youth when the start of class was heralded by the crack-hiss chorus of a 24-pack salute of soda cans. Drinks are fine, food should be unobtrusive (a donut, airline peanuts, a space-food power bar, etc.) Exceptions are lab courses* (chem, biology, computer, etc.), shop classes (one is strongly encouraged to stay hydrated when working with forge and welding gear, provided the drink stays out of your work and vice versa), and long classes, especially those at night.

Bathroom breaks: The aforementioned long, evening lectures should have an intermission. However, a normal 45-55 minute class is not a surprise - one should take care of that before class, leaving mid-class breaks for those rare bouts of gastrointestinal distress. I can't imagine leaving a class midway through more than 2-3 times a semester. While few classes are so compelling that students should stay and soil themselves rather than hit the head, it is better to gracefully exit and heed nature's call and gracefully return. My general rule is plan ahead and don't do it, but if you absolutely have to, be quick and quiet.

I'd apologize for being a culturally-insensitive regressive but frankly I'm not sorry. I don't remember my classes being particularly oppressive when people took off their hats, stayed in their seats, and quietly paid attention and took notes, occasionally sipping at a soda or coffee.

* Dinosaur Neil's lab rules are pretty sensible:
DO NOT:
1. Eat in Lab
2. Set Lab on Fire
3. Innovate Unnecessarily

(Recent grad student; now teacher.) I'm pretty shocked at the patronizing attitude of the handful of instructors who want to bar students from slipping out to go to the bathroom. Really? Truly? I just got back from a board meeting, and guess what--people slipped out to go to the bathroom if necessary. Treat your students like adults; talk to them if they don't act like adults in return. Food is a dicier issue, but instructors need to understand that many students are extremely pressed for time. Please, engage your empathy--when I was a grad student there were many times when I had no choice but to schedule classes in such a way that I had no time to eat outside of class. I think a reasonable policy is to set a "no disruptions, no mess" rule. Students should eat quietly and quickly, and they should clean up any mess they make.

As others above implied, faculty meetings are frequently full of lattes, takeout, laptops, quick trips into the hall, and text messaging. Ha.

Er, Bob, what country do you teach in that you can force a student whose face is covered for religious reasons to uncover her face?

Grad student (and I teach anatomy lab)

Hats: I don't care unless it's a test day, when anything with a brim needs to face backwards so I can see your eyes (coyboy hats and such would need to come off).

Food and drink: Fine, as long as we're not doing something where there is a risk to you eating (once we hit wet labs, no food and drink in the room but you can step out for a snack). Don't make a scene, clean up your trash, and don't bring in stuff that will annoy your neighbors.

Bathroom breaks: Are you all kidding me? You seriously don't allow students out for bathroom breaks? What about women with unexpected period related problems (I'm 26 and they still happen once in a blue moon)? What about men with kidney stones or bladder control issues due to medical conditions? Should every student be required to give you their medical history to be able to go pee?

Heck, we actually encourage our students to leave for 5-10 minutes to get some air and clear their heads whenever they hit the overload point. Granted it's a self-paced lab and that doesn't work (or is not appropriate) for every class, but loosening up a little isn't always a bad thing.

I had a 6 hour organic chem lab immediately following the 7:30am lecture one summer where they expected us not to leave for food/bathroom/etc. I did not follow that rule (I ate outside the classroom, I did not compromise safety).

As an undergrad senior at U of Michigan, I've never actually been in a situation where rules like that were given. Pretty much everyone drinks coffee or something, a lot of people snack, and I doubt anyone ever thinks about hats. The most relevant question, in my estimation, is what to do about late students. It annoys the hell out of me when people come in late, especially when they deem it necessary to walk to the front of the class for a seat. There's only one rule that matters:

DON'T BE A DICK

Pretty much anything can become annoying (frequent, noisy bathroom trips, loud drinking, etc.), but almost nothing has to be. If someone is being rude, generally the students will call them out on it before a prof or TA. The only point of rules is to prevent these situations, but I think it's more important to impress on people that you should have respect for everyone else in the class. Anyone with a reasonable amount of concern for others won't ever run into any problems.

i'm in law school & have an MPH from a large university.

hats: yes
food/drink: yes
bathroom breaks: for reals? i was amazed that this question was included... until i read 'faculty' replying no. then i was just dumbstruck. wiki crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. autoimmune disorders in which GI motility is compromised resulting in diarrhea, constipation, urgency etc. just after being dx'd with crohn's a prof (who had been informed by disability services) stopped a 200 person lecture to ask me where i was going. then she refused to let me back into the room. did you know that the us dept. of education has an office of civil rights? she got to meet them.

I can't believe the topic of the use of bathrooms during class is actually being discussed. I am a NP in a private practice specializing in urogynecology finishing my doctorate in Human Sexuality Education. 90% of my patients have a condition know as interstitial cystitis, a CHRONIC bladder disease that effects both women and men. During flares people may need to urinate up to every 15-30 minutes and suffer excrutiating pelvic pain. And what about children who can not "hold it" but are not allowed to leave class to use the bathroom? What kind of messages are educators giving them? They should suffer and be in pain or wet their pants? Isn't that more of a distraction anyway? That's how chronic bladder and pelvic floor dysfunction begins in the first place!