LETTER: Students Lack Etiquette in Guest Lectures

By Jack R. Censer, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences

Between September 21 and 27, George Mason University’s Fairfax campus hosted the Fall for the Book Festival. Students, faculty, staff, and members of the local community attended the wide-ranging readings and presentations of fiction and non-fiction authors. The Festival attracts authors with notable reputations to the Mason campus each September for this annual event.

I attended quite a few of last month’s events, and I was very happy to see so many students in the audience. This speaks to the intellectual interest of the Mason community. Unfortunately, there was a problem. In the sessions I attended, an extraordinary number of students left before the session concluded. I understand that some may have had to leave because of other obligations or to get to the next class on time. But in some cases, students stayed for only five or 10 minutes. As the Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, I was disappointed to see this sort of behavior.

Civility requires that we do better. If you were giving a public presentation, how would you feel if your audience began to peel away? To put it simply, when one attends a lecture, one attends a lecture. I understand that many students were there as a part of a classroom assignment. However, surely that classroom assignment required one to attend the majority, if not the entire event. Simple politeness and courtesy sometimes require patience. When students attend public lectures in the future, and I hope there will be many opportunities for them to do so, I hope they will consider basic manners, university etiquette, and finally the speaker’s feelings.

Overall, I am incredibly proud of our students who ask challenging questions in the classroom and find interesting ways to engage in the community. Mason’s students are interesting and highly capable. I do sincerely hope, however, that they will treat visitors to our campus with the respect and courtesy that they deserve. In addition, I encourage students to sit tight—to listen, observe, and learn from scholarly visitors. There is a reason professors assign lectures and readings as part of a course’s requirements.