Professional Behavior and EthicsorWhy You Can’t Date Your StudentsCS 5300Carol Hazlewood1How to Get Fired• Act as if you don’t have a ”real job.” It’s just a TA.• Don’t show up for class. Several times. Without anexcuse.• Be insolent to faculty (especially your advisor), the stu-dents and the staff members.• Call in sick every Monday. Leave for the city on Thurs-day afternoon.• Never plan what you are going to do in class, this stuffis too easy, anyway.2• Make clear that research is everything; you are going tosolve a great problem and join one of the top depart-ments where you will only teach one graduate course aterm.• Skip office hours. Your officemates can take care of anyof the students who’ll come by.• Make it clear from the start that you don’t intend todo anything extra–in fact, you won’t do anything thatyou don’t get a salary for. And, you only do that underduress.• End all your classes early. Can’t do this, you say? Toomany questions? Simple to solve; just belittle the stu-dents who ask them–that’ll ease up on class time.• Leave for vacations, breaks, and end of term early. SouthPadre awaits!3• Don’t hand in grades on time. Got some graduatingseniors? So what! They didn’t like you anyway.• Offer ”grades for favors”–only ”jokingly,” of course.• Show up at undergrad parties. They’re so much morefun, anyway. Drink a lot. Leave at 2 a.m. with one ofyour students.• Tick off the TA supervisor. He isn’t a real computerscientist, anyway. He stopped doing research about thetime you were born.4Overview• Ethics• Your Duties• Your Professional Responsibilities5Ethical Concepts and Theories• Definitions– Society: Association of people organized under a sys-tem of rules Rules: advance the good of members overtime– Morality∗ A society’s rules of conduct∗ What people ought / ought not to do in varioussituations– Ethics∗ Rational examination of morality∗ Evaluation of peoples behavior6• Moral Systems– rules for guiding conduct– principles for evaluating rules• Characteristics– publicrules are known to all members– informalnot like formal laws in a legal system– rationalbased on logic accessible to all– impartialdoes not favor any group or person7Useful Ethical Theories• Duty-Based (Kantianism)– Act on a rule that can be universally binding on allpeople– Act on the rule that ensures that all people will betreated as ends in themselves• Consequence-Based (Utilitarianism)Principle of Utility: An action is right (or wrong) to theextent that it increases (or decreases) the total happinessof the affected parties.• Rights-Based (Social Contract Theory)• Positive, Negative, Limited, Absolute8Example• Carla is a single mother who works full time• She takes two evening courses/semester• History class requires more work than normal• Carla earning an A on all work so far• Carla doesnt have time to write final report• Carla purchases report and submits it as her own work9Your Duties and Tasks??10• Responsibilities to Students in Lab or Classroom:– Don’t discuss their individual grades in public, anddon’t compare the students to each other.– We have all met people who are very likable, but fa-voring them with ”hints” or ”extra help” that othersdon’t get is not fair.11– Socializing can lead to difficulties, even in the mostbenign situation∗ If you are not sure how much fraternization to havewith students (after all, we don’t want to be totallystandoffish), ask trustworthy colleagues and facultyfor their advice.∗ Be careful the kinds of jokes and comments youmake in front of students, who can be sensitive invery unusual ways.∗ Risky Behavior· Socializing with a few students from your class· Meeting with individual students off campus (re -strict your meetings to office hours with the officedoor left open).· Dating students currently in your class.12• Responsibilities to Faculty, Staff and Student Workers– Treat others with respect– Be trustworthy– Treat others fairly– Carry out your job duties well– Respect the diversity of the university13• Responsibilities to the Discipline– Prepare the material.– Show some interest in and respect for your assign-ment, and for the discipline in general.14• Responsibilities to the Profession– Protect the Security and Privacy of Hard and SoftCopy Information: student and faculty work and re cords– Conduct of Research∗ Disclose conflicts of interest∗ Avoid discrimination and harassment of all kinds∗ Don’t fake or hide data∗ Maintain proper records on data and methods∗ Do not misuse research funds∗ Respect the confidentiality of the peer review pro-cess∗ Do not plagiarize∗ Comply with university rules for human and animalsubjects and for safety15Q: I was discussing mountain biking with one of my students.The student informed me that her mother owned a bike shopand offered me a 50 per cent discount on everything in thestore. I couldnt believe my good fortune. Should I takeadvantage of the offer?A: Many TAs (and often younger faculty) often feel a closerkinship to their students than more experienced faculty mem-bers, making them vulnerable to dual role relationships withstudents. Although it is impossible to avoid all dual role re-lationships, it is important to be wary of possible conflictsof interest such as that described above. Gifts or favoursfrom students currently enrolled in your class should be po-litely refused because of the potential for misunderstandingor manipulation. (Small gifts of appreciation from studentsonce the course is over and grades have been distributed areusually not a