The University Faculty Senate voted down a resolution that would have recommended ways for faculty to deal with disruptive behavior after an excited debate yesterday.

D. Josh Troxell, Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Academic Assembly president, said the resolution was very important because students often come to the USG office with concerns about how professors handle classroom disruptions.

"We had a student come in just this week who was asked not to return to the classroom because they were wearing a peace symbol on their shirt," Troxell said.

The report suggested, in part, that professors identify on their syllabi any disruptive behaviors that would not be tolerated in class as well as academic penalties that could result from defiance of the rules.

Many senators spoke against the resolution during the nearly 45-minute debate.

"There's no way I, in advance, can identify [on my syllabus] all the kinds of behavior that would be inappropriate," said Caroline Eckhardt, professor of English and comparative literature.

But committee members who introduced the report said its recommendations are not new ideas and different faculty members have different expectations for students.

For example, Irwin Richman, a professor at Penn State Harrisburg, said he does not mind if students eat soft foods during his classes.

"But I do find it offensive if they eat very crunchy potato chips," he added.

Al Mueller, an assistant professor at Penn State Mont Alto, said faculty would continuously have to amend their syllabi to include things they didn't think of. He said, for example, that if his syllabus stated cell phones were banned from class, students would then bring in something else such as pagers.

Mueller also said an amendment to the resolution by the Academic Assembly negatively impacted the report.

The assembly-sponsored amendment stated that syllabi should outline how students can address questions about teachers' behavior policy.

It also said that contact information for course administrators or department heads should be listed for students to address any conflict.

The amendment was intended to prevent faculty from extending their behavior policies too far, committee members said.

Jean Landa Pytel, assistant dean of student services for the College of Engineering, called the report's advisory format "inappropriate" and "onerous." She said faculty should simply point out Penn State's code of conduct policies.

Troxell said the resolution and its amendment would have encouraged mutual respect between faculty and students.