The Impact of Syllabi Engagement and Student Belonging

By: Reese McClelland

Syllabi. Only the most exciting and entertaining handout (or these days, electronic document) from a professor. If you agreed with that statement, I applaud your enthusiasm. If you laughed at the thought of a sometimes 10-page document being exciting, I am here to say that your voice is part of the majority.

To many, the syllabus is a document used to outline laws, policies, assignments, and resources relevant to a student's experience at Eastern Michigan University. In my experience, professors sometimes do not even review it in class due to its length. It's a document sometimes not even utilized by students, so why talk about it, right? Wrong! There is so much potential for the syllabus (or at least the way it is presented to students) to truly be the heart and soul of the classroom. Syllabus delivery speaks so much to a professor's attitude towards students. It's important when considering syllabus delivery that we consider not only the intention, but primarily the outcome and effect it plays on students.

Consider this: it's my first day of class as a new freshman and the first thing I hear is, “This is a long document full of things I am required to give you, feel free to review it on your own time.” As a student who is busy with other classes, activities, and jobs, I would struggle finding time to read through the entire syllabus on my own. In addition, I would be much less likely to engage in this document when my professor isn’t very enthusiastic about it either! Consider if the presentation of the syllabus sounded a little something more like, “This is the syllabus. It is too long for us to review in detail, but I do want to point out that there are many helpful academic and personal resources you should familiarize yourself with and utilize throughout our class. Please feel free to review it and I am here for any clarification or support I can provide.” This small difference in presentation can make a big difference!

I do want to acknowledge that the syllabus often must be be a lengthy, heavy document. There are quite a few legal/university policies that aren’t the most entertaining topics to be covered in class. There isn’t enough time for each and every handout in class to be reviewed in extensive detail, so the goal I want to propose is not that a professor should read the syllabus word for word in each class. How incredibly, mind-numbingly, boring that would be!

Instead, the thought I want to provoke is that it's not what you say but how you say it. Both of the previous statements outline a time constraint and a document to be reviewed. Yet, doesn’t the second one sound so much more inviting? As a student, aren’t I much more willing to feel valued and cared for in a space that acknowledges that the resources provided are more than a requirement of professors but are intentionally there to help me?

While we all should abide by not judging a book by its first day of class, the first day can communicate to a student the kind of attitude they’ll need for the rest of the semester. They’ll be able to determine which professor is more understanding and willing to work with me through any trouble with an assignment, versus which lets me know that they are on their own.

As a faculty member, I encourage you to think of this as not being centered around the importance of talking about the syllabus itself. Rather, the effort of going slightly out of the way to make the class, and yourself, sound just a little more inviting is the effect that students will remember. I am not going to remember the words you used exactly or which few resources you were able to highlight, but I am going to remember that you took a few extra minutes to acknowledge that there are people to support me as a student and as a person.

As we are nearing the end of the semester and beginning to prepare for a new one (albeit not for a little while for most of us!), consider more than just how you are typing up the information. I encourage you to think about the greeting you choose to use before you begin talking about content. Consider the words, tone of voice, and body language you’ll use and whether or not you’ll invite students into the syllabus or if it will just be another document of under-utilized information. Lastly, consider how the student might be feeling in a new class, with new people, and brand new content. Maybe all a nervous kid needs on their first day is not a professor who values the class content over the students’ success, but a professor on their team loud, proud, and willing to acknowledge that in this space, their wellbeing matters, too.