Code of Conduct
With this code we want to ensure that every lab member, collaborator, visitor, and volunteer has a rewarding and productive experience. Everyone who collaborates in any capacity with the Aquatic Ecology Lab is expected to show respect and kindness. Discrimination, harassment and non-inclusive behavior based on racial or ethnic background, citizenship status, religion (or lack thereof), political affiliation, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, dis/ability status, appearance, veteran status, or body size will not be tolerated..
Encouraged Behaviors
To cultivate a culture of inclusion and safety where the well-being and success of all community members is supported and assured, all community members are encouraged to display the following behaviors:
Avoid and be aware of microagressions. Your actions can be hurtful to others or contribute to a negative environment even if you had no intent of harm. In interpersonal interactions, the impact is what matters, not the intention. Listen. Offer a genuine apology. Commit to learning and doing better. Educate yourself about what microagressions are, how to recognize common microaggressions, and how best to respond, learn and grow in response to instances of microagressions.
All communication - online and in person - should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds.
Be kind. Criticism is essential in science, but it must be constructive if we're going to make progress in a supportive, inclusive way. Constructive criticism focuses on ideas and objects, not individuals or personal experiences.
To ensure inclusive, productive, and respectful interactions follow our lab’s Norms for Conversation (see below), particularly when discussing personal experiences and potentially harmful or controversial topics.
Proactive self-education about issues related to inclusivity, equity, and diversity in STEM and beyond, including justice and systematic discrimination against marginalized communities. The PIs will proactively share opportunities for education through readings, workshops offered by the university and academic societies, and other resources, and expect lab members to maintain a culture of self-education.
Listen to and uplift voices, especially those of persons excluded because of their ethnicity or race (PEERs), even when they challenge our assumptions or make us uncomfortable.
Speak out and push for change when we see microaggressions or institutional policies that disadvantage marginalized communities – both within our lab and within the larger campus community.
Make space and time for our community members to heal, take care of their peers, or fight for justice, and continue to provide financial, career, and other support while they do so.
The burden of engaging in anti-racist and anti-exclusionary practices historically falls to members of marginalized groups. We encourage all lab members, especially those with privileged identities, to make change and adopt these actions as expected responsibilities.
Discouraged Behaviors That Violate the Code of Conduct
The following are examples of behaviors that are in violation of our Code of Conduct and are emphatically discouraged:
Any instance of harassment or discrimination.
Discrimination is when a person is treated differently than others based on their age, color, dis/ability status, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, citizenship status, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, veteran status, and/or body size.
Harassment is defined as discrimination that occurs when verbal, physical, electronic, or other behavior based on a person’s identity or identities interferes with that individual’s participation in lab activities and/or creates an environment that is hostile, intimidating, abusive, or unsafe.
Race or color-based harassment: Conduct that may:
Include jokes, innuendos, racial slurs, offensive or derogatory remarks based on a person’s color or perceived race that creates a hostile, intimidating, or abusive environment.
Include physical conduct (e.g., excessive monitoring) based on a person’s color or perceived race that creates a hostile, intimidating, or abusive environment.
Include electronic conduct (e.g., the creation, display, or distribution of racially offensive text, symbols or images) based on a person’s color or perceived race that creates a hostile, intimidating, or abusive environment.
Include harassment for displaying what is perceived as a stereotypical characteristic for one’s race or for failing to conform to stereotypical notions of race, regardless of the actual or perceived race of the person(s) involved.
Sexual or gender-based harassment: Conduct that may:
Include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal, physical, or electronic conduct of a sexual nature that creates a hostile, intimidating, or abusive environment
Involve verbal, physical, or electronic conduct based on a person’s sex, gender, sexual orientation, or sex-stereotyping that creates a hostile, intimidating, or abusive environment (even if acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature)
Include harassment for displaying what is perceived as a stereotypical characteristic for one’s sex or for failing to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity and femininity, regardless of the actual or perceived sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression of the person(s) involved.
Intentionally and repeatedly ignoring someone’s preferred pronouns.
Harassment and discrimination may also occur as a function of intersectional identities (e.g., disability and race). These forms of harassment and discrimination are also prohibited under the policies outlined above.