Regardless of your classification, age or major, the classroom is not the place for conversation. And general education classes typically aren’t especially thrilling, but this source of boredom shouldn’t be a  vehicle for disrespect and annoyance.
While sitting in Dodson Auditorium during a class for a general education credit, a student near me was saying, “Oh my god, I hate it when teachers do that. This is a waste of my time.” At this point in time I had no idea what my teacher had done to so annoyingly waste our time.
No, I wasn’t fast asleep or deep into a game of Angry Birds, and     regardless of my apathy toward the subject, I was actually trying to pay attention during this particular class. I, like every student I know, want an “A” in the class, and I would rather pay attention than teach myself all of the material.
I intended to devote my attention to my instructor’s seemingly never-ending lecture. Instead, this “classmate” pried my attention from the lecture and put it squarely on her extremely pointless conversation.
Everyone can and should agree, she and her chatty friend were unbelievably rude.
It took a tremendous amount of self-control for me to contain the expletive phrases I had chosen for them, but I held back. Instead, I reverted to emphatically leaning forward to stare at the two as they carried on their conversations.
Maybe I was wrong for choosing the politeness of silence, but I view my absence from the Dean of Students’ office as a strong indication that I made the right choice.
Frankly, there are several parties at fault here, but one in particular holds nearly all of the blame — clearly, everyone else is at fault too. We are all obviously illogical for expecting University students to be quiet in class, and no one should have been angry at anyone for merely carrying on a pleasant conversation (words of immense sarcasm).
Maybe they could have been quiet. Maybe the professor could relent from clicker quizzes that measure “participation,” and by “participation,” I mean one’s ability to ask his or her neighbor for the answer.
One other interesting aspect of their chatter: the pair violated the LSU Code of Student Conduct.
Our resident blabbering buffoons committed two cases of misconduct, in accordance with the Code — one academic and one non-academic. Their incessant chatter was an exhibition of disruption as described in section 8.2 of the Code. Disruption is basically disturbing any type of formal instruction, and I’m fairly certain anyone within 15 feet of our talkative tools was         disturbed.
Because of the instructor’s strong will to have participation, the pair is also guilty of collusion (“Speaking to another person in a testing environment without the consent of the person proctoring the exam/test/quiz/assignment”), according to section 8.1 of the Code.
They clearly violated the Code, so they deserve discipline. It might only be an essay about talking in class at worst, but it’s one more essay than they had before they annoyed their classmates. I’d say it’s fair.
If you’re in class, be quiet!
Even if your academic apathy was trumped by the professor’s insisting upon having clicker questions to force your attendance, no one wants to hear your voice while they’re listening to a lecture that our tax dollars and unnecessarily inflated tuition paid for.
Otherwise, I might snap your picture with my iPhone and visit the Dean of Students to exact my revenge.
Matt Lousteau is a 21-year-old mechanical engineering senior from LaPlace. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_mlousteau.
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Contact Matt Lousteau and [email protected]