Our Community Promise - As a community, we will support you, value your unique journey towards your goals, share resources, offer advice based on our experiences in response to your inquiries, encourage you during challenging times and most importantly, celebrate your successes!
The Commons engagement guidelines were developed to promote a positive whole human academic experience that allows us to fulfill our community promise to one another. The guidelines are supplemental to the NU Student Code of Conduct found in the Policies and Procedures of the General Catalog and the Fair Use provisions of the Copyright Act, which precludes posting of copyrighted materials in The Commons. Linking to original material, or posting snippets to introduce a topic, with links and proper citation, will likely fall under academic Fair Use. As you engage in The Commons please support and follow these engagement guidelines:
- Share your Experiences and Seek Support
- Express Respect
- Commit to Curiosity
- Invite Engagement
- Appreciate Differences
- Assume Positive Intent and Acknowledge Unintended Impacts
- Refrain from Soliciting
Share your Experiences and Seek Support. We welcome you to share your journey with us. We are eager to get to know you better – your interests, work, and future aspirations. Let’s exchange stories of success and challenges, supporting each other whenever needed. If you’ve been reflecting on something you recently learned in an assignment or course or applied it to your work, we’d love to hear. Whether you seek feedback on a presentation proposal, would like support crafting a title for a paper, or simply need a study break, don’t hesitate to post and reach out to us. We’re here to help and cheer you on!
Express Respect. As members of The Commons, together, we create an environment of respect, professionalism, and courtesy. We are committed to open and constructive communication that is free from name-calling, sarcasm, intimidation, harassment, or any prejudicial conduct against a particular community or social group. When seeking support regarding a challenging interaction with a faculty, advisor, or other support staff, please describe the behavior and not specifically name the person. We understand that sometimes students may want to learn more about a faculty member or advisor before engaging with them or to understand their current experience. In those cases, we recommend students request feedback be sent via a private message, or email.
Commit to Curiosity. We strive to create an environment of curiosity and inquiry that fosters insightful and non-threatening exchange of knowledge, skills, and experiences that aim to increase learning and support. We attempt to suspend assumptions, test inferences, and explain the reasons behind claims, questions, and actions. We understand our responsibility to be curious and countercheck information and resources posted by others when considering their use in other applications.
Invite Engagement. We participate in group discussions and postings to engage in a learning conversation and welcome questions and comments from others. We encourage respectfully challenging each other’s ideas and raising counterexamples while refraining from personal attacks. We each have an opportunity to help uphold the quality of engagement we envision. If you are ever concerned about a post or exchange between two community members report the post by clicking on the Report An Issue link under the Help ? icon on the top navigation menu of The Commons or emailing [email protected]. To ensure we can follow up on your concern, please include the link to the conversation in your email. If you feel the matter is one of discrimination you should also submit it through Report an Incident,
Refrain from Soliciting. In The Commons, our interactions focus on academics and community engagement; therefore, we prohibit soliciting business of any kind. We can make recommendations for helpful resources, and none of us should intentionally solicit business for ourselves or others in posts, comments, or private messages.
Appreciate Differences. As a community, we value opportunities to express and learn from our unique perspectives. We strive for authentic conversations that lead to growth. We listen to understand. We encourage and appreciate each other’s individual contributions.
Assume Positive Intent and Acknowledge Unintended Impacts. We know that at times we can misunderstand communication or passionately emphasize a feeling or belief we have. In these circumstances, we look towards the positive intent of the posting and respond with genuine inquiry and respect. We also acknowledge the possible unintended impact of the post or reaction and address them if they arise.
National University is committed to maintaining a community with exceptional ethical standards of professional and academic conduct. We encourage lively discourse among us as academic scholars. Our community awaits you. We look forward to meeting you!
University Responsibilities
It is important to be aware of mandatory reporting requirements when engaging in the NU Commons. For Title IX compliance, all NU employees are considered “mandated reporters”. Mandated reporters are obligated to report any allegations of sexual harassment/violence through the Report an Incident page. For any further questions or concerns related to protected class discrimination, please email the Office of Institutional Equity at [email protected].
National University reserves the right to edit, move or remove posts, comments, members, content, or media that do not represent our NU values or our community purposes, don’t align with our engagement guidelines, contain content considered to be a violation of NU's Code of Conduct Policy, recruit participants for NU dissertation research, solicit business of any kind, and when there is a concern about someone's safety. In addition, overstepping these boundaries may result in disabled accounts, other restrictions, or a code of conduct violation.