Building teaching and learning environments that reduce the risk of harassment and discrimination

Harassment and discrimination of members of a university community is, unfortunately, part of students’ classroom experiences. In EPFL almost 30% of survey respondents indicated that they had been subject to derogatory or inappropriate comments, and the most commonly cited place in which these comments occurred was in a classroom. Over 12% of respondents indicated that they had experienced unwanted physical contact in university – rising to over 23% for women – and 3% of the respondents identified that this had taken place in a classroom. If we are to bring students into classrooms so they can learn, how can we work to ensure these classrooms are a safe space?