Integrated Design & Media is a community of students, faculty, staff, and visiting professionals working in an interdisciplinary space that encompasses STEM and art / design practice, creative production, and research. Members of our community come from diverse backgrounds and have different perspectives, expertise, and goals. IDM relies on extensive collaboration between its members where everyone’s individual backgrounds, talents, and objectives must be valued and respected. To achieve productive collaboration with one another, we aspire to principled standards of behavior. These standards serve student development as growing professionals, support faculty research and educational initiatives, and ensure that the spaces function as best as possible for all.
Students in IDM are subject to all NYU and Tandon School of Engineering policies and procedures; you should pay special attention to the Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and Complaint Procedures for Students, University Student Conduct Policy, the Bias Response Line, and the Tandon Code of Conduct.
The IDM faculty and staff are here to support and assist students. As such, it’s incumbent on everyone to commit to the highest standards of professional behavior as a community. First and foremost, everyone is to treat all colleagues, classmates, staff, and faculty with respect and courtesy. This extends to non-NYU guests, whether they are working with you or others in the community. Every member of our community is a collaborator with whom you could learn from and develop better practices and create stronger work.
The expectations below are set up to benefit the entire IDM community. We ask that there be no attempt to test, circumvent, or ‘bend’ these rules. To do so would be contrary to the spirit of professionalism which each student is here to learn.
- Integrity: You are committed to the values of respect, integrity, accountability and excellence. Our community respects the rights and dignity of all members and actively engages with diverse points of view. When faced with conflict or adversity, we conduct ourselves with the highest level of integrity and practice ethical decision-making. We hold ourselves accountable to the commitments we make and for our own conduct. We continually aim for creative and academic excellence, and understand that the quality of the educational experience at NYU IDM is predicated upon our own efforts.
- Leadership: In our program we are often called upon to be leaders and understand that a leader is one who motivates and inspires others as collaborators to accomplish a specific goal. Attributes of leadership also include the ability to present the vision and objective clearly so that everyone is motivated to have a stake in the outcome; the ability to engender respect and participation from all collaborators; the ability to be decisive and not derisive; the ability to solve challenges together by soliciting input and to demonstrate confidence without letting ego get in the way. As members of the IDM community we continually strive to become strong leaders and offer our support for those who lead.
- Commitments: We acknowledge the fundamental importance of trust, which begins with honoring the commitments we make. Our bond with each other is the baseline by which strong creative collaborations are established, and, as IDM community members, we do what we say we’re going to do (exhibiting good time management, being respectful of others’ time and needs in group meetings and production work, being truthful when committing to your role in collaborative work, etc.). By honoring our commitments both inside and outside of the classroom and studio, we give to others what we should expect to receive.
- Safety: Members of the IDM community are accountable and responsible for safety first and foremost. We are all expected to fulfill all expectations regarding training on and proper use of equipment in the labs and production facilities available for your use, whether overseen directly by IDM or in a shared facility managed by Tandon, another program at NYU, or the university. We must never interfere with establishing and maintaining a safe environment in which to work; this includes following full-time staff, faculty, and student staff directives on the safe use of equipment.
- Professional Behavior: At IDM we recognize and embrace the collaborative nature of creative practice and design research, and we expect to work with each other in an environment where professional social behavior, respect and courtesy extends to all participants in our work. We take responsibility for constructing an environment in which all stakeholders are valued. This includes research subjects, artistic collaborators from outside the university, staff and management at off-campus venues where our work is done or exhibited. Attributes of professional social behavior include attending to the safety and well being of all and zero tolerance for verbal or physical abuse, undermining or demeaning conduct, or any form of bullying behavior.
- Consent, credit, and copyright: If our work involves collaboration with others in any form, it is our responsibility to obtain full and informed consent for their participation. Creative collaborators will be credited for their role in everything we do. If your work includes the use of copyrighted materials owned by third parties and you wish to use the work outside of the classroom, you may need to obtain rights for that use.
- Misrepresentation: Any form of misrepresentation regarding our intentions (research activities, creative production plans, equipment usage, misappropriation and representation of the work of others, etc.) is against the values and principles of the IDM community. It is a fundamental expectation that what we commit to doing is accurate and truthful.
Code of Conduct
IDM is collectively dedicated to providing a harassment-free in-person and online community experiences for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, age, body size, race, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment in any form on any platform of ours, including mailing lists, forums, comments, academic spaces and anywhere else you interact with IDM hosted spaces, online or in-person, private or public. This is an extension of the Tandon Student Code of Conduct, and is applicable to all community members including students, student employees, administrative staff, faculty, and outside guests.
If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please email the program Directors or Administrative team immediately. If your concerns pertain to the IDM in general, you may email the TCS Department chairs. Someone will discuss how to support you, and plan what actions need to be taken in response. You only need to email one person. We will respect confidentiality requests including who else sees your email, for the purpose of protecting victims to the best of our ability.
Examples of Inappropriate Behavior and Harassment
- Offensive comments, insults, jokes or ridicule related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion.
- Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behavior in spaces where they are not appropriate, unwelcome physical contact, or unwelcome sexual attention or advances.
- Unless specifically agreed upon in advance, explicit or graphic language and imagery is generally not appropriate for our platforms.
- Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others.
- Trolling, spamming, flaming, yelling at people or “yelling” at people by using all caps in an aggressive manner on online mediums.
- Threats of violence, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following.
- Unwanted photography or recording.
- Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical address, without permission.
- Creating additional online accounts in order to harass another person or circumvent a ban.
- Sustained disruption after being asked to stop either by community members or faculty & staff
- Harassment in any form.
- Other conduct that is inappropriate for a professional academic audience composed of people from many different backgrounds. Please keep in mind that some things you may not find offensive, may be offensive to others. We will try to work with all parties if there is a misunderstanding.
Good Faith
IDM prioritizes the safety of marginalized people over the comfort of privileged people. We will not act on complaints regarding:
- ‘Reverse’ -isms, including ‘reverse racism,’ ‘reverse sexism,’ and ‘cisphobia’
- Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as “leave me alone,” “go away,” or “I’m not discussing this with you.”
- Refusal to explain or debate social justice concepts
- Communicating in a ‘tone’ you don’t find congenial
- Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions
Confidentiality
We will respect confidentiality requests for the purpose of protecting victims of abuse. When we discuss incidents with people who are reported, we will anonymize details as much as we can to protect reporter privacy.
Some incidents happen in one-on-one interactions, and even if the details are anonymized, the reported person may be able to guess who made the report. If you have concerns about retaliation or your personal safety, please note those when you make a report. In some cases, we can compile several anonymized reports into a pattern of behavior, and take action on that pattern.
In some cases we may determine that a public statement will need to be made. If that’s the case, the identities of all victims and reporters will remain confidential unless those individuals instruct us otherwise.
We will not name harassment victims without their affirmative consent.
Consequences
Community members asked to stop any harassing behavior or behavior in conflict with our community standards are expected to comply immediately. Individuals whose behaviors do not adhere to these values and violate these standards and the code of conduct will have their privileges to use IDM studios, labs, shared spaces, and equipment access revoked, and may be referred to other University offices as deemed appropriate.
Attribution
Our Code of Conduct stems largely from the Geek Feminism Community CoC toolkit, which is available in the public domain. And from the ROS Code of Conduct, which has a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license.
The IDM Code of Conduct can be shared with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license.