Code of Conduct

All speakers and consultants are expected to uphold the following code of conduct when interacting with the Communication Center. 

We believe in maintaining healthy professional boundaries between consultants and speakers and cultivating an environment of mutual respect. Please do not ask for personal information during your appointment. Use gmspeech@gmu.edu for all communication and do not contact consultants through their personal GMU email.

We value the time of both our speakers and our consultants, and the success of the appointment is dependent on active participation from both parties. Speakers are expected to engage meaningfully in their appointments and put effort into working on their brainstorming, preparation, or practice appointments. Consultants will never complete work on behalf of the speaker and speakers should not expect consultants to create content for any assignment. 

Our consultants and speakers are expected to demonstrate professional behavior throughout the appointment and should refrain from speaking negatively about a professor, a class, an assignment, or another consultant. If assignment instructions are unclear, the student should always contact the professor for clarification. 

We give constructive feedback on any element of an oral presentation, but students will never receive a grade from a Communication Center consultant. If the student has questions about their grade, they should reach out to their professor for guidance.

We value cultural and linguistic diversity and encourage multilingual students to use our services. If needed, you can add appointment notes expressing your desire to work on articulation and vocal presentation. The Communication Center does not believe in a “proper way to speak English,” and instead, we focus our feedback on making your message understandable to large audiences. However, please keep in mind that George Mason University’s Learning Resource Center (LRC) offers conversation groups and targeted appointments to build fluency and vocabulary skills.

We understand that the use of AI, and ChatGPT in particular, is rising. All work submitted for review should be authentic work from the student themselves, not AI generated content or otherwise plagiarized. We also understand that at the time of an appointment, a student’s work is still in progress and there is time for revision. This means that speakers can expect consultants to guide them on appropriate use of citations and may share with them resources from the Office of Academic Standards to ensure they are aware of campus policies.