Student Learning Environment

The University of Illinois College of Medicine is committed to providing and maintaining a safe and effective learning environment in which students, faculty, residents, fellows, healthcare staff, and university administrative staff work together to both educate and learn in a manner that promotes the highest level of patient care and research.

As an institution that trains the physician leaders and researchers of tomorrow, we expect members of our community to uphold an academic environment that encourages mutually respectful relationships, is conducive to learning, and is free of mistreatment, unlawful discrimination and harassment, and threats of retaliation.

All members of the medical education community have a shared responsibility to protect the integrity of the learning environment, have a right to work and learn free of unlawful discrimination, harassment and mistreatment, and have a right to report any incident in which that positive learning environment has been compromised.

Positive Learning Environment Policy

The UI COM Positive Learning Environment Policy sets forth the commitment of the UI COM to protect the integrity of the learning environment, establishes the characteristics of a positive learning environment and code of conduct for Teacher-Student Relationships, defines “student mistreatment”, and encourages those who have experienced or witnessed student mistreatment or other learning environment concerns to report them.

Teacher & Student Guidelines

UI COM Positive Learning Environment-Teacher/Student Guidelines provide additional guidance on the ways in which both teachers and students may establish, maintain and foster healthy relationships and learning environments by following the guiding principles of:

  • Duty:  Medical educators have a duty to convey the knowledge and skills required for delivering the profession’s standard of care and also to instill the values and attitudes required for preserving the medical profession’s social contract with its patients.
  • Integrity:  Learning environments that are conducive to conveying professional values must be based on integrity.  Students learn professionalism by observing and emulating role models who epitomize authentic professional values and attitudes.
  • Respect:  Respect for every individual is fundamental to the ethics of medicine.  Mutual respect is essential for nurturing that ethic.  Teachers have a special obligation to ensure that students are always treated respectfully.

The UI COM Positive Learning Environment Policy sets forth the commitment of the UI COM to protect the integrity of the learning environment, establishes the characteristics of a positive learning environment and code of conduct for Teacher-Student Relationships, defines “student mistreatment”, and encourages those who have experienced or witnessed student mistreatment or other learning environment concerns to report them.

Medicine is a profession that requires the acquisition and mastery of a large body of knowledge and clinical skills as well as high standards of professionalism in both behavior and attitudes demonstrated both within and outside the academic setting. Effective, humane, respectful and compassionate communication with and care for patients, teachers and fellow students is an essential component of the academic expectations and standards of the UIC medical school program. In addition, those responsible for educating medical students are expected to emphasize the importance of professionalism and demonstrate it by example.

Mistreatment Examples

AAMC Examples

  • Publicly embarrassed or humiliated.
  • Physically harmed or threatened with physical harm.
  • Required to perform personal services.
  • Subjected to offensive sexist remarks.
  • Denied opportunities for training or rewards based solely on gender.
  • Received lower evaluation or grades solely because of gender.
  • Subjected to unwanted sexual advances.

Patient Safety Concerns Examples

  • Inadequate clinical supervision
  • Pressuring a student to perform medical procedures for which the student is insufficiently trained resulting in risk to patient care.
  • Endangering a student’s professional development by instructing the student to ignore institutional policies, or by inviting/encouraging students to do something unethical or illegal.
  • Demonstrating inappropriate behavior directed at residents, nurses, and other staff, which affects the quality of patient care.

Suboptimal Learning Environment Examples

  • Inviting students to engage in or actually engaging in a romantic or sexual relationship with the student over which a teacher has supervisory or evaluative authority.
  • Unfairly singling out a student for adherence to higher expectations than others in that student’s cohort.
  • Assigning duties as punishment rather than education.
  • Intentional neglect or lack of communication.
  • Allowing students to witness the behavior described as “mistreatment” above, directed toward fellow students, patients, or others over whom the teacher has authority.
  • Inadequate clinical supervision

Other Recurring Examples

  • Threating to or actually grading, promoting, or otherwise evaluating a student on any basis other than that student’s academic/clinical performance or competency (e.g., on the basis of the student’s race, color, religion/religious beliefs, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, genetic information, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or unfavorable discharge from the military or status as a protected veteran).
  • Verbally abusing, attacking and/or harassing a student in a manner that fails to respect the student’s dignity, whether in public or private, in jest or in an attempt to reinforce learning.
  • Use of threatening or intimidating behavior or words.
  • Using obscenities, profanity or pejorative (e.g., racially/culturally-derived/gender-based) terms or names directed at or in the presence of a student.
  • Unwarranted exclusion from reasonable learning opportunities.
  • Endangering a student’s professional development by instructing the student to ignore institutional policies, or by inviting/encouraging students to do something unethical or illegal.
  • Pressuring or requiring students to exceed established restrictions on work hours.
  • Exploitation of students in any manner (e.g. by asking students to perform personal errands or by taking credit for work performed by the student).
  • Committing an act of physical abuse or violence of any kind (e.g. throwing objects, aggressive violation of personal space, etc.).
  • Engaging in unlawful discrimination or harassment.
  • Engaging in unlawful sexual harassment, discrimination or misconduct, including but not limited to making unwelcome sexual comments, jokes, or taunting remarks about another’s body, attire, appearance, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status.
  • Inadequate clinical supervision

Reporting Student Mistreatment/Concerns Heading link

Anonymous or Signed Reporting of Student Mistreatment Concerns

If you have, or believe you have, experienced or witnessed mistreatment of any kind—including but not limited to verbal abuse, public humiliation, inadequate supervision, sexism, sexual misconduct, unwanted sexual advances, racism, bias, discrimination, ableism, etc.—you are strongly encouraged to report it as soon as possible.  This can accomplished using the dark blue rectangular button below. The Maxient reporting form behind that button allows for anonymous or signed reporting.

Consistent with the UI COM Positive Learning Environment Policy, reports of student mistreatment and other learning environment concerns are taken very seriously. Detailed information about the various methods for reporting, and the process that follows, is available in at this link and in these two Reporting Flowcharts (one pdf, chart on two pages).

Report Student Mistreatment

Reports submitted through this form will be reviewed by the UI COM Senior Director of Student Learning Environment (SLE)** within 2 business days to determine next steps. Because of this reply timeline, you should not use this form to report events presenting an immediate threat to the health or safety of any person, including yourself. If there is an immediate risk to health or safety of any person, please call 911 to connect with medical support or local law enforcement.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

(1) If you are unsure or hesitant about reporting, the SLE Director is available for a pre-reporting consultations by phone (312-413-9632) or email (timlacy@uic.edu).

(2) If you wish to consult anonymously with the SLE Director, you can mask your identity by either (a) creating an anonymous email account with which to write, or (b) calling and stating upfront the desire to remain anonymous.

(3) You can receive follow up about anonymously submitted reports by contacting campus student leaders (esp. Learning Environment Advisory Group (LEAG) members) or select UI COM administrative staff. Please consult with your campus medical student council/government representatives (CMSC, PMSC, RMSC) for more about your LEAG reps.

Discrimination/Harassment/Sexual Misconduct Heading link

Any reports of student mistreatment/learning environment concerns that include claims of sex or gender-based discrimination, harassment, assault and/or Sexual Misconduct will also be reported, by University of Illinois policy, to the UIC Title IX Coordinator.

Sexual Misconduct Reporting

Incidents/concerns containing claims of unlawful discrimination and/or harassment should be reported to the UIC Office for Access and Equity AND to UI COM as described herein.

Discrimination/Harassment Reporting

If you are unsure whether or not an incident involves sexual misconduct or unlawful discrimination/harassment, please report to both the UI COM and to the appropriate office as described above.

**Though all efforts will be made to respect the privacy of any person making a report, the Director may, in limited circumstances, be required by law or policy to share the report or information from the report with others. There are, however, confidential resources available on our campuses:

If you have general questions about the reporting process or the privacy of the reports, contact the SLE Senior Director, Tim Lacy, at timlacy@uic.edu or 312-413-9632 for more information.

Tim Lacy, Senior Director, Student Learning Environment Heading link

Tim Lacy

The Director’s overall mission is to support the College of Medicine’s strong commitment to identifying and addressing the mistreatment of medical and graduate students, and other learning environment concerns.

The Director’s duties include:

  • Building relationships with students, staff, and faculty at all UI COM campuses;
  • Teaching students about the circumstances of mistreatment–about how to recognize it, avoid it, report it, and rectify it;
  • Providing those who experience, witness, or become aware of student mistreatment with access to a neutral, impartial, and private resource to report and seek assistance with concerns;
  • Monitoring reports of microaggressions and implicit bias, and observations about systemic racism;
  • Assisting in fostering an overall feeling of safety and security for our students;
  • Receiving and monitoring student mistreatment reports from all campuses, and using those reports to identify trends or patterns involving a specific teachers, departments, or experiential sites;
  • Being a resource to teachers (faculty, residents and others in a teaching role), staff and administration in discussing, and resolving, learning environment concerns;
  • Developing and implementing Policy, Procedures and Guidelines for fostering a positive learning environment free from student mistreatment;
  • Relaying feedback to UI COM administration to improve the student learning environment; and
  • Creating and implementing educational activities, information, and resources to promote a positive student learning environment.

To report incidents of student mistreatment, racism, or safety, as well as general learning environment concerns, the Director can be reached directly via email (timlacy@uic.edu) or phone (312-413-9632). Reports may also be submitted–anonymously or with identifying information–using the Student Mistreatment Report Form.