General Ground Rules

We are all at GOALS to learn. That means we all have a responsibility to support each other’s learning. No one is testing you here; please ask questions whenever you don’t understand something or want to learn more! Here are some more ground rules to help make GOALS a welcoming and productive learning environment for everyone:

• In lecture, if you have a question, shout it out! But if you have an answer, raise your hand and wait to be called on. Let’s try to give everyone space to think and process.
• Make sure that your enthusiasm isn’t infringing on someone else’s learning space. This means, for example, not talking over others, disregarding others’ comments, etc.
• Avoid words like “clear” or “obvious.” GOALS participants have a variety of backgrounds; what is “clear” or “obvious” to you may not be clear to everyone.
• If you want to correct another GOALS participant, please be thoughtful and kind. Try to understand their process rather than assuming you’re right and they’re wrong. Ask “Why is that?” or say “I don’t follow your logic” or “I actually thought that …“ instead of “Actually, the definition is …“ or similar.
• In the problem sessions, help everyone in your group to participate in solving the exercises. The goal of the problem sessions is that everyone does the “mental pushups” to improve their operator-algebraic problem-solving and communication skills.

GOALS is an intense two-week program, in many ways. Please take care of yourself, and of other GOALS participants. Academically, this can look like speaking up if the lectures are too fast-paced or the exercises are intractable or if you need help or if you just need a minute’s peace. The lecturers and TAs are here for you. However, in the end it is your (the GOALS students’) actions which will determine how successful we are at creating a supportive community at GOALS. Please be there for each other.

Cultivating a Welcoming Environment

In this program, diversity and individual differences are respected, appreciated, and recognized as a source of strength. Students in this program are encouraged and expected to speak up and participate during activities, and to carefully and respectfully listen to each other. Every organizer, speaker, and student involved with GOALS must show respect for every other GOALS participant, so that everyone feels comfortable participating. Any attitude, belief, or language that implies that one person or group of people is superior to another (including but not limited to racist, sexist, transphobic, xenophobic, ableist, or homophobic ideologies) is unacceptable. Such beliefs are destructive to our community and will hinder our ability to learn from each other.

Maintaining the supportive character of the GOALS community requires effort and commitment from all of us, both during and after the two-week GOALS program. Actions which undermine our community will not be tolerated at GOALS events. In particular, harassment or other repeated/egregious violations of these ground rules will lead to expulsion of the participant from the GOALS community. We wish to emphasize that whether behavior is harmful or harassing depends on its impact on the target, not on the intent of the perpetrator. If any participant feels that they are being mistreated during GOALS or by a member of the GOALS community, please contact any of the organizers. All reports of this type will be kept confidential and treated seriously.

Discussions on Imposter Syndrome, Implicit Bias, and Equity in Mathematics

Throughout the program, we will have discussion surrounding challenging topics involving bias in mathematics such as racism and/or sexism. We acknowledge the difficulty in handling these conversations. Here are some guidelines for these discussions.

• Share only what you are comfortable sharing.
• Stories stay, lessons leave. Other people’s experiences are not ours to share. Please learn from others’ stories and pass on the lessons you learned, but without “outing” the origin of the lesson.
• “Listen for understanding rather than responding” - Dr. Pamela Harris (Asked and Answered, P. 14).
• Self-moderation: if you’ve been doing a lot of the listening, consider sharing. If you’ve been primarily sharing, increase your listening.
• Embrace non-closure. We aren’t going to solve racism or sexism in the 2 weeks we have together.
• Commit to non-judgement. We’re here to grow together.
• It is okay that you are not perfect. What matters is that you are trying to improve.

To Our Guest Speakers

Thank you so much for joining us at GOALS, and for joining our commitment to create an inclusive, supportive community for early-career operator algebraists. Both during and after GOALS, we hope you will get to know the GOALS students, personally and professionally, and that you will be a resource for them as they continue in their careers. We have invited you to speak at GOALS because we anticipate that you will be an important role model for the GOALS students. As such, your role at GOALS will lead many GOALS students to see you as an authority and an inspiration; we ask you to be cognizant of that power differential in your interactions with the GOALS students.