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Community Guidelines

Writers' Week

The Department of Creative Writing is dedicated to providing a welcoming, rewarding and safe experience for Writers’ Week participants regardless of race, sex, national origin, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, ethnicity or religion.

We do not tolerate harassment, discrimination, or other unwelcome or unlawful behavior on the basis of any of these characteristics. All attendees, speakers, faculty, students, staff and partners (“participants”) are required to comply with our Community Guidelines. By registering for Writing to Transform, you are agreeing to abide by this code of conduct.

Anyone found to be in violation is subject, at the discretion of organizers, to expulsion from all Writers’ Week sessions and communications.

Expectations

  • Arrive to sessions with an open mind and spirit of discovery. Be attentive to speakers sharing their talent and expertise.
  • Respect fellow participants by contributing to a community of support, accessibility and inclusiveness.
  • Throughout the week, we’ll use American Sign Language to applaud.
  • Please keep your microphone muted unless recognized by a speaker or moderator. To ask a question, use the chat feature (for Zoom meetings) or Q&A (for webinars); if your question is selected, the moderator will call on you to ask your question on camera or will ask it on your behalf, depending on the event format.
  • Speakers often appreciate connecting with audience members; if you are in a space conducive to being on camera, we invite you to leave it on, especially during participatory exercises, talks and panels. When your camera is on, please present yourself professionally.
  • We invite you to update your Zoom display to your first and last name. If you’d like to share them, you may include your pronouns in parentheses.
Writing to Transform has a zero-tolerance policy for harassment or abusive behavior toward participants, across all platforms: Zoom sessions, email, social media, forums and chats. Harassing or abusive behavior includes but is not limited to:
  • Offensive comments related to any protected category in our guidelines
  • Deliberate intimidation or stalking
  • Unwelcome sexual attention
  • The purposeful disruption of any event
  • Advocating for or encouraging any of these behaviors

Please report violations of community guidelines to Writers’ Week coordinator Emily Smith, or UNCW creative writing department chair David Gessner. In the case of emergency, call 911. In all other cases, if a Writers’ Week representative is not immediately available, call 910.962.2273 (non-emergency) or 910.512.4821 for emergency or after-hours consultation.

Additional resources include the UNCW Mohin-Scholz LGBTQIA Resource Office, the Disability Resource Center, the Upperman African American Cultural Center, and Centro Hispano.

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