Course Values and Policies

Everyone is welcome. Every background, race, color, creed, religion, ethnic origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality is welcome and celebrated in this course. Everyone deserves respect, patience, and kindness. Disrespectful language, discrimination, or harassment of any kind are not tolerated, and may result in removal from class or the University. This is not merely BU policy. The instructors deem these principles to be inviolable human rights. Students should feel safe reporting any and all instances of discrimination or harassment to the instructor, to any of the Bioinformatics Program leadership, or the BU Equal Opportunity Office.

Everyone brings value. Each of us brings unique experiences, skills, and creativity to this course. Our diversity is our greatest asset.

Collaboration is highly encouraged. All students are encouraged to work together and seek out any and all available resources when completing projects in all aspects of the course, including sharing coding ideas and strategies with each other as well as those found on the internet. Any and all available resources may be brought to bear. However, consistent with BU policy, the bulk of your code and your final reports should be written in your own words and represent your own work and understanding of the material. Copying/pasting large sections of code is not acceptable and will be investigated as cheating (we check).

A safe space for dissent. For complex topics such as those covered in this class, there is seldom one correct answer, approach, or solution. Disagreement fosters innovation. All in the course, including students and TAs, are encouraged to express constructive criticism and alternative ideas on any aspect of the content.

We are always learning. Our knowledge and understanding is always incomplete. Even experts are fallible. The bioinformatics field evolves rapidly, and Rome was not built in a day. Be kind to yourself and to others. You are always smarter and more knowledgable today than you were yesterday.