Annoying cell phones, buzzing Sidekicks and interrupting loud mouths create a buzz in classrooms which faculty members may have difficulty teaching over.

Such interruptions may lead to a litany of classroom rules at the end of a teacher’s syllabus.

“I began teaching at NIU in 1991 and my syllabus contained few, if any, rules,” said Scott Short, a mechanical engineering professor. “Since then my syllabus, unfortunately, now contains a long list of rules.”

Those rules, however, usually are the result of an individual student’s behavior, Short said.

“Most of the rules were ‘named’ for a particular student who tried some funny business,” he said.

Other professors agree with Short, saying certain rules need to be in place to keep classrooms in order.

“Students should not behave in a way that disturbs the learning process for the rest of the class,” said Ibrahim Abdel-Motaleb, an electrical engineering professor. “An instructor can impose rules to improve the learning experience of students.”

Abdel-Motaleb is understanding of his students’ hunger pains, though.

“I allow students, if they desire, to eat a sandwich and have soft drinks, juice or coffee during the class,” he said.

Abdel-Motaleb teaches a night course from 6 to 9 p.m. and fears his students will not be at their peak performance if they skip a meal to attend class.

“Many of the students may not have had dinner and would miss class,” Abdel-Motaleb said. “A hungry person is a disorientated person.”

Some students seem to be fairly tolerant of most classroom rules.

“As far as the whole cell phone thing goes, I think it’s really annoying when a cell phone rings during class,” said Katrina Basch, a freshman undecided major. “Once in speech class, a cell phone went off during someone’s speech and it completely threw the guy off.”