Mfcttrf

There's a student in my class who obviously has some serious body hygeine issues. To preface, this is a fairly packed class -- about 60 students in a small lecture room. The class is about 2 hours long. The problem has been so bad that when the student comes up to ask a question the stench hits hard. The problem is so bad lately that in the past month, people will leave a seat distance away from this one person, even standing up for the entirety of the lecture just to avoid sitting next to this person when the only seats available are next to the person.

I don't know how to approach him and to ask that they take care of their body. Or will I be a prude if I do try to get him to shower? Maybe it's a unique body issue that he can't fix (unlikely), but I really want to solve this before exams come up, which are going to cause issues. No one has come up to talk to me privately about it but the problem is incredibly obvious.

What should I do?

Some things are just best said straight out. Oddly enough, people don't always recognize their own body odor. But calling the student aside, or to your office and just saying that it is common practice to bathe/shower daily and use some sort of deodorant will be an advantage for them in all social situations. Again, they may not recognize the problem and will, perhaps, thank you for your honesty.

Polite sometimes means being direct.

Normally my advice would be identical to Buffy’s, to simply talk to the student. At least, I would have liked to think that we live in a world where that would be the correct, and obvious, answer to the question. However, the reality is that in today’s culture there is a great deal of sensitivity about certain topics, such that when a college instructor makes a comment to a student about those topics, the result may be unpredictable.^* This is particularly true in matters relating to personal appearance and behavior, even more so when other factors like gender, race, mental health, disability status and perhaps other things get dragged into the discussion (which may end up happening whether or not you think it ought to), and even more so when the parties involved are of unknown temperament, sound like they may not be the most sensible people around, and cannot be counted on to react in a reasonable fashion even to the most benign and well-intentioned of approaches.

Considering all that, given your situation I should think that it would be a trivial matter to go to your department’s staff and/or faculty administrators such as the vice-chair or chair, and ask for suggestions how to proceed. Make it clear to them that the situation is untenable and that the student’s hygiene problem is impinging on your other students’ rights to benefit from a physically safe and healthy educational environment while attending your class, so that you feel that some action must be taken. And do not worry about being a busybody or wasting their time - this is indeed a tricky situation and it is perfectly reasonable even for a very experienced instructor to wonder how to respond and seek advice.

Finally, if your administrators suggest that you talk to the student — which is after all the obvious, and probably necessary, solution — well, then, at least you will be able to say that you followed the advice of officialdom rather than strangers on the internet, should your friendly suggestion to the student end up being ill-received.

^{*
Many discussions right here on academia.se, among other things, have opened my eyes to this reality - one memorable one involved an instructor wondering how to respond to a female student coming to class in a bikini top, if I remember correctly. I remember being rather taken aback by the diversity of opinions on what should be done in such a scenario, as well as by the judgmental tone of some of those opinions.}