Policies

Email, not Voicemail

I am happy to meet with you in office hours, or at another time if my office hours don’t work for you. I also check email regularly. Do not leave voice mail for me on my office phone. I do not check voice mail.

Grading

essay 100
journal 100
group presentation and participation 100
final exam 100
400

Your participation grade will reflect the quality of your contributions to our discussions in seminar. Students should arrive for each class meeting ready to discuss readings and current events. Any absence will negatively affect your participation grade, but just showing up every time and declining to contribute meaningfully will result in a poor participation grade, too.

Course Objectives and Instructional Methodologies

I am particularly interested in structuring the course and its assignments in a way that will challenge students, regardless of their own biases, to consider all sides.

As a political sociologist by training, I draw extensively on the literature from sociology, political science, and, for this topic, economics. So the course will be interdisciplinary. Moreover, the assignments and obligations of this course will require students to read carefully, and to articulate their own positions (and others’) fairly and with precision. The assignments will require a mindful, creative approach to the material.

I will lecture for about one-fourth of the time most days. Most of the balance of class time will go to structured classroom discussions of ideas from lectures and especially to analysis of the assigned readings. We will also spend some class time considering current events that are relevant to class.

Make ups, Late Papers

Assignments turned in late (after the beginning of class on the due date) will lose 20 percent of the total point value per calendar day late. The first 20 percent is deducted at 11:01 for this 11:00 class. Make ups will be allowed only with a note from a doctor of funeral home, and must be turned in no later than one week after the student’s return.

Students with Disabilities

Per the Office of Disability Services: “If you are a student with a disability who will require an accommodation(s) to participate in this course, please contact me as soon as possible. You will be asked to provide documentation from the Office of Disability Services. Failure to contact me in a timely manner may delay your accommodations.”

Electronic Devices

Messing with your phone in class is an expression of contempt for the rest of us. Do not use your phone during class. You risk being asked to leave if you break this rule. Laptops are permitted in the front half of the room, but should be used for note taking only. Because of the discussion format of this class and issues of privacy, politics, and creating an atmosphere conducive to open discussion, I do not allow recording the class without explicit permission.

Long, Important Department Statement about Academic Dishonesty

(and I quote:)
As members of the university community, students are expected to be aware of and abide by university policies regarding academic honesty. By the same token, members of the faculty within the university community are expected to enforce those policies. Members of the Department of Sociology operate on the assumption that each student has thoroughly reviewed the university policies regarding academic honesty and that the policies will be followed. Accordingly, members of the Department of Sociology will enforce all policies related to academic honesty. The specific policy statements in this regard are to be found at the following web sites:

http://davinci.mrp.swt.edu/mrp/publications/studenthandbook/
academicprocedures.html#academic
(Texas State Student Handbook)

http://www.swt.edu/effective/ups/upps-07-10-01.html (Academic Honesty, UPPS No. 07.10.01)

The following is not a substitute for the statement of policies found in the above referenced material. Rather, it serves to call each student’s attention to the breadth and depth of academic dishonesty.

Academic dishonesty includes the following: Cheating, plagiarism, collusion and/or abuse of resource materials. Each term or phrase is defined in some detail in the above referenced material. Because the offense of plagiarism can be confusing to students, the following information is provided as essential reading by all students.

“Plagiarism means the appropriation of another’s work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one’s own written work offered for credit.” (Texas State University Handbook, UPPS No. 07-10-01)
Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:

  • downloading or buying a research paper
  • cutting and pasting information from several sources to create a paper
  • leaving out quotation marks around quoted material, placing quotation marks around some but not all copied information
  • leaving out quotation marks around copied information but adding a citation implying that the information is the student’s summary of the source
  • leaving out quotation marks for more than three consecutive words taken directly from a source
  • providing a reference/bibliograghy page but leaving out the reference citation in the body of the paper
  • faking a citation
  • unintentionally using words or ideas or quotes without citing them in the body of the paper and on the reference/bibliograghy page

(http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm)

Ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism or having plagiarized in the past without having been penalized does not excuse such acts in the Department of Sociology. Any student charged with plagiarism may appeal in writing in accordance with Texas State University policy.

The phrase, academic dishonesty, includes a variety of transgressions. It refers to acts such as cheating on a test to committing plagiarism when writing a paper. The Sociology Department assumes that it is the responsibility of each student to know what constitutes academic dishonesty. A lack of understanding of the phrase is no excuse when academic dishonesty is at issue. Similarly, a student may not be excused from a current transgression because he/she committed a similar act in the past and was not charged with a violation of university policy. Any student who is accused with academic dishonesty has the right to challenge the accusation, but the challenge must be submitted in writing and in accordance with university policy. University statements regarding academic dishonesty can be found at the following websites:

http://davinci.mrp.swt.edu/mrp/publications/
studenthandbook/academicprocedures.html#academic
(Texas State Student Handbook)

http://www.swt.edu/effective/ups/upps-07-10-01.html (Academic Honesty, UPPS No. 07.10.01)

A complete statement on the policy of the Department of Sociology regarding academic dishonesty (including plagiarism) is available on the departmental website www.soci.txstate.edu Remember: ignorance of what constitutes academic dishonesty or having participated in academic dishonesty in the past without being penalized does not excuse such acts in the Department of Sociology.