Course Policies:
I keep track of attendance daily. It is in your best interest to come to class every day, on time, with all of the materials relevant to our discussion fully prepared. It is also in your best interest to stay for the entire class period.
Under NO circumstances will cell phones, PDAs or any other electronic devices be permitted on your desktops during exams. A cell phone is not a watch; if you want to keep track of your time during a test, I suggest that you bring a specific timepiece. Current technology will allow students to cheat on exams using such devices. A blanket policy forbidding their use will alleviate temptation. Be advised: if you use such a device during an exam, you risk confiscation of your exam, and immediate failure of the test.
Please stay in touch with me if something prevents you from attending class or submitting required work on time. I will not accept late work unless it is accompanied by an adequate excuse for being late. “I had three other papers due this week” is NOT an adequate excuse. Unexplained absences will be considered unexcused, and will weigh against your class participation grade. Roosevelt University respects all religious observances, so if you need to miss class to mark a religious occasion, that absence will be excused.
I am happy to work with you on drafts of all of your written work. It is most productive if you can meet with me in person. However, if your schedule does not permit that, I can read drafts over e-mail if I am given at least one week’s notice that you intend to submit a draft in this way.
Do consider visiting the Writing Center with drafts of your essays for this and all other classes. The Writing Center is located in AUD 650; you may make an appointment by stopping by, or calling 312.341-2206, or sending an e-mail to: writingcenter@roosevelt.edu.
On the subject of e-mail: you cannot expect instant gratification from e-mail. Remember that there are as many as 120 people all of whom, like you, may want my electronic attention on any given day, not to mention the fact that my position requires many duties that prevent me from living on line. Please allow me at least 24 hours to respond to your message during the workweek, and up to 48 hours if you send an e-mail on Saturday or Sunday.
Be courteous to your classmates and to me. Please turn off all cell phones and pagers when you enter the classroom. If you forget and at some point your cell phone rings, turn it off immediately. Do not pretend that the cell phone that is ringing is not yours. Do not answer it and begin having a conversation.
Academic Honesty:
The use of any person’s ideas other than your own, whether taken directly, word for word or paraphrased, without giving proper credit to the true source is a form of intellectual theft known legally as plagiarism. This includes material taken from web sites. Work can be plagiarized from existing print publications, materials published on the worldwide web or from your classmates. Penalties for plagiarized work range from failure of the assignment in question to failure of the course to expulsion from the university. If you ever have any question about the proper citation of source materials, including online sources, please consult either me, or a reference librarian.