Political
Science 314
“
Spring
2006
Policies,
Procedures, and Assignments
Attendance
Class attendance is completely voluntary. However, the course schedule is demanding,
the readings are complex, and class time will be devoted to an analysis of each
piece that has been assigned for that period.
In my estimation, it will be very difficult to get a passing grade in
the course without coming to class. Take
heed: if you have difficulty with class attendance, then this is probably not
the course for you.
I do understand, of course, that occasionally there are simply
unavoidable circumstances in which you are obliged to be elsewhere. Wherever possible, you should notify me,
preferably by email. If this is not possible, then you should
contact the teaching assistant or me as soon as you can, to schedule an
appointment in our
office hours. Persistent
unexplained absence or deviation from these procedures will be grounds for a
mandatory withdrawal from the course.
But let us not be put of by these draconian sounding
measures. It is my aim to make each
class period interesting, engaging, and fun.
It is part of my contractual obligation to make it intellectually rich
and stimulating. There are challenges,
to be sure, in the complexity of the reading material, but the rewards will be
many.
Procedures
This course will entail a detailed examination of each piece of
reading material that I have assigned in the schedule. Many of the readings will be located in on my
web page, accessible through this course site; others are available to the WSU
community in full-text form through services such as Proquest. I will explain how these may be accessed from
Holland library. Reference librarians
will also be happy to assist you with these procedures.
For each reading, starting in week two of the semester,
students will be required to bring a completed form to
class, on which they have recorded their observations and questions concerning
the particular reading for that day.
These must be handed in at the end of class; this is part of the grading
for the course (see below). The forms will be
handed back at the beginning of the next class period, in order that students
can have them for further reference. They
will not be assigned individual grades.
Any absence is not a sufficient excuse to fail to turn the form in; if
you know that you are going to be away, you should hand the form to me in
advance. If you have a sudden emergency,
you should make every effort to get it to me via a third party. At the end of the semester, we will ask you
to hand in all your completed reading forms with your final examination.
Grading
There will be four graded elements for this course. Please make sure that you understand each of them
and that you are in compliance with all the policies associated with them.
·
Reading forms
(25%)
·
Midterm examination (25%)
– Due February 28th
·
Take-home final examination (25%)
·
Poster project
(25%) – April 25th
My
over-riding concern is with the consistency and fairness of the grading
policies. If you have any concern, you
should schedule an appointment to discuss it with me.
The WSU disability accomodation
policies are laid out at the WSU Disability
Resource Center. Please see me if
you have any special needs that are not covered by this policy.