Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Course Proposal
General Education Advisory Committee
Queens College, City University of New York
I. Course Information
Course Title:
Credits:
Introduction to American Politics
3
Prerequisites:
None
PS 100
Existing course, course number:
New course
Department:
Department Contact:
Political Science
Joe Rollins
Area of Knowledge and Inquiry
(select one)
Context of Experience
(select only if the course
emphasizes one of the
following)
Reading Literature (RL)
Appreciating and Participating
in the Arts (AP)
Extended Requirements
(select only if the course meets
one of the following)
Pre-Industrial Society (PI)
X United States (US)
X Abstract or Quantitative
European Traditions (ET)
Culture and Values (CV)
X Analyzing Social Structures (SS)
Reasoning (QR)
World Cultures (WC)
Natural Science (NS)
The following information is useful to the subcommittee to estimate the college's progress toward the goal of
offering enough sections and seats in each Perspectives category. How often does the department anticipate the
course will be offered? Please also estimate the anticipated number of sections and number of seats per section.
X Every semester
Every Fall or
Other:
January 2008
number of sections:
5
number of seats per section:
Every Spring number of sections:
number of seats per section:
number of sections:
number of seats per section:
55
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Course Description
Please include a course description. If the course will include variable topics or be taught in various forms, please
provide as many descriptions of specific sections as possible.
This course introduces students to the concepts, processes, and institutions that are central to the
American system of government. Inquiry begins with an examination of the prominent concepts
that will reappear in our readings and discussions throughout the semester (Federalism,
participatory democracy, limited government, popular sovereignty, judicial review). Processes
include such ongoing aspects of American politics such as voting, lobbying, the work of political
parties, interest group politics, campaigns and elections. The institutional element of the course
introduces students to various strategies for analyzing social structures by providing them with
concrete examples of institutions in action: Congress, the Presidency, the Supreme Court, State
and Local governments.
As a discipline, Political Science is distinct from others in the liberal arts because the focus of our
work is on the theories, institutions, and processes of governance. In Political Science 100
students will learn specifically about the U.S. Constitution and the legacy it has provided for the
past two centuries. As the semester proceeds, students will be informed about the ways that
academic research influences and is influenced by the political world within which they live. In
short, Political Science 100 is a course on citizenship, participatory democracy, and critical
engagement with the state.
Reading assignments emphasize the original documents produced at the founding of the United
States, e.g., the Constitution and the Federalist Papers, as well as those of contemporary
relevance, e.g., Supreme Court opinions and proposed legislation, and scholarly analyses of
current politics in action.
January 2008
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II. Criteria for Perspectives Courses
Justification
Please describe how the course will address criteria for Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences courses.
Be sure to include an explanation of the course’s specific learning goals for students to make a connection
between these and the general criteria for Perspectives courses.
As with all Political Science courses, Introduction to American Government introduces students
to the central defining theories that make the United States the nation that it is today. By reading
the original, foundational documents of U.S. history (the Federalist Papers, the Constitution),
students become familiar with history and must apply those lessons to the present. In this way,
they come to recognize that contemporary political problems do not stand in isolation from the
values and intentions of the past. In addition to this historical and originalist aspect of the course,
students are also introduced to the prominent methods by which Political Scientists study politics
and produce knowledge within the field: archival research, surveys, exit polling, interview data,
and analyses of the media. These sections of the course provide students with basic information
about not only abstract reasoning (such as one would encounter in a Supreme Court opinion), but
also quantitative analysis (as is commonly used to model voting, elections, and polling data).
Assignments for the class require students to remain abreast of current events (by reading the
major newspapers and/or watching the news), to consider the ways that power and privilege are
maintained by a few and denied to many, and to meld theory and praxis in a manner that will help
them to become better citizens, more informed voters, and productive members of their
communities.
Criteria Checklist
Please be sure that your justification addresses all three criteria 1-3, below. For criteria 4-8, please check all that
apply and discuss these in your justification.
A Perspectives course must:
1. Be designed to introduce students to how a
particular discipline creates knowledge and
understanding.
2. Position the discipline(s) within the liberal
arts and the larger society.
3. Address the goals defined for the particular
Area(s) of Knowledge the course is designed to
fulfill.
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where
appropriate to its discipline(s) and subject matter:
4. Be global or comparative in approach.
X 5. Consider diversity and the nature and
construction of forms of difference.
X 6. Engage students in active inquiry.
X 7. Reveal the existence and importance of change
over time.
X 8. Use primary documents and materials.
January 2008
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III. Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
Please provide an annotated list of course readings and descriptions of major assignments or exams for the course,
as well as distinctive student activities that will engage students in working toward the course goals discussed in
the course description and/or justification.
Please include the author and title for each reading or text, along with a short description providing information
about how the reading will contribute to course goals.
See attached sample syllabus.
IV. Assessment
Perspectives courses must be recertified every five years, and we are seeking ideas for how to best carry out this
assessment. What forms of evidence that the course is meeting its goals as a Perspectives course would be
appropriate to collect for this course during the next five years? How would you prefer assessment to be
conducted? How might evidence of effective teaching and student learning be collected and evaluated?
Assessment is part of the Political Science Department’s overall strategy for measuring our
success. As part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining high teaching standards, we
regularly collect samples of written work from our students so that we may track their
development across not only the span of a student’s undergraduate education, but across student
cohorts by using a time-series sampling design. Findings from this project allow the department’s
Curriculum Committee to monitor the progress and development of our undergraduate majors, as
well as stay to stay abreast of our success as teachers. Papers assigned for this class will be part of
that overall program.
January 2008
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V. Administration
What process will your department develop to oversee this course, suggest and approve changes, and conduct
assessment? Who will be in charge of this process? Also indicate whether the course will be primarily taught by
full-time or adjunct faculty, or by a combination of the two types of instructor.
For a description of the processes already in place, please see above at IV.
Administration of the assessment project is overseen by the Department’s Curriculum Committee.
Syllabi for all courses taught in the Department are collected and made available for review by
new, incoming instructors. All new instructors will be required to meet with members of the
Curriculum Committee whose research and teaching are within their subfield in advance of the
semester when a PLAS course will be taught. At these meetings, the interdisciplinary, pedagogic,
and cultural goals of PLAS will be spelled out in detail so that new teachers may incorporate
those requirements into their syllabi. Before syllabi are sent to Reprogrpahics for mass
production several weeks in advance of the semester, new instructors will be asked to submit
them to the Department Curriculum Committee for vetting and approval.
The course is taught by a combination of full-time and adjunct faculty.
VI. Syllabus
Please attach a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi, for courses on variable topics or courses that will be taught in
variable formats).
Some resources to guide syllabus construction:

The Provost's page outlining guidelines for syllabi:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/provost/Cur_stud/Syllabus expectations.htm

Sample syllabi for W courses, from Writing Across the Curriculum:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/wsyllabi.htm

Goals for Student Writing at Queens College:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/Goals.htm

Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, suggestions for syllabus planning:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k1985&pageid=icb.page29695

Lehman College’s Gen Ed Syllabi Project:
http://www.lehman.edu/lehman/programs/generaledu/gened_syllabi_project.html
Submit this completed form and a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi) by email to Eva Fernández
(eva.fernandez@qc.cuny.edu), Director, Center for Teaching and Learning.
January 2008
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