Summary of General Policies and Requirements: All courses require regular student attendance, thorough
preparation of reading and writing assignments, participation in classroom discussions, and adherence to
other policies outlined in syllabi, on Moodle, and/or the professor’s faculty website. All written work must
be typed and should be written on a computer and saved on a hard drive or disk. Late papers will not be
accepted without severe penalty and may result in no credit for the assignment regardless of the excuse. If
you will not be able to attend class when a paper is due, please turn it in early. All work must be submitted
in hardcopy, and students are not allowed to submit their work via email unless specifically assigned. Please
know that I do not accept papers that are placed under the door of my office and no papers are to be left
in my mailbox without my prior approval. I encourage students to use the Writing Center in Griffin Hall.
Moodle: Please note that courses I teach require participation on Moodle. Expect handouts and resources
to be provided on Moodle and writing assignments will generally be posted there. Other kinds of course
related information may be posted there. Students who make significant contributions to the discussion of
our readings in Moodle forums will receive extra consideration during the grading process.
Attendance Policy for all Courses (unless exceptions are stated in the syllabus): Students will be graded
for their time spent in the classroom and their participation in the class and not for the quality of their
excuses. Please understand, there are no excused absences in courses that I teach. In TR/MW courses,
each absence represents half of a week away from class; therefore, two absences are equal to a full week
absent. Three absences constitute 10% of the semester and each absence after a third may result in a 10%
reduction from the final grade—no matter what excuses a student offer for her or his absences. (Please do
not offer notes from clinics and doctors, and it is unnecessary to offer excuses for minor absences on my
office voice mail or in email messages.) Anyone who registers late and misses class meetings during the
first week of school will be marked absent for those days, and it does not matter when that student
actually registered. (Registering late does not give a student the right to receive credit for the meetings
that other students actually attended.) Please understand that you are responsible for everything that takes
place in our classroom and when you miss you must obtain notes and other class related information on
your own. Any students who miss classes for reasons other than hospitalizations, family deaths, military
service, etc., will not be given make-up quizzes and will not have deadlines extended. You must be in the
classroom on time or risk being marked absent—anyone who comes more than five minutes late will be
marked absent. Anyone who leaves class early will be marked absent for the entire class. Since most
courses are designed around student participation, it is important for students to be prepared for each
session that we meet.
Classroom Conduct, Cell Phones, Tablets, and Other Electronic Media: Private conversations should not
take place during our meetings, including chats with other students in the room. Anything you have to say
should be directed to the entire class. Do not turn on personal computers, IPods, IPads, or any other
personal electronic devices without prior permission and never attempt to do homework from other
classes (or from jobs) in this class. Please do not ever engage in text messaging in my classroom—do not
even bother to read messages sent to you. (If the device is off and put away, you have no way of knowing
about new messages.) Anyone caught texting, tweeting, or anything of that nature during our class
meetings will be asked to leave. If you must answer a call or text, please take your phone and your other
belongings with you and leave the room and do not return until the next class. Audio and/or visual
recordings of any kind inside our classroom, including those made by smartphones, are prohibited.
Violators will be dismissed from the course.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism, whether conscious or unconscious, is cheating—whether you borrow from what
another person has written word for word or have paraphrased someone else’s ideas without
acknowledging the source(s). Plagiarism in this course will result in automatic failure of the paper and the
removal of the offending student from the course. If done after the drop deadline, it will result in a failing
grade for the semester. It will also result in a report that will go to the university’s Discipline Committee.
If a student is found guilty of plagiarism by that committee, it can result in the student’s dismissal from
the university.
Students with Physical or Learning Challenges: Students with impaired hearing, seeing, or speaking
abilities, or those diagnosed with learning disabilities are required to discuss their special circumstances
with the professor. If you require special treatment, you must offer documentation from the university
concerning your particular circumstance.
Emergencies: In case of emergencies, there is a map of the building located next to the elevators that
outlines a proper evacuation route. In the case of an emergency, officials will be available to aid students
with special evacuation needs.
Grades: Grades will be based on every aspect of a student’s participation the course I teach. Factors such as
attendance, class participation, classroom conduct, papers, quizzes, and exams will contribute to the
evaluation of each student’s final grade. The final grade for the course will be largely qualitative and not
based strictly on any quantitative formula like those used in science and math courses. Grades are
competitive and no student will receive a higher grade than another student with a better overall record,
including factors such as attendance and participation. Please note: any grades or scores you might see on
Moodle are not official—Moodle will not be used for the purpose of recording grades for this course.
Please do not bother to ask me about any grade-related items on Moodle.