Clare 101H
Spring Semester 2015
Course syllabus
Instructor: Dr. David Matz
Office location: Plassmann E-14
email: dmatz@sbu.edu
Required text.
There is only one required text: The Intellectual Journey, third edition. (Please make sure that you have the
third edition.) The text will be liberally supplemented by handouts, and these handouts also form a part of the
required reading for the course.
Class attendance is at your discretion, but it is highly recommended and strongly encouraged. You may
have two, no-penalty, missed classes. After that, one point is deducted from your attendance/participation grade
for each missed class. For the purposes of this policy, there is no such thing as an excused absence.
Office hours are informal. I am usually in my office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from ca. 11:30 to
6:00, and ca. 2:00-6:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Appointments are not required, but if necessary, can be
arranged at almost any time when I am not in class. Many questions and other concerns can be handled
electronically, so do not hesitate to e-mail me at any time, should the need arise. I check my e-mail messages
frequently, including week-ends, so you will generally receive a reply in less than 24 hours, often much sooner.
I have so far successfully avoided using all forms of social media, including texting technology, so conventional
e-mail is the only way to contact me electronically. However, I do have a (very) low-tech message board on my
office door; it can be utilized at any time.
Grades; tests.
One paper, worth 50 points:
50 points
Two semester examinations, 60 points each: 120 points
One final examination:
70 points
Attendance/participation:
10 points
Total:
250 points
Grading scale
A: 236-250
A-: 230-235
B+: 219-229
B: 208-218
B-: 200-207
C+: 193-199
C: 183-192
C-: 172-182
D+: 165-171
D: 155-164
D-: 150-154
The attendance/participation points will be very easy to obtain. As long as you do not miss more than two
classes, you will automatically receive the 10 points for attendance/participation.
Submission date for the papers; testing dates.
First test: Thursday, February 26. Makeup date: Tuesday, March 3, at 7:30 A.M.
Paper due: Thursday, March 19.
Second test: Thursday, April 16. Makeup date: Tuesday, April 21, at 7:30 A.M.
More information about the guidelines and criteria for the paper will be forthcoming.
Late papers will be assessed an unfortunate but necessary fee of five points per day.
Extra-credit. There is one extra-credit option in this class; it will be explained at a later date. This is the only
extra-credit option available. Please do not approach me at any time during the semester to request
opportunities to do additional extra-credit work. The answer will be “no”.
Additional note: Information on support services for students with disabilities, and information about the
University Honor Code, can be found on my.sbu
No-ask-no-tell policy about grades. Occasionally, students will tell me that they must have a certain grade
(usually a B or higher) in Clare 101 in order to keep their scholarship, remain eligible for a sports team, or even
to remain in school. This is not fair to me, as it implies that it is somehow my obligation to “give” them the
requisite grade, and that if I do not do so, their loss of scholarship or eligibility becomes my fault, not theirs.
So: please do not inform me of any GPA goals or requirements which you must achieve this semester. Any
student who violates this policy will automatically be penalized with a reduction of one-half of his/her course
grade. (So, for example, a course grade of B- drops to a C+.)
Makeup tests. If you miss class on a testing day (not recommended!), you must make up the missed test on the
date listed on the other side of the syllabus, at 7:30 A.M. The makeup test will be different than the test
administered on the scheduled date. If you know in advance that you will not be able to be in class on the
testing date, and you have an excellent and persuasive reason for your proposed absence, then arrangements can
be made for you to take the test early. However, please make every effort to adjust your schedule so that you
can be in class on February 26 and April 16. In any event, you may not take the test more than two days (or 48
hours) prior to the scheduled date.
Reading assignments. We will be reading all the selections in the text except the following: “A Diversion and
a Failure” (Goodfield, pp. 77-90); “The Fifth Admonition” (St. Francis, p. 135); “A Song for a Barbarian Reed
Pipe” (Hong Kingston, pp. 156-161); “Civilization and Its Discontents” (Freud, pp. 194-202); “Sermon XXIII”
(Donne, pp. 239-243); “Nicomachean Ethics” (Aristotle, pp. 279-287); “On First Looking into Chapman’s
Homer” (Keats, p. 386).
There is no syllabus of reading assignments. Instead, I will tell you on each day what the assignment will be for
the next class period, and I will also e-mail you with that information. If you ever reach a point in the semester
where you want to read ahead, you can read the next selection(s) in the text and be confident that we will
eventually be discussing them in class, as long as that selection, or selections, is not listed above.
Miscellaneous
1. I like to begin class sessions on time, so please make an effort not to be late. The “official” clock is the one
on the telephone in the classroom, so set your watches accordingly. Occasional tardiness is forgivable, but do
not make a habit of it.
2. When I or another member of the class is speaking, you are not. Refusal or inability to comply with this rule
will result in the deduction of points from the class participation grade.
3. You may consume food or beverages during class, as long as you do so in a non-disruptive manner.
4. Space limitations dictate that no more than 14 students can be enrolled in this section of Clare 101. If you
attended class today, but your name is not on my official class list, then you will have to find a different section
of the course. Please see me after class.
5. Please turn off and disable all mobile communication devices prior to the start of class, or better yet, do not
even bring them to class. Texting during class is forbidden. Laptop use during class is also prohibited unless
the user has a persuasive reason, and has obtained written documentation from the Teaching/Learning Center,
or an academic counselor, which verifies the user’s need for laptop access during class.
6. Please do not leave the room during class unless your reason for doing so is in the nature of a serious
emergency. Leaving the room to make or answer a call on your cell phone, or to text, generally does not
qualify as an emergency. Leaving the room during class for any reason other than an emergency constitutes
rude, discourteous, and disruptive behavior. Habitual violators of this policy will lose points from their class
participation grade.
A note on class participation:
I have been thinking about various ways to “ratchet up” this class to the level of the Honors designation; hence,
this: I would like each of you to select one of the following books, read it, and give a presentation to the class
on that book. Each of these books was written by one of the authors represented in the Intellectual Journey
textbook. It is my hope that your presentations will assist all of us in better understanding the readings in the IJ
book, which almost always appear in the form of excerpts. Your presentation will help us to see the “big
picture”.
Here are the possibilities, in the order in which the excerpts appear in the IJ textbook.
An American Childhood, by Annie Dillard. (January.)
Hunger of Memory, by Richard Rodriguez. (January or early February.)
Black Boy, by Richard Wright. (Early February.)
The Life of St. Francis, by St. Bonaventure. (February.)
Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare, by Paul Colinvaux. (February.)
Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold. (February.)
The Maine Woods, by Henry David Thoreau. (February.)
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius. (February or early March.)
The Autobiography of Michel de Montaigne, by Michel de Montaigne. (March.)
The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir. (March.)
The Basic Sixteen Documents, from Vatican Council II. (March.)
The Upanishads, translated by Juan Mascaro. (March.)
The Republic, by Plato. (April.)
White Noise, by Don DeLillo. (April.)
Iliad, by Homer. (April.)
Inferno, by Dante. (April.)
The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton. (Late April.)
Selections will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Collaborative presentations are not an option.
Obviously, some of these books are much longer than others, so in order to make the assignment fair to
everyone in terms of the work load, I will ask you to read about 150 pages of the book that you choose, if it is
over 150 pages in length, and report only on the portion which you read.
The month-names in parentheses after each selection indicate my estimates of when we will be discussing that
particular author in class. So you should plan your presentation to coincide with the approximate date on which
your author will be considered in class. So, for example, if you choose Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood
for your presentation, you will need to be ready by Thursday, January 29 at the latest. If you choose, for
example, Plato’s Republic, you will make your presentation sometime in early to mid-April.
Most of these books should be available in Friedsam Library. If you have trouble locating your book, ask one
of the librarians to obtain it for you via inter-library loan. Or ask me. I have copies of some of the books on the
list. I will have more to say about this assignment next time.