Policies + Procedures

INCLUSION & RESPECT

Modified from The New School’s Safe Zone declaration: We in this classroom are dedicated to creating a welcoming environment for all members of the university community inclusive of race, ethnicity, national origin, culture, language, gender and gender expression, sexuality, religious and political beliefs, age, and ability. We’ll aim to celebrate our diversity and to respectfully negotiate differences in experience, understanding, and expression. We will stand against all forms of discrimination and oppression, whether directed against individuals or groups. We will also make an effort to respect one another’s individuality in our forms of address, which includes learning one another’s preferred names and pronouns.

If you experience anything in the classroom that undermines these values – or if there is anything we can do to better cultivate inclusivity and respect – please feel free to let us know. Likewise, if you are facing personal challenges inside or outside the classroom that are impacting your class performance, we’re happy to speak with you about strategies of accommodation, and to help you find the appropriate support resources at the university. 

IN CLASS TECH USE

While technology use to access course materials, take notes, and otherwise engage in essential learning is encouraged, and while occasional, brief social media / text / email check-ins are fine, we agree to keep our devices closed / face-down as much as possible, to signal our presence for one another. We want to use our digital tools to help us engage in, rather than check out from, our learning community.

SUBMITTING WORK VIA GOOGLE DRIVE

You’ll occasionally be asked to submit your work via Google Drive. Because we prefer to insert margin comments and propose revisions directly in/on your text, we need to work with an editable document (e.g., not a pdf). For this reason, we ask that you please either (1) create your documents in Google Drive; or (2) upload documents in .doc format, which I can then download and annotate using “track changes,” and return to you via email. You can share your material with us by clicking on the “Share” button in the upper-right corner of Google Drive/Docs, inserting our email addresses, then clicking on the little pencil icon and choosing “can edit.”

We’ll probably propose some line edits and add some margin comments to your Doc. We don’t expect you to respond to our recommendations and queries, but we do hope you’ll at least consider them! If, however, you would like to continue the dialogue in the comments section by responding and requesting additional feedback from us, you’ll need to alert us via email because we can’t continually monitor for new activity across all students’ documents.

POSTING WORK ONLINE

You’ll occasionally be asked to share your work online. If you’re not comfortable posting your work, please don’t hesitate to talk to us.

DEADLINES

Assignment deadlines are clearly noted on the syllabus. In all cases, you are made aware of these deadlines weeks in advance, and in some cases you even choose your own assignment deadlines. We am also more than happy to work with you, in advance of assignment deadlines, to develop your projects. Thus, there is little reason for you to miss deadlines. Extensions will be granted only rarely, and only after consulting with us in advance of the assignment deadline. Work that is late will be penalized one-half letter grade for each 24-hour period and will not be accepted after a week.

We take your work seriously, we read it closely, and we’re known for providing substantial, thorough, constructive feedback. We set aside big blocks of time for assignment review immediately after each deadline. Missing deadlines means you miss your “window of opportunity” for review, which is an essential part of your learning in this course (and any course, for that matter). Late work = no comments, we’re afraid. 

A student who has not submitted all assigned work by the end of the semester does not receive an “Incomplete” by default. “Incompletes” are assigned only in extreme circumstances, and require that the student consult with us well before the end of the semester and sign a contract obligating them to complete all outstanding work by a date that we agree upon. Again, late work will not receive feedback.

CHANGES TO THE SYLLABUS

I make every effort to map out the entire semester before the semester begins, so we both know what we’re in for. Yet we may need to make a few small alterations to our schedule: we might host a guest who’s passing through town, I might decide to cut a couple of our readings or substitute new material that’s published over the course of the semester, etc. Any changes will be noted, with plenty of advance notice, on our class website, which will always be the most the most accurate, up-to-date “control center” for our class; this printed syllabus is really just an administrative document. And any revisions will only maintain or decrease, never increase, your workload.

ACADEMIC HONESTY

All students are expected to familiarize themselves with the University’s academic honesty policy. We expect that you are here to grow; to submit work that is not your own is to deny yourself an opportunity for growth. Plagiarism or cheating of any form will unfortunately result in failure of the assignment or course. If you have any questions regarding proper citation of sources or other academic integrity matters, please ask us or consult the University Learning Center.