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Students must abide by policies in the University Student Handbook. See Basic Undergraduate Student Responsibilities for full details. It also is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the CSU Student Code of Conduct. Violators will be reported and prosecuted.
Unless otherwise indicated by the instructor in connection with group work, all work must be individual. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated; again, violators will be reported and prosecuted. Students who violate these policies may be formally charged with academic misconduct. Evidence of collusion (working with another student or tutor) or plagiarism (use of another's ideas, data, and statements without acknowledgment and/or extensive use of another's ideas, data and statements with only minimal acknowledgment) will lead to the procedures set up by the university for academic dishonesty. The minimum penalty in such cases will be a zero on the assignment and an F in the course. As university regulations stipulate, students guilty of academic misconduct may also be brought before the academic review committee, suspended, or expelled. So don’t risk it.
A few additional ground rules will help us engage with our course topics productively:
1) Speak respectfully to and about everyone in the class. Racist, sexist, heterosexist, ableist, anti-Semitic, and other prejudiced remarks are absolutely inappropriate for our classroom discussions. This does not mean that we must be “politically correct” or refuse to comment, but remarks that stereotype people are not necessary to make your point as we analyze art together.
2) Keeping this policy of respect in mind, I encourage you to express your disagreement with anything said in the readings or in class, including anything I say. Don't worry about your grade when you do; you will be graded based on your knowledge of and willingness to engage with the course material, not on whether you agree with me or our textbook. You can disagree with me or your textbook and still earn an excellent grade in this course. In fact, that questioning demonstrates quite well your engagement with our course material! Feel free to interrogate points of view, opinions, statements, behaviors, and institutions—just avoid criticizing people.
3) Your own experiences are welcome in our discussions, but please be sure that they are relevant to the topic being discussed. We all love art, and please do volunteer examples of films that you think will contribute to our class discussion—but do stay on topic. This is a college class, not a coffeehouse or dorm room, so please do not share film experiences or examples that are not related to the specific topics we are discussing.
4) Everyone in the class has the right to make mistakes, including the professor. In fact, making mistakes is one of the most effective learning strategies. We are all engaged in a learning process here, so be kind to others—and to yourself—when mistakes are made.
· Unless otherwise noted, papers should be word-processed, double-spaced, in a standard 12 point font, and with a one-inch margin. Staple pages together in the upper left corner.
· Please save paper. I cannot stress this enough. Do not append cover pages, folders/binders, etc. to your papers, and please try to use recycled paper. I will award extra credit to those who print multiple-page assignments double-sided.
· Proof-read and edit all assignments, and be sure to provide proper bibliographical citations for any sources referenced. Please use MLA style. (Refer to The MLA Handbook in the library for correct formatting.)
· Don’t waste space rephrasing questions or formulating lengthy introduction and/or conclusion sections in your assignments; you will often have a limited page allowance, so use your space wisely. · For clarity, please use correct grammar and spelling, and write in active voice (rather than passive voice). Be sure to italicize or underline all titles, and watch your use of gendered language (e.g., do not refer to “he/him” or “man/Man” when you mean “she or he,” “they,” or “human”). I encourage you to use the Center for Academic Assistance in the Library; they are quite helpful.
· Turn off all laptop computers, cell phones, pagers, and any other distractions BEFORE class lectures on campus begin.