Course
Syllabus
POEC 5308: Ethics, Culture and Public
Responsibility
(Syllabus is subject to adjustment as we proceed.)
Office: GR 3.128
T
7-9:45pm
Tel: 972 883 2732
WESTEC 1.216
mjleaf@utdallas.edu Fall 2008
There
are no prerequisites or co-requisites.
Last updated 30
Aug 08.
This course considers the principle schools of ethical thought in the world's major cultural traditions, the interactions between personal behavior and cultural groups/norms, and their implications for administrators. Topics to be considered include tensions between personal and collective goals, the nature and limits of tolerance, and the ethical role of institutions such as the family, government, business, churches and interest groups.
One central question in discussions of ethics is whether there are any universals, or whether everything is simply culturally relative-- a matter of individual or societal opinion. The answer to this is that there are universals. The central question concerning universals, in turn, is whether there can be a “situational ethic” or whether ethics must always involve following fixed rules. A related question is whether ethical universals can be compatible with pluralism or multiculturalism.
The format is seminar-discussion, focusing on readings dealing with the ethics of administrative positions of public trust through history and across cultures. The readings in the first half can be regarded as focusing on "pure" ethics--ethics by themselves. The second half focuses on ethics and law.
You will have two take-home examinations, one paper proposal, and one paper. The proposal should be sent to me by email. I will pick a few to discuss in class (depending on the class size; if possible, we will discuss them all). The paper should ideally be based on the original proposal, but not necessarily. The main reason for doing to the proposal is that it helps form an idea of what topics really are workable.
For details of the paper
assignment,
including guidelines for avoiding plagiarism, click
here.
What we will find is that underneath the enormous cultural, historical, and situational differences that separate the writers we will study, there appears to be one major recurrent question and one main answer. The recurrent question is whether one can have ethical values that respond to different circumstances and different situations, or whether ethics, to be ethics, must involve a set of absolute rules to be followed no matter what. The one major answer, in all cultures and times, is that despite the seeming attractiveness of clear and fixed rules, once you think about it enough you realize that ethics can only be situational. The most basic principles of ethics cannot be iron rules of behavior of the form “Always do Y” or even “In circumstance X you follow rule Y” but rather much more like, “To deal with a situation properly and effectively, you have to place yourself in the positions of each of those involved and ask what principles they might have acted on that all the others involved would feel bound to accept.” The implication is that to make proper ethical judgments about a situation you must first be able to analyze it empirically and reflexively, from all the perspectives involved. This is not necessarily easy but there are very definite ways to do it, which will be described.
I will try to make recordings of the class discussions and post them here so they can be downloaded. The format is dvf which are Sony voice files. Windows Media Player should play them. If not, it should say it needs a plug in, and go get it when you say it can. If this does not happen, this appears to be a site that lets you download the Sony plugin for the WMP and install the plugin yourself:
Early version: http://www.sony.jp/products/overseas/contents/support/download/dl-ic128-01.html
The Sony files can be played on an Mac if you download the Windows media player for Macs.
For
accreditation, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
requires all
courses at UTD to state specific “Student Learning
Objectives/Outcomes.” For
this course, the objectives are:
Objective
1. To provide a general consideration of
principle schools of ethical thought, the interactions between personal
behavior
and cultural groups/norms, and the implementation of public
responsibility.
Objective
2. To
show how ethical theories are related to law.
Objective
3. To
enable students to analyze actual decisions from one or more ethical
perspectives.
This
should not be understood as precluding the more general objectives of
all
graduate courses, namely to read and master the material, learn the
kind of
critical thinking that it requires, and to understand how one can
conduct
research on these topics.
Required
Textbooks and Materials
BOOKS
Protagoras
by Plato,
Stanley
Lombardo, Karen
Bell. Publisher: Hackett Pub Co; (March 1992) ISBN: 0872200949
Grube, G. M. A. Trans., Plato
Five
Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo -- by G.M.A.
Grube
(Translator); Hackett Paperback 6.95 @ Amazon. ISBN 0-915145-22-7
The
second edition (newly out) is also ok. ISBN: 0872206335
Kant, E. 1964. Groundwork
of the
Metaphysics of Morals. Harper Collins (Used) ISBN :
0061311596 (Be sure to get the
Paton translation.)
Mill: Utilitarianism. George Sher
(Editor);
Hardcover. Price at Amazon is $3.95 ISBN: 087220605X
The Moral Writings of John Dewey (Great Books in Philosophy) by
John Dewey, James Gouinlock
(Editor)
ISBN:
0879758821
Goffman, E. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Book.ISBN 0-385-09402-7 9.56 @ Amazon
Suggested
Course Materials
Dostoyevsky The Grand Inquisitor
Paperback
Hackett Publishing. $4.95@Amazon ISBN 0-87220-228-3
Date and Topic (numbered heads indicate separate topics):
Aug 26. Introduction
A major theme of the course is that there are two main models of ethics and ethical systems that seem to recur in all cultures and all times. I will describe them today. In that context I will also discuss Roman law. There are two reasons for beginning with this. The first is that in practice, most ethical problems we have as people with public responsibilities, or as scholars trying to understand public decision-making, arise in relation to law. The second is that it is in Roman law that we in the West first see these two major opposed views of ethics given legal form, which establishes the general relationship between ethics and law that we still live with. For many of you this will be new material, and we will not have time to go through it very thoroughly. For a more systematic description of what I describe in class, click here.
We will also read and discuss the speech of Chief Seattle.
1. Chief Seattle’s speech of 1854, on the nature of a public trust. There is an inauthentic speech and an authentic speech. Be sure you have the authentic one. He is talking about ethics and culture, not ecology. http://www.webcom.com/duane/seattle.html
For recording of first meeting for the Spring of 07, click here. (I did not make a new recording for Spring 08; I was moving around too much).
SEP 2 . Traditional Asian Administrative Ethics.
2. Chinese
Ethical
Thought: Confucianism versus Legalism. These are radically opposed to
one
another. Ask yourself what American or Western positions each of them
corresponds to. What are our versions of each of the major ideas stated?
Confucius: The
Analects. The role of the official, and the place of education in
preparing for it. http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHPHIL/ANALECTS.HTM
Han Fei Tzu: Legalism. http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/hanfei.html
3. Indian
Ethical
Thought: the Bhagavad Gita: Karma Yoga. Yoga is a method of
devotion. Karma Yoga means the Yoga of Action.
The
relevant section on the web as of
"'Therefore, without being attached always perform the action to be
done.
Practicing action without being attached, a
person attains the supreme. By action Janaka
and others attained perfection. You also observing what the world needs
should
act."
This is highly compressed reasoning. Read it deliberately and try to
imagine
the scene and situation, then ask what in your own life it corresponds
to.
http://www.san.beck.org/Gita.html
SEP 9 . Western Foundations: Plato and Socrates versus the Sophists.
The topic is the conflict between Sophism and the Socratics, relativism and
absolutism
(as presented in Plato’s dialogues). These readings introduce the first Western versions of the two
perspectives
that make up the main themes of the course: the conflict, or choice,
between an
absolutist ethics and situational ethics. In these dialogues,
Protagoras
and Meno represent the position of the Sophists, who argue for
situational ethics
and, by implication, democracy. Socrates, as you should be able
to see,
argues for absolutist ethics and, by implication, authoritarianism.
Plato, as
the author of the dialogues, was a staunch supporter of
Socrates.
It was not the custom at the time to represent the views of one's
opponents
fairly. In this case, however, Protagoras was a very famous Sophist and
his
views were very well known, and Plato appears to his represent his
views and
those of Socrates in a relatively balanced way. The
Apology, Crito,
and Phaedo are pure Socrates and in them Plato makes the case as
favorable as he possibly can.
4. The Protagoras is in Off Campus Books and also on the web at
http://eserver.org/philosophy/plato/protagoras.txt
The Meno, Apology and Crito are in Plato Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo -- by G.M.A. Grube (Translator); Paperback 6.95 @ Amazon. The Phaedo is also highly recommended.
Recording of class Discussion.
SEP 16 . Medieval Absolutism: The Aristotelian Tradition and Aquinas.
Platonism gave rise to Aristotelianism, and both of these were
absorbed into
the broad Hellenistic synthesis that dominated Mediterranean
intellectual life
from about the second century B. C. Judaism as we now know it,
Christianity,
and Islam all developed in this context and all absorbed Socratic ideas
to some
extent. In Christianity and Judaism, the main initial leanings were
toward
Plato. In Islam, which preserved and built upon far more of Greek and
Hellenistic science, they were toward Aristotle. The Emperor
Justinian
declared himself a protector of Christianity and closed down Plato's
Academy in
385 AD -- the last pagan university in
By the time of Aquinas, the major centers of
learning
were in the Islamic areas of southern
5. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica. Natural law and the hierarchy of authority. This is a beautiful website that lets you expand and contract the work according to its logical construction. The full Summa is far too large to read. The important thing is not really to read the whole thing, however, but to see how it is organized and how this applies to our concerns. The website does an excellent job of bringing this out on the screen, showing the kind of thinking that Aquinas must have been doing when he composed it. This is the ultimate attempt to make all law and all ethics seem to follow as one single system from one set or premises. Understand the hierarchy of principles Aquinas is arguing for and click back and forth between the levels to see how this works in the argument. For class, print out the list of all four parts (that is, just the page and a half summary), then in the Second Second Part go to justice and then to question 57 Articles 1 to 4, Question 58 article 1-12, Question 59 articles 1 to 4, question 60 articles 1-4, and Question 61, article 1 and print them out. Go up and down the chain a few times; the point is to see how completely hierarchical the argument is. In class we will mainly concentrate on his idea of law: where it comes from and what it consists in. http://www.newadvent.org/summa/
Recording: Socrates Apology and Aquinas
SEP 23 , CONTINUING ON SEP 30. The Foundation of Modern Skepticism and Situational Ethics:
Kant. (This might take more than one
session.) Although we got the end of the book on 23 Sept, 2008, we should go back over some of the arguments in more detail. Bring the books again for Oct 30.
Skepticism arose when the scholars of Plato's academy, a couple of generations after his death, turned the Socratic method on Socrates own assumptions, asking questions like “What is the essence of essence?” or What is the definition of definition? The result was that the assumptions could not hold and Socrates' supposed absolutism gave way to a new version of the original Sophist position it was aimed at rejecting. Skepticism has continued as the main alternative to the Socratic tradition ever since. In the second century A D it received its first major comprehensive formulation in the work of Sextus Empiricus, from which we get the term "empiricism," the method of experience. Empiricism in turn was reframed by Galileo as the method of experiment, and this continues to be the foundation of the modern physical sciences. Matters of law, thought, and mind, however, remained without a foundational skeptical analysis until Emanuel Kant. Kant is often treated in the philosophical literature as an idealist, although a particularly difficult one. Kant's own statements, however, make it absolutely clear that he saw himself in the Skeptical tradition, building on David Hume. As Aquinas' work is the foundation of modern absolutist ethics, Kant's is the definitive foundation of modern situational ethics.
Kant’s starting point is the observation that in general acceptance the only that is good in itself is a good will. Everything else is good contingently. The next question is what makes a good will, and the answer to this is that it is one acting out of reverence for the law, or duty. The next question how do what know what this is, and the answer is based his view of reason--which is exactly what makes this a metaphysics of morals rather than, in his terms, an anthropology of morals. Trace out the pieces of the argument and see how they relate to one another.
The key ideas to dig out of Kant's argument are how he distinguishes between something good in itself and something good for what it leads to, what he means by a good will, "judgment," duty, universal law and the role of reason in moral judgment. The other main point to note is that it is an empirical argument. He is not talking about morality "out there" somewhere but rather analyzing our own basic assumptions. Does what he says get at what you, most fundamentally, already recognize? As a guide to following Kant's argument, look at the midterm and final questions for the previous semester, posted below.
6. Kant, E. 1964. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Harper Collins (Used)
OCT 7 . Modern Absolutism:
Utilitarianism and Positivism.
While Mill is sometimes identified with modern liberalism, in fact he is much closer to modern libertarians. He is not arguing for a situational ethic. It is, rather, a new although very odd version of the absolutist approach. The widely cited essay “Utilitarianism” makes this clear. Can you see it? (Is the key question for ethics what is right, or is it who decides what is right?)
7. Mill: Utilitarianism. (There are also several places where this is on the web.)
The recording started about fifteen into the class, but what was missed was mostly a repeat of what is on the end of the recording from the previous week (end of Aquinas, background to Kant).
OCT 14 . Pragmatism.
In the early part of the 19th century there were enormous advances
in what
was becoming the social and behavioral sciences and law, stimulated
mainly by
Kant and Adam Smith. By the middle of the century, however, especially
after
the often abortive liberal revolutions of 1848, there was an
anti-democratic
and anti-scientific reaction, revolving mainly around the alternatives
presented by Marxism and positivism. The positivist side the leaders
were
Auguste Comte (who invented the term), Mill, and Herbert Spencer.
In its
European version (starting with Comte), positivism was openly
authoritarian and
anti-democratic. In its British version, it was quieter about its
anti-democratic aspects and focused on being pro-capitalist or
pro-powerful.
Either way, it was the opposite of what Kant and the Skeptics had
argued for
and for while succeeded in obscuring their views. A major reaction to
positivism in turn was American pragmatism, begun initially by O W
Holmes,
William James, C. S. Peirce, and others at
8. The Moral Writings of John Dewey (Great Books in Philosophy) by John Dewey, James Gouinlock Editor ISBN: 0879758821 13.68 @ Amazon. Read the following selections: Instrumentalism, Intelligence and Morals, the Nature of Principles, The Irreducible Plurality of Moral Criteria, Morality is Social, and The Method of Social Intelligence.
10. Also if there is time: Dostoyevsky The Grand Inquisitor
This may seem an odd reading. The purpose is to let you see how many different and seemingly unpredictable ways the same basic positions can be presented. Dostoyevsky is arguing against the “West” and for what he regards as a truly “Russian” ethical perspective, in which he identifies being Russian with being an Orthodox Christian. But as you read it, look at the specific positions he identifies as Western and Christian and ask who they remind you of. To me, it seems that the Inquisitor's idea of "Western" ethics is like Mill, while his idea of the ethics of the Russian Orthodox Church is very Kantian. The most interesting material is the introduction by Guignon. The excerpts from Dostoyevsky himself are much less clear.
Recording of discussion of Dewey Spring 08
Midterm take-home will be on work up to here. Click here for Spring 08 Midterm
OCT 21 . Begin Law and Ethics.
11. Make up Midterm Exam Questions--we will do this together in class. Each person should submit possible questions to me by email before class.
This section introduces the last component of the course: the relationship between ethics and law. For modern administrators, especially in the West, most of the important and difficult ethical issues you face will be closely involved with questions of law: when to comply, whether to comply and how to comply. We do more and more with law, and law is moving into newer and newer areas. Because of this administrators are almost always faced with having to adjust to, apply new legal requirements that involve the threat of facing legal action. When their efforts are not readily accepted they commonly lead to lawsuits or even criminal charges, that in turn reflect back upon the law itself. If you want to handle this situation constructively, or perhaps even to survive it, you had better understand how it works from a legal perspective. The modern position begins with Holmes. Pound continues the same development. As you should be able to see, they speak for the Skeptical, not the absolutist, perspective.
11.
Law—Holmes, O W. 1887. The Path of the
Law. 10 Harvard Law Review 457.
Also at: http://www.constitution.org/lrev/owh/path_law.htm
Recoding of class of March 4, 2008.
MARCH 10-15 IS SPRING BREAK
OCT 28 . POUND AND THE NEW DEAL
Midterm exams due at class time. Submit them both in hard copy and electronic form. Electronic form may be on disk, cd, or email. Email is best, as an attachment. I have difficulty with the Microsoft .docx format. If possible, send the files either as doc, pdf, txt, rtf, or wpd.
12. Roscoe Pound. A Survey of Social Interests.
Recording from class March 18, 2008.
13. The New Deal and labor law, changing views of right to contract and to organize.
See also the NLRB page at lawmemo.com, an employment law firm, at:
http://www.lawmemo.com/emp/nlrb/default.htm
Look over the article topics to help yourself imagine the conditions the NLRA was aimed at changing. Also, just for fun, read the article titled The Fast Track to a Great Social Security System.
As a bonus, here is much meatier NLRB transcript of a case involving a cousin of mine, Selma Rattner. She inherited Paragon Paint from her father. Evidently she was unable to deal with it and hated it. The workers were stuck. Click here. To find this on the NLRB website, go to "bound volumes," then to volume 317 in the pull down menu, and then you should find it listed alphabetically.
Recording of New Deal and Labor Law (F 2007)
NOV 4 . Paper proposals. A proposal is simply a short statement of what you propose to write on, why it is important, how you will analyze it, and what you expect to find. The purpose is to let me provide you with some advance feedback. It should normally not be more than one page. Submit them to me by email any time before Sunday, March 16. I will respond individually, and then discuss in class a few of the proposals that I think will be of the most general interest. This will take about 30 minutes at the end of the class. The beginning of the class will focus on Goffman.
14. Goffman, E. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life 9.56 @ Amazon
From about 1880 to 1935, the ever-moving pendulum of public
attention swung
back to the skeptical tradition, led by pragmatism in the
Recording of Goffman discussion from Class of Mar 25, 2008. The discussion of Goffman does not change much from year to year--this covers the same main ideas as Spring 2007.
NOV 11 . Civil and Human Rights.
15. Human Rights. Universal
Declaration
of Human Rights http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
The full interactive Helsinki Accords Final Act http://www.hri.org/docs/Helsinki75.html
16. Persecution
and the right to escape it--Asylum and immigration.
The Matter
of T. (
15. Civil Rights.
16. Martin Luther King: Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963.
17. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—law and cases.
http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/vii.html Remember that this is only one
section of
the Act. If you can, read the rest.
18. Discrimination attorney site: http://www.discriminationattorney.com/
Look over the topics and read the article on winning a 1.35
million
dollar claim. See it as an illustration of the way legislation has
created
incentives to use courts to develop law.
Recording from 1 Apr 08 up to break.
Recording from 1 Apr 08 after break.
NOV 18 . Affirmative
Action and
Diversity. We will concentrate mainly on higher education
and on
the Grutter opinion (the
Timeline of affirmative action and UT Austin's enrollment history. Related URL's are:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/affirmativetimeline1.html
And
http://www.utexas.edu/academic/oir/statistical_handbook/02-03/students/s04b/
The College Board & Diversity: www.collegeboard.org/diversity/
Another
interesting source: http://www.diversityweb.org/
A
site for research into issues of diversity and
affirmative action in
The
U of Michigan Case in perspective--two
papers about the
http://www.nixonpeabody.com/linked_media/publications/ELPA_06232003.pdf
Finally,
the opinion of the Court, written by Justice
O’Conner, on the Grutter case. This is the case concerning law school
admissions, in which the court held that race could be considered. Click here. You can also find
it with
Google, just enter Grutter v Bollinger.
Discussion of Affirmative Action Spr 2008
NOV 25 . War and Conflict
situations--what is ethical, moral, and lawful? What are crimes
against humanity?
As I mentioned in class, the idea of
the law of war is ancient and is the most basic topic in the idea of
international law in general. The modern literature is generally
recognized as beginning with Hugo Grotius, and Grotius's first books
explain the connection. THIS is a link to a
translation of Grotius On the Laws of War and Peace.
Here are the first three chapters reformatted by me
to
make them more readable.
Look
over the whole table of contents, and read at least book I and II
carefully. Notice that the language is much like Aquinas, but
you should see that the underlying imagery and assumptions are much
more similar to what we see later in Kant.
Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e636b/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5
The allied occupation of Germany, Italy, and Japan was a turning
point in the legal and political history. The occupation policies and
their results were detailed carefully by U S and British military
historians as they developed. This is an
account of the arrangements for German demobilization.
The
U S historical document that it is taken from is here.
Note
the differences between what was done then and what the US has done in
Iraq.
Look at how many treaties now exist in the area of human rights, and
what they cover:
Web page of the Office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Convention on
the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
Statute of Rome-which establishes the
international court of Justice.
Bush
Administration argues against access to civilian attorney for person
held in secret prison.
Report of
Supreme Court Rejection of Bush administration claims of right to try
detainees at Guantanamo.
War and crimes against humanity discussion
Recording of class on law of war
DEC 2 . LAST CLASS DAY. TORTURE AND FINAL EXAM
19. LAW AND ETHICS OF TORTURE
President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, and their present and recent legal advisors continue to defend the use of torture by American interrogators even though the U S Congress, the military, and apparently also the CIA have reaffirmed their repudiation of it and their adherence to international law. As the readings below make clear, the law can be argued to be on both sides—although I think it is clear that the predominant legal view is that torture is, per se, unlawful. But the most important point, for purposes of the course, is the not the right and wrong of it as such but rather the way the topic, once again, illustrates what Holmes is pointing to when he says that the law represents “the moral development of the race.” The question we will most try to focus on is the logic of the process by which this development comes about. What view seems to prevail and why? (Do not answer “because it is right”; the question is what makes it so.)
Torture has been used, legally, in two ways: for obtaining information or confessions and for punishment. While these may be distinguished in the abstract, such a distinction makes little difference to the victim. In large part for this reason, the growing public rejection of one has generally not been separated from rejection of the other. Through this association, legal conceptions of torture are closely tied to notions of "cruel and unusual" punishments.
April 11 news: Cheney, Rice, and others approved torture in meetings held in the White House:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iA8mY9rbbDdKUe1Y9KObwHhqr9YgD8VV9P001
This is a BBC three-part video called The Power of Nightmares. It oversimplifies American political processes, but presents largely reasonable view of the way the Islamic extremists ideology and American neo-conservative ideology mirror each other and have fed off each other and a lot of good detail on who is who in the Bush administration that led to the complex of policies that included establishing the prison at Guantanamo Bay and the Bush administration view of torture and rule of law. http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
English Bill of Rights, 1689
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/england.htm
A summary and the US position on it is at http://www.hrproject.org/cat.htm
Furman v Georgia 408 US 238. Supreme court case on the death penalty that discusses “cruel and unusual punishment” at great length, although the decision (that the death penalty in these cases was cruel and unusual) turned more on the idea of “unusual” than on “cruel.” How does this make sense (in Kantian terms, for example)?
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=408&invol=238
Interview of General Hayden, director of CIA, on CIA use of torture.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/23867638#23867638
Summary of US and International law on Torture by Human Rights Watch, 2004.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/24/usint8614.htm
John C. Yoo’s previously secret memo on interrogation.
http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/safefree/yoo_army_torture_memo.pdf
Frontline Interview of John C. Yoo
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/interviews/yoo.html
US Army Field Manual 2-22.3 (FM 32-52) September 2006. Read especially sections 8 and 9, and notice the Geneva convention reproduced as an appendix.
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm2-22-3.pdf
Review and Conclusion.
WE WILL DISCUSS AND DECIDE ON THE FINAL EXAM IN CLASS. SEND POSSIBLE QUESTIONS BEFORE CLASS, BY EMAIL. ALSO, THE EXAM AND PAPER SUBMISSION DATES AND TIMES BELOW ARE NOT ABSOLUTELY FINAL BUT SEEM TO ME TO BE MOST LOGICAL GIVEN EVERYONE'S CONSTRAINTS. WE WILL MAKE THE FINAL DECISION IN CLASS TODAY.
MAY 6. FINAL EXAMS DUE IN MY OFFICE AT 7 PM. DO NOT BE LATE WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME AND GETTING PERMISSION. Also give me a digital copy, either on CD or disk, or as an email attachment. Email is preferred. I have trouble reading the new Microsoft .docx format. If possible, send the files either as .doc (older Microsoft Word format), pdf, txt, rtf, or .wpd.
MAY 10 5 PM, COURSE PAPERS DUE IN MY OFFICE. DO NOT BE LATE WITHOUT NOTIFYING ME AND GETTING PERMISSION. Also give me a digital copy, either on CD or disk, or as an email attachment. Email is preferred. I have trouble reading the new Microsoft .docx format. If possible, send the files either as .doc (older Microsoft Word format), pdf, txt, rtf, or .wpd.
IF YOU CAN TURN YOUR PAPER IN EARLY, PLEASE DO SO. ALSO PROVIDE A DISK OR CD, OR (BETTER) EMAIL ME A COPY AS AN ATTACHMENT. SEND IT RETURN RECEIPT (IF POSSIBLE) SO YOU WILL KNOW I GOT IT WITHOUT HAVING TO ASK ME IN A SEPARATE EMAIL. ALSO, LABEL IT WITH YOUR NAME, SUCH AS SAMSTUDENTPAPER.DOC. IF YOU CANNOT GET TO CAMPUS TO TURN IN THE HARD COPY AND WOULD LIKE ME TO PRINT THE PAPER FROM YOUR DIGITAL FILE, SAY SO IN THE EMAIL. AGAIN-IF I AM NOT IN THE OFFICE, SLIDE THE PAPER UNDER MY DOOR.
Grading
Policy
The weighting of the assignments in the final grade is 30% or the midterm, 30% for the final, and 40% for the paper.
For details of the paper assignment, including guidelines for avoiding plagiarism, click here. (This is the same link as in the introductory description.)
Course
& Instructor Policies
Since the exams will be take-home, I cannot think of any possible reason to fail to hand it in on time. There are no “extra credit” or make-ups.
No
Field Trips
The
following statements are standard for all syllabi and
come from general UTD rules. They are required in response to
accreditation
criteria of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Student
Conduct & Discipline
The
The
A student
at the university neither loses the rights nor escapes the
responsibilities of
citizenship. He or she is expected to
obey federal, state, and local laws as well as the Regents’ Rules,
university
regulations, and administrative rules.
Students are subject to discipline for violating the standards
of
conduct whether such conduct takes place on or off campus, or whether
civil or
criminal penalties are also imposed for such conduct.
Academic
Integrity
The
faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and
academic
honesty. Because the value of an
academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work done by
the
student for that degree, it is imperative that a student demonstrate a
high
standard of individual honor in his or her scholastic work.
Scholastic
dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, statements, acts or
omissions
related to applications for enrollment or the award of a degree, and/or
the
submission as one’s own work or material that is not one’s own. As a general rule, scholastic dishonesty
involves one of the following acts:
cheating, plagiarism, collusion and/or falsifying academic
records. Students suspected of academic
dishonesty are
subject to disciplinary proceedings.
Plagiarism,
especially from the web, from portions of papers for other classes, and
from
any other source is unacceptable and will be dealt with under the
university’s
policy on plagiarism (see general catalog for details).
This course will use the resources of
turnitin.com, which searches the web for possible plagiarism and is
over 90%
effective.
Email
Use
The
Withdrawal
from Class
The
administration of this institution
has set deadlines for withdrawal of any college-level courses. These
dates and
times are published in that semester's course catalog. Administration
procedures must be followed. It is the student's responsibility to
handle
withdrawal requirements from any class. In other words, I cannot drop
or
withdraw any student. You must do the proper paperwork to ensure that
you will
not receive a final grade of "F" in a course if you choose not to
attend the class once you are enrolled.
Student
Grievance Procedures
Procedures
for student grievances are found in Title V, Rules on
Student Services and Activities, of the university’s Handbook
of Operating Procedures.
In
attempting to resolve any student grievance regarding grades,
evaluations, or other fulfillments of academic responsibility, it is
the
obligation of the student first to make a serious effort to resolve the
matter
with the instructor, supervisor, administrator, or committee with whom
the
grievance originates (hereafter called “the respondent”).
Individual faculty members retain primary responsibility
for assigning grades and evaluations. If
the matter cannot be resolved at that level, the grievance must be
submitted in
writing to the respondent with a copy of the respondent’s School Dean. If the matter is not resolved by the written
response provided by the respondent, the student may submit a written
appeal to
the School Dean. If the grievance is not
resolved by the School Dean’s decision, the student may make a written
appeal
to the Dean of Graduate or Undergraduate Education, and the deal will
appoint
and convene an Academic Appeals Panel.
The decision of the Academic Appeals Panel is final. The results of the academic appeals process
will be distributed to all involved parties.
Copies
of these rules and regulations are available to students in
the Office of the Dean of Students, where staff members are available
to assist
students in interpreting the rules and regulations.
Incomplete Grade
Policy
As
per university policy, incomplete grades will be granted only
for work unavoidably missed at the semester’s end and only if 70% of
the course
work has been completed. An incomplete
grade must be resolved within eight (8) weeks from the first day of the
subsequent long semester. If the
required work to complete the course and to remove the incomplete grade
is not
submitted by the specified deadline, the incomplete grade is changed
automatically to a grade of F.
Disability
Services
The
goal of Disability Services is to provide students with disabilities
educational opportunities equal to those of their non-disabled peers. Disability Services is located in room 1.610
in the Student Union. Office hours are
Monday and Thursday,
The
contact information for the Office of Disability Services is:
The
(972)
883-2098 (voice or TTY)
Essentially,
the law requires that colleges and universities make
those reasonable adjustments necessary to eliminate discrimination on
the basis
of disability. For example, it may be
necessary to remove classroom prohibitions against tape recorders or
animals
(in the case of dog guides) for students who are blind.
Occasionally an assignment requirement may be
substituted (for example, a research paper versus an oral presentation
for a
student who is hearing impaired).
Classes enrolled students with mobility impairments may have to
be
rescheduled in accessible facilities.
The college or university may need to provide special services
such as
registration, note-taking, or mobility assistance.
It
is the student’s responsibility to notify his or her professors
of the need for such an accommodation.
Disability Services provides students with letters to present to
faculty
members to verify that the student has a disability and needs
accommodations. Individuals requiring
special accommodation should contact the professor after class or
during office
hours.
Religious Holy
Days
The
The
student is encouraged to notify the instructor or activity
sponsor as soon as possible regarding the absence, preferably in
advance of the
assignment. The student, so excused,
will be allowed to take the exam or complete the assignment within a
reasonable
time after the absence: a period equal to the length of the absence, up
to a
maximum of one week. A student who notifies the instructor and
completes any
missed exam or assignment may not be penalized for the absence. A
student who
fails to complete the exam or assignment within the prescribed period
may
receive a failing grade for that exam or assignment.
If
a student or an instructor disagrees about the nature of the
absence [i.e., for the purpose of observing a religious holy day] or if
there
is similar disagreement about whether the student has been given a
reasonable
time to complete any missed assignments or examinations, either the
student or
the instructor may request a ruling from the chief executive officer of
the
institution, or his or her designee. The chief executive officer or
designee
must take into account the legislative intent of TEC 51.911(b), and the
student
and instructor will abide by the decision of the chief executive
officer or
designee.
These
descriptions and
timelines are subject to change at the discretion of the Professor.