LATN 361-001 / CATH 361-001: Augustine Confessions Spring Semester 2012 Monday - Wednesday - Friday, 2:45pm-3:35pm Crown Center 572 Dr. Jacqueline Long

Policies and Assessment

Grades will be based on:

Respect and other policies

• In connection with this course, we are partners in one another's learning. We owe one another a supportive, collegial common space and thoughtful exchange of ideas.
• Distractions from learning are a problem for everyone, especially in our time together. Laptop computers, cell phones, recording equipment, Blackberries, iPods, and other electronic devices capable of being used for communication or entertainment may not be used in the classroom during class meetings. If you carry any of them with you, they must remain turned off and put away. Noisy or smelly food should not come into the classroom. Private conversations should be conducted outside of class time.
• The most meaningful education is less about answers to any particular set of problems than acquiring and applying the techniques of inquiry and critical analysis that will enable you to find, test, and improve answers to any problems. It's process. Process takes doing. A seminar makes the doing collaborative: engage thoughtfully with our texts, bring a serious curiosity to the traditions of thought and social and religious practice that lie behind them, share with your colleagues your insights, side-lights, and questions, and work together to develop understanding. Falling off from these standards hurts yourself and cheats your partners in the seminar. Don't: it's a matter of courtesy, fairness, responsibility, and self-respect.
  Standards of contribution include:

  Positive: raises questions from study-materials that generate intellectually rewarding discussion	in most meetings	in some meetings	in few meetings
  Positive: guides discussion to employ intellectually rewarding methods	in most meetings	in some meetings	in few meetings
  Positive: supplies pertinent information in discussion	in most meetings	in some meetings	in few meetings
  Positive: makes insightful connections	in most meetings	in some meetings	in few meetings
  Negative: disrupts discussions with distraction or disrespect	never	once or twice, with apology	with some regularity or wantonness

• If you are forced to miss class, please tell me the reason, as soon as possible (in advance, if it's a schedulable reason).
• Legitimate absences (serious illness or other crisis beyond your control) should be documented in writing by the appropriate authority. Appointments should be scheduled for times other than when a class for which you are registered meets.
• Absences shall be defined as excessive, as follows:
  • Each unexcused absence beyone a total of three absences, excused or unexcused. That is, excused absences kill your budget of unexcused absences.
  • Repeated chronic lateness (more than 10 minutes) shall be counted as partial absences, as will early exits from class.
  • Nevertheless, it is better to attend even part of a class than to miss it entirely. Just don't disturb your colleagues coming or going.
  • Absences will be totalled over the whole semester.
• Regardless of the reason for an absence, you are responsible for the work the seminar does.
• Active cooperation on the collaborative presentations is expected of all students. You owe it to one another as a courtesy, at very least, to plan together in advance so that all members can participate fully despite the burdens that everybody's busy schedule inevitably imposes.
• All written assignments are due physically in hand at the start of the class period for which they are assigned. Exceptions can be made only in extraordinary circumstances, for good and documented reasons.
• Academic honesty, a.k.a. the life's blood of the intellect:
  • Any practice of academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, obstructing the work of other students, etc.) perpetrated in this course will result in failure of the course. Do not do it.
  • For basic principles and definitions, see the subsection on "Academic Integrity" in the General Academic Standards and Regulations and the College of Arts and Sciences' Academic Integrity Statement. The Department of Classical Studies' Policy on Academic Integrity incorporates these documents. We also recommend you consult the helpful discussion of The Use and Misuse of Source Materials, provided by Loyola's Writing Center.
  • Plagiarism consists of implying or claiming that somebody else's words or ideas are your own: copying text and pasting it into work you submit as yours is blatant, but even if you re-write the original, you still owe it credit. Always document your use of sources. The principle applies whether you are referring to primary or secondary sources, whether you are quoting or paraphrasing. Guidance on the form of citations may be found, for example, in the Chicago Manual of Style, available on-line through Loyola's Classical Studies Library Guide; this link will route you through the flagship login site if you are off-campus.
  • Loyola University requires that all instances of academic dishonesty must be reported to the chairperson of the department involved and to the academic Dean of the student's College.
  • Learning is wholly personal: it only happens if you do it yourself. Your University record should be certifying only what has really happened.

Additional University resources

• Loyola's Academic Advising and Support Services, on the Web and in the Sullivan Center for Student Services on the Lakeshore Campus, offer various pieces of advice as Academic Success Tools and will schedule workshops for practical assistance with things like study skills and test taking.
• Services for Students with Disabilities can help arrange accommodations for students who need that support.
• The Center for Tutoring & Academic Excellence (physically in the Sullivan Center; peer-counselors) and the Writing Centers (sponsored by the Department of English: graduate students with expertise in writing pedagogy; Sullivan Center 245 and on the Water Tower Campus in 25 East Pearson 605) both offer consultation services.

Revised 16 January 2012 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/