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Special fall 2020 pandemic syllabus content

Because of the ongoing COVID pandemic, It is quite likely that major elements of this syllabus will be changed dramatically and on short notice. These first few paragraphs, in italics, contain information particular to the peculiar circumstances of the fall 2020 semester. After these italicized sections, you’ll find all the usual syllabus fine print about course objectives, policies, procedures, etc.

First, some University-mandated syllabus verbiage, complements of the Provost’s office:

Campus Health, Wellness, and Safety
 
* Reminder on 10 Guiding Principles for Health, Safety, and Wellness at Texas State, including requirement to wear a cloth face covering and perform a self-assessment each day before coming to campus.
* Importance of the Bobcat Pledge, including the shared responsibility to practice healthy behaviors and follow the health and safety guidelines, which shows respect for others and helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus and in the surrounding community.
* Link to the Student Roadmap for more information on students’ return to campus.
* Link to the Bobcat Trace site, the reporting tool for notification of positive COVID-19 tests/illnesses to the university.

 
Statement on Civility and Compliance in the Classroom
 
Civility in the classroom is very important for the educational process and it is everyone’s responsibility.  If you have questions about appropriate behavior in a particular class, please address them with your instructor first.  Disciplinary procedures may be implemented for refusing to follow an instructor’s directive, refusing to leave the classroom, not following the university’s requirement to wear a cloth face covering, not complying with social distancing or sneeze and cough etiquette, and refusing to implement other health and safety measures as required by the university.  Additionally, the instructor, in consultation with the department chair/school director, may refer the student to the Office of the Dean of Students for further disciplinary review.  Such reviews may result in consequences ranging from warnings to sanctions from the university.  For more information regarding conduct in the classroom, please review the following policies at AA/PPS 02.03.02, Section 03: Courteous and Civil Learning Environment, and Code of Student Conduct, number II, Responsibilities of Students, Section 02.02: Conduct Prohibited.

Emergency Management
 
In the event of an emergency, students, faculty, and staff should monitor the Safety and Emergency Communications web page.  This page will be updated with the latest information available to the university, in addition to providing links to information concerning safety resources and emergency procedures.  Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to sign up for the TXState Alert system

Sexual Misconduct Reporting (SB 212)
 
Effective January 2, 2020, state law (SB 212) requires all university employees, acting in the course and scope of employment, who witness or receive information concerning an incident of sexual misconduct involving an enrolled student or employee to report all relevant information known about the incident to the university’s Title IX Coordinator or Deputy Title IX coordinator.  According to SB 212, employees who knowingly fail to report or knowingly file a false report shall be terminated in accordance with university policy and The Texas State University System Rules and Regulations

Next, some further pandemic times information from your instructor.

Zoom

Some portion of our Fall 2020 class meetings and all office hours will be conducted via Zoom.
Zoom is a free, university-supported program. If you haven’t done so already, download the Zoom client to your desktop or phone right away!
For tips on using Zoom, see https://doit.txstate.edu/services/online-meetings.

Canvas

The classroom management software we’ll be using is Canvas. Perhaps most of you have seen Canvas used in other courses by now, but maybe not. It’s more or less like Texas State’s old TRACS. Canvas works best with the Chrome or Firefox browsers; I strongly recommend you use one of those when you’re accessing Canvas.

It is your responsibility to set the notifications within Canvas so that you receive all notices from me and about this course. If you miss something because “Canvas didn’t tell you,” that’s on you.

Every quiz, assignment, exam, etc. this semester can be accessed via Canvas and turned in via Canvas.

A/B Class Format

Fall fall 2020, the maximum number of students we can have in class is equal to half of normal room capacity. For our class, students will be assigned to one of two groups, A or B. Group A students can attend in person on Tuesdays but cannot attend on Thursdays. Group B students can attend in person on Thursdays but cannot attend on Tuesdays. All students can always attend via Zoom in real time on days when they are not in the class room. For the purposes of COVID tracking, all students will be required to sit in the seat assigned to them.

Required Reading
The required text for this course is:

Macionis, John J. and Vincent Parillo. 2017. Cities and Urban Life, 7th Edition. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-386980-4.

There will be additional required readings such as articles, news stories, websites, etc. available on this class website. I will surely add another reading here and there to the calendar. Do not print everything out on day one and then fail to check back later.

You are expected to read a daily newspaper. Current events are fair game for exams.

Grading

Ten in-class, synchronous Canvas quizzes at 5 points each: 50 points.
Contributions to discussion forums: 50 points.
Cultural appropriation paper: 30 points.
Walk score assignment: 30 points.
Photo essay: 30 points.
Midterm essay: 30 points.
Final essay: 30 points.

Course grading follows the conventional brackets: 90’s are A’s, 80’s are B’s, etc. So for instance, to get an A, you need at least 90 percent of 250, or 225 points.

Course Objectives
By the end of the semester, you will be stronger in a number of areas.
With respect to written communication skills, you will be a veteran of essay exams.
With respect to multicultural knowledge, your understanding of the ways the urban condition shapes race and ethnicity will be much improved.
With respect to critical thinking skills, you will have practiced evaluating the assumptions of divergent theories and explanations of urban phenomena.
With respect to theoretical knowledge, your repertoire will be much expanded by the addition of theories of city growth, urban deviance, and so forth.
With respect to applications of sociology, you will no doubt feel excited by the practical implications of urban planning and new theoretical approaches to the study of cities.

Extra Credit
There is no extra credit. There are 250 points of regular credit – earn those. Do not ask for extra credit.

Attendance and Make Ups

Fall 2020: Attendance will be recorded carefully all semester, for purposes on COVID safety and, if necessary, contact tracing. If you cannot attend on your Group A/B day, you can attend virtually via Zoom. Neither physical nor virtual attendance will be a graded component of class in fall 2020.

Assignments will be turned in via Canvas. Late assignments will lose half their points immediately after the due date and time, and the rest of their points 24 hours after the due date and time. Those deductions are made automatically when assignments are turned in via Canvas. Bizarrely, MANY students like to wait until nanoseconds before the deadline to turn in assignments, and then get all surprised and hurt when they encounter a technical difficulty that causes their papers to be counted late. Note that Canvas considers 3:00.00001 p.m. to be AFTER 3:00 p.m. and will act accordingly. Maybe don’t wait until the last minute.

Any request to make up a missed assignment must be accompanied by a relevant doctor’s note or family funeral notice and must be submitted within one week of returning to class.

Students with Disabilities

Per the Office of Disability Services: “If you are a student with a disability who will require an accommodation(s) to participate in this course, please contact me as soon as possible. You will be asked to provide documentation from the Office of Disability Services. Failure to contact me in a timely manner may delay your accommodations.”

Electronic Devices
Departmental statement: “The Department of Sociology reserves the right to limit or deny the use of any and all electronic devices in the classroom.” You may be dismissed from class for messing with your phone during class time. Leaving the room to use your phone counts as messing with your phone. Students using laptops in class must sit in the front half of the occupied rows. Do not secretly video the lectures and post them on YouTube. I will impose add rules as necessary.

Fall 2020:  Zoom meetings, any recordings I post, and all such like audio and/or video materials are for our class, not for sharing on the world wide web or with others outside of our class. My lectures and lessons and notes are my intellectual property. Do not distribute my property to other people. I may record some or all class Zoom meetings, in which case you would be recorded if you’re in class or Zooming in from elsewhere.

Texas State University Academic Integrity Policy

Academic dishonesty of any kind will result in the student receiving an F grade for the course.

(Here follows my edited version of language generated by committee for use in the Dept. of Sociology.) As members of the university community, students are expected to be aware of and abide by university policies regarding academic honesty. By the same token, members of the faculty within the university community are expected to enforce those policies. Members of the Department of Sociology operate on the assumption that each student has thoroughly reviewed the university policies regarding academic honesty and that the policies will be followed. Accordingly, members of the Department of Sociology will enforce all policies related to academic honesty.

Academic dishonesty includes the following: cheating, plagiarism, collusion and/or abuse of resource materials. Each term or phrase is defined in some detail in the official links below. Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to:

  • downloading or buying a research paper
  • cutting and pasting information from several sources to create a paper
  • leaving out quotation marks around quoted material, placing quotation marks around some but not all copied information
  • leaving out quotation marks around copied information but adding a citation implying that the information is the student’s summary of the source
  • leaving out quotation marks for more than three consecutive words taken directly from a source
  • providing a reference/bibliograghy page but leaving out the reference citation in the body of the paper
  • faking a citation
  • unintentionally using words or ideas or quotes without citing them in the body of the paper and on the reference/bibliograghy page (http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm)

Ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism or having plagiarized in the past without having been penalized does not excuse such acts in the Department of Sociology. Any student charged with plagiarism may appeal in writing in accordance with Texas State University policy. University policy statements relevant to academic integrity are available via these links:

Texas State Code of Conduct

Honor Code

Academic Honesty, UPPS No. 07.10.01