N E W M E X I C O S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

N E W M E X I C O S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES

Department of Health Science

RECOMMENDED SYLLABI COMPONENTS

Syllabi should discuss themes and objectives for the course; assignments; required books or equipment; labs, quizzes, or exams; the course grading scale and policy; office hours; and the required class meeting during finals week. From time to time, the central administration or our office have made additional recommendations regarding syllabi. I am therefore circulating this memo.

1. General Education. The administration has developed formal criteria for General Education course syllabi, and we have sent a copy in the past to each department. Please ask your head for a copy and incorporate these elements into General Education syllabi. Syllabi for General Education courses should state which General Education requirements the course meets.

2. Prerequisites, co-requisites, and placement exams. If courses require students to meet prerequisites or co-requisites, or to earn an appropriate score on placement exams, syllabi should discuss these policies. Some faculty list prerequisites, warning students that they are expected to have passed prerequisite courses and are likely to fail if they have not passed them.

3. Multiple sections at different levels. Some courses are cross-listed under a series of higher numbers, i.e. 350, 450, and 550. The course meets at a specific time and place, but students may enroll at various course levels. If a course has two or more listed numbers, college policy requires that students who enroll in the higher numbered listings have greater assignments, and/or higher expectations and grading standards. Syllabi should mention the difference in assignments and expectations at each level.

4. Independent study courses. Faculty should give written guidelines to any students who

undertake independent study projects that discuss assignments, deadlines, and the formats

in which students should submit their work.

5. Attendance policies. Faculty are free to decide whether or not attendance is required, and whether there are penalties for absences. One exception is that students who are passing a course and who are absent on documented university business have an automatic right to excused absences and to submit make up work. We strongly recommend that syllabi inform students whether or not attendance under other circumstances is required, what types of absences (if any) are excused, whether there are specific penalties for absences or excess absences, and whether students may make up missing work in these circumstances. If courses have rules regarding students who come to class late or leave early, syllabi should discuss these rules.

6. Withdrawals. Some instructors automatically drop students for persistent absences or persistent failure to complete assignments. Other instructors leave responsibility for withdrawals entirely to students. We very strongly recommend that syllabi discuss course policies on withdrawals and drops. This will help alleviate student confusion. Health and Social Services students do not need to obtain instructor or heads’ signatures when they drop classes within deadlines. No withdrawals from individual courses are allowed after the mid-point of the semester (October 15, 2004 and March 9, 2005). Mini-courses may have different deadlines, and these should be noted in syllabi for such mini-courses.

7. Academic and non-academic misconduct. Many syllabi discuss academic misconduct, citing examples or referring students to the Student Code of Conduct in the NMSU Student Handbook. Its Web site is: http://www.nmsu.edu/~vpss/03-04handbook.pdf. Some syllabi simply say that cheating in all forms is prohibited. Syllabi may cite specific penalties or a range of potential penalties for various forms of academic misconduct. Many syllabi lay out ground rules for classroom behavior, and note punishment for misbehavior in class settings. We recommend that syllabi inform students that they must turn off cell phones and beepers while in class.

One department encourages faculty to state that all parties involved in the submission of plagiarized or copied work are equally guilty of academic misconduct under all circumstances.

8. Graded work. The College believes that each syllabus should at a minimum include

weekly topics and assignments. Many faculty list such topics and assignments for each

class meeting. Syllabi should clearly discuss all graded work, and have a clear grading

scale for the course. We recommended that syllabi discuss the number of hours

of homework or study that students should carry out each week.

Here is a shortened version of a statement included in syllabi by a faculty member:

“The student earns grades. Grades are not given to the student by the professor.....

The student earns her or his grade incrementally each week throughout the entire

fifteen weeks of the semester. Grades typically are not dramatically improved during

the final two weeks of the semester.”

9. Multiple submissions. Most instructors do not approve students resubmitting work done for other courses. We recommend that faculty discuss their policies on this issue in their syllabi.

10. Make-up work and exams. We recommend that syllabi discuss any make-up policies. Instructors should note whether students may make up exams or other work during the semester. Students who are passing a course and absent on university business have an automatic right to make up missing work. No make-up work, papers or labs may be submitted after course grades are sent to the College unless students are awarded Incomplete grades.

11. Extra credit. If instructors plan to allow extra credit work during the semester, explicit policies should be discussed in syllabi. All students in a course should have an equal opportunity to submit extra credit work if extra credit is allowed in that course. The College of Health And Social Services policy is that no extra credit work may be submitted after the end of a semester.

12. S/U standards. The minimum standard for an S grade in any undergraduate courses taught by the College of Health And Social Services is a C-, but instructors are free to set higher standards. If they do, syllabi should note these higher standards.

13. ADA. The university recommends that syllabi encourage students who feel they may be disabled to visit the Office for Services for Students with Disabilities, receive professional diagnoses, and self-identify their status to their instructor. It recommends that we include these paragraphs:

“Students with Disabilities. If you have or believe you have a disability and would benefit from any accommodations, you may wish to self-identify by contacting the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office located at Garcia Annex (phone: 646-6840). If you have already registered, please make sure that your instructor receives a copy of the accommodation memorandum from SSD within the first two weeks of classes. It is your responsibility to inform either your instructor or SSD representative in a timely manner if services/accommodations provided are not meeting your needs.

If you have a condition which may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or which may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss any concerns with the instructor and/or Mr. Michael Armendariz, SSD Coordinator. Feel free to call Ms. Angela Velasco (Interim EEO/ADA and Employee Relations Director) at 646-3333 with any questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical information will be treated confidentially.

Instructors will receive specific written guidelines for appropriate accommodations for individual students from the SSD office. No student should be given accommodations for disabilities unless SSD has requested these specific accommodations for her/him.

14. Grades at Midterm. Students should be given an indication of their standing in a course by the return of graded materials or other means prior to October 15, 2004, or March 9, 2005, the last dates to drop an individual course. This will help enable students to make decisions regarding drops. Faculty may post lists of students earning D or F grades prior to this date. They are not required to post any lists, but if students ask about their graded status, faculty should tell them where they stand. If grade lists are posted at any time, whether for D/F students or all students, faculty should use only the last four digits of Social Security number, and they cannot cite full Social Security numbers or individual names.