Mesa Community College

Mesa Community College

Political Science 115

Issues in American Politics

Fall 2007 Syllabus, Section 5012

Class: 1:30 - 2:45 T-R, SC 14N

Instructor: Brian Dille

Office: SC 74

Office Phone: 461-7065

Email: bdille@mail.mc.maricopa.edu

Office Hours: 9:30 - 10:30 daily or by appointment

Course Description

In this course we will study several issues that our nation is currently debating. The objective of this course is to teach you how to carry on an intelligent and informed conversation with others about political issues. This involves knowing where to find information, knowing how to assess it, and then being able to clearly communicate your thoughts so you can maximize your impact on the outcome of these debates. This class will be different from most classes you will take in college. There will be no final exam or midterm, and while I will lecture on political issues occasionally, class will be taught for the most part by you. In this class you will have an opportunity to communicate your ideas and opinions, and you will learn how to do this effectively so as to be able to affect the way your community operates.

Required Texts

A grasp of current events and their context is essential to understanding public policy decisions. Daily reading of respectable newspapers is therefore required. You will be required to subscribe to one of the local papers during this class. In addition, you should be reading a national paper to get a broader picture of what is happening, such as the The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, or the Washington Post. We will also be using the internet quite a bit to find information, so make sure you have an MCC account and access to the web. Please see me if this is going to be difficult for you.

Course Requirements

Attendance

As the focus of the course is on active participation, regular attendance is crucial to the quality of the class for both yourself and your classmates. More than five unexcused absences may result in your being dropped from the course and receiving a W. If you stop attending the course after taking the 1^st exam and do not contact me before the course ends, or are failing when you do contact me, you will be given a grade of Y, which is drop failing.

Current Events Quizzes

Because we will be relating theoretical concepts to real-world events, it is critical that you be informed of the issues and events occurring during the course. To encourage this, five current event quizzes worth ten points each will be given. These quizzes will cover current national political events and should be easily passed by the attentive, informed student. Additionally, you will take a concept quiz every two weeks to help me determine what concepts need to be reviewed in class. Each quiz will be worth 5 points.

Issue Quizzes

There will not be a midterm or final in this course, as the focus is not on rote memorization of facts. However, I still expect you to pay attention to the lectures and class discussions. To encourage this, there will be four issue quizzes, which will cover the basic details of the issues covered in the previous days, along with important points brought up in the presentations. These quizzes will not be difficult for those who are in class and awake when the issues are being discussed. Each quiz is worth twenty-five points.

Class Presentation

Three times in the course you will be required to present that day’s topic to the class, either alone or as part of a group. Students are free to adopt whatever format they wish, so long as it achieves the objective of adequately covering the breadth of the material that day. In their presentations, students should answer the questions “WHAT is the topic, HOW does it apply to me, and WHY would anyone care about it?” This is your chance to explore a topic in some depth, and tell a captive audience all about it. One hundred points will be for each presentation, with emphasis being placed on the amount of preparation made as evidenced by the quality of the presentation.

Opinion Essay

Three times in the course you will be required to write an opinion essay on one of the topics. The essay is to be two pages, double-spaced and should have three parts. First, tell in one paragraph what the issue is, and what aspect of the issue you want to focus on. Second, tell what some people (who you disagree with) think about the subject, and why (what their reasoning is). Third, tell what you think about the subject and why (your reasoning), and why your position is correct. You can draw on many different kinds of criteria for why you are correct (evidence, logic, personal observation), but you will need to do more than make arguments composed of assertions without any foundation (ie: because I said so). It is acceptable to conclude with ambivalence (I can see both sides), but only if you have truly addressed both sides in your essay. The essay is due on the second day that topic is discussed in class. Each essay is worth 100 points.

Participation

You will find that many issues cannot be fully understood simply by reading about them or listening to my lecture on it (however brilliant my lectures will be!) Also, it does little good to learn about these issues if you do not in some way translate that knowledge into action. Consequently, three times in the course you will be required to contact the world outside this classroom about that week’s issue. This outside participation can be almost anything you want, from attending a city council meeting, to writing a representative, to interviewing an issue advocate or people affected by the issue, and volunteering as a non-profit group that deals with the issue. I will suggest other possible ways to participate specific to each topic we discuss as part of my lectures. You need to clear your activity with me before you do it.

Remember that if you are interviewing, you must not engage in any subterfuge, participants should know from the beginning that they are being interviewed and that you will report what they say to your class. Be careful to respect their rights to privacy and don't endanger yourself or them. If you are interviewing them about past criminal behavior, you must not engage in criminal behavior yourself, and you must not record their name or in any other way be able to follow up the conversation in the future. If you can't do this, for example they are a friend or acquaintance, you should not interview them about potentially criminal behavior. To do so would put them and you at legal risk. Finally, you should conduct all interviews in a public space where you can be observed by others. If you follow these guidelines you will be able to conduct interviews in a way that does not place yourself or your subjects at risk.

After you do whatever activity you have chosen, you will write a one-page response essay, telling me what you did and what you learned from it. You will need to include with your essay the business card or a name and number of the person or people you contacted. The essay is due the first day of the next topic, and is worth 100 points.

Getting it all done: Late assignments and make-ups

You will be expected to fulfill at least one of the issue assignments every week. The exact order and issue is up to you. Thus over the course of the semester you will do three opinion essays, three presentations, and three outside participation activities, or nine assignments. There will be a few topics where you will not have to do an assignment. You should space these over the semester rather than do nothing the first month of class. The deadlines set for course assignments are very real. Assignments turned in late will automatically be dropped one full letter grade for every class held between the time they are due and the time they are turned in. For example, an assignment due Tuesday would be dropped one grade if turned in on Thursday, two grades on the following Tuesday, and three grades on that Thursday. Only a medical emergency accompanied by a doctors note will exempt you from this penalty, and then only for the duration of the emergency. Missed pop quizzes, due to their nature, cannot be made up.

Disability Accommodation

If you have a disability, including a learning disability, contact me as soon as possible and I will make any needed accommodations.

Life’s Ambiguity and Keeping the Lawyers Happy

Information included in the syllabus may be subject to change with reasonable advance notice as deemed appropriate by the instructor. As a student, you are responsible for knowing the information in this syllabus. You are also responsible for the college policies included in the college catalog and the student handbook. Please note the policy on plagiarism listed on page 124 of the MCC student handbook. If you have a disability, including a learning disability, contact me as soon as possible and I will make any needed accommodations. If you need tutoring or special assistance, please contact me as soon as possible.

Point Summaries

Current Events Quizzes (5 @ 10 pts) 50 pts

Issue Quizzes (4 @ 25 pts) 100 pts

Class Presentations (3 @ 100 pts) 300 pts

Opinion Essays (3 @ 100 pts) 300 pts

Outside Activities (3 @ 100 pts) 300 pts

Total 1050 pts