Charles T. Schmidt, Jr.
Labor Research Center
As graduate students and professionals you are generally expected to treat your classmates with respect. Here is a set of more specific expectations established by the SLRC faculty. These are expectations that apply to all courses in our programs. Professors may set additional expectations for their courses. Please consult your course syllabi for these course-specific expectations.
Continuous Enrollment
As a graduate student, you are expected to remain continuously enrolled until you have completed all requirements and have received your degree or you will be considered to have voluntarily withdrawn from graduate status. This does not include summer session (only fall and spring semester). If you are unable to take a course during a semester, you can file for a leave of absence. This will maintain your continuous enrollment and the semester will not be counted toward your 5 year time limit.This policy can be found in the Graduate Student Manual
Class Attendance
One of the important aspects of a graduate professional education is that students often bring important information and insights to class discussions. All class members are expected to contribute to the knowledge base of the class. Additionally, not all information is presented in class textbooks and written notes. Also, in many courses, participation in class discussion is an important part of your grade. Therefore, missing an entire class can have a negative effect on your grade.
For these reasons, class attendance is very important. Most classes consist of about 14 meetings, so missing a class often puts you considerably behind the rest of the class. Sometimes, you can catch up, however, it is unreasonable to expect the professor to be able to fill you in during a class break.
We know that your jobs and families are important, and there are often situations when you cannot avoid missing a class. If you know before the semester that you will have to miss more than two classes, you should consider postponing taking the class. In any case, it is always wise and a good practice to inform the professor in advance of expected class absences.
Academic Integrity
We expect students to have high academic integrity and to promote high standards of professional behavior in this program. Your reputation is your most important asset and you should not engage in any behavior that has the potential to ruin your good name. Once destroyed, a good reputation is very difficult to restore. Specifically, plagiarism, sharing work with other students on individual assignments (i.e., giving or receiving), failure to give credit to appropriate knowledge sources, and other forms of dishonesty will not be tolerated. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the Regulations for Student Conduct regarding Academic Integrity.
Communication
The interweb and mobile phones has made communication much quicker and easier. Many professors either encourage or even require submission of written class assignments through email attachments or WebCt. Here a a few guidelines to consider when using these electronic forms of communication.
- When sending or uploading your work as an attachment, be careful how you name your documents. Remember, professors often get many attachments on the same day, so avoid names like Assignment_1.doc or LRS 555_Paper. Include your name and assignment in the name of the document. Some professors require a very specific naming protocol, so check the syllabus.
- Include your name on all written work even when your name is in the document title. When papers and assignments are printed, readers need to know whose paper they are reading.
- It is a good practice to add your professor's email address to your safe senders list. In many cases, professors send email to all class members and there is some type of attachment. Emails with multiple recipients and attachments are often flagged as "junk mail" by email programs.
- Include your name in the body of an email. Don't expect the recipient to always be able to identify you by your email address.
- As a professional, you are or will be judged by your work. Consider this when composing emails and submitting written work. Practice professional writing in everything you submit.
Research
One of the objectives of our program is to develop your research skills. While you will gain valuable knowledge about labor and employment practices, these practices will change over your career. Laws, theories, and best practices change and you will need the skills to change with them. This involves research. There is a growing movement towards what has been termed Evidence-Based Management. Proponents of this approach to decision making advocate selected various strategies based on research evidence and not simply because other organizations use a strategy or technique (see the October 2007 issue of The Academy of Management Journal for a symposium on EBM). The interweb is an extremely valuable resource, but not all web pages contain accurate information, or information with some degree of validation. Academic and practitioner journals are another important research tool. In many cases, you will be able to download full-text versions of articles from these journals. However, please do not expect that you will be able to complete all assignments from the comfort of your home. You will be expected to locate and utilize a complete range of resources, many of which are only available only in a library.