Course Policies

Participation

Extended absence/non-participation (due to illness or injury) should be reported to your instructor (and/or to the Dean of Student Services) immediately. Students who register for a class but fail to commence attendance regularly may be administratively withdrawn following the census for that particular term. If you have an issue, come see the instructor personally as soon as possible. If you are absent more than 30% of the class, consider withdrawing before the "W" deadline date.

Build Rapport, Communicate

If you find that you have any trouble keeping up with assignments or other aspects of the course, make sure you let your instructor know as early as possible. Building rapport and establishing relationships is your first step to becoming an effective professional. Make sure that you are proactive in informing your instructor(s) when difficulties arise during the semester so that we can help you find a solution. Coming to office hours is a great way to make a connection.

Understand When You May Drop This Course

It is the student’s responsibility to understand when they need to consider disenrolling from a course. Refer to the MPC Catalog for dates and deadlines for dropping a course, refund information, understanding how your GPA is affected, receiving an "Incomplete" and more.

I do hope before you drop that you reach out to me and discuss it with me. It is possible that the reason you are considering to drop the course may be something you and I can easily rectify together.

Inform Your Instructor of Any Accommodations Needed

If you have a disability and would like to request accommodations, please contact the instructor during the first week of the semester so that your accommodations may be provided in a timely manner. MPC's Access Resource Center (ARC) provides assistance in determining and facilitating appropriate accommodations for students with verified disabilities. The ARC office is located on the first floor of the Student Services building (STS 115). If you need an accommodation that is not facilitated through ARC I am happy to discuss it with you. I want you to be successful in this course.

Communication Policy

Student: Preferred method of contact is through the Canvas Inbox, that will notify me in my Canvas Inbox and through email that you would like to speak to me. Email is okay as long as you are using your MPC email account, this will allow you to avoid messages to your instructor being sent to the MPC Spam Folder. MPC has a strong Spam filter and landing in a Spam mailbox will delay a response.

Instructor: You can expect a prompt response to your communication, the instructor will respond within 48 hours of received communication on working days (weekends and holidays may cause communication delays). Delay can occur with telephone communication as the line is not checked daily. If you don't hear back from me try send a message on Canvas Inbox to me again, it is possible I didn't receive your first message.

Safety Procedures

In the event of a life threatening emergency call 911.

To report a non-life threatening incident, safety hazard, or a suspicious activity please contact campus security at 831-646-4099.
Sign-up for campus alerts here.
Please visit MPC’s emergency reporting link here.

Students: If you receive an emergency notification, please tell your instructor immediately. During a campus emergency, you will generally be told to do one of two options, SHELTER IN PLACE or EVACUATE. When either of these are given, vehicle traffic coming onto campus will likely be turned away. Students are required to obey the directions of staff in a timely fashion.

If you have knowledge of an emergency on campus, share it immediately. If you see something suspicious or potentially hazardous report it.

Evacuation: Please note the exit(s) in the room. In the event of an alarm or safety threat, uniformed MPC personnel equipped with two-way radios--including security, and maintenance staff--have up-to-date information; they also have the authority to order either shelter-in-place or immediate building evacuation. For evacuation, immediately heed their directions by proceeding calmly and quickly to an exterior assembly area as indicated by trained staff. Please stay back at least 200 feet from any building until the “all clear” command is issued.

Shelter in Place: In the event of a safety threat, instructors and staff will lock classroom doors and direct occupants to stay clear of windows. Occupants are requested to remain quiet. During this time, DO NOT access any exits unless directed by first responders or staff. A shelter in place order is also used for severe environmental threats like a thunderstorm.

In the event of an Active Shooter Event, there are three things you need to know in order to survive: Run, Hide, Fight. Please review the public spaces directives. If you see suspicious behavior on campus, please tell someone at our campus. Additional resources from public spaces:

Emergency Preparedness: The first 72 hours of a disaster are often the most difficult, but this period can be less stressful if everyone has extra supplies on hand. The college has a limited amount of emergency supplies, so students and staff should have on campus their own portable emergency kit including snacks, water, and prescription medication; this is especially important for those who may need to shelter on campus. View this link for guidance

Monterey Peninsula College’s Academic Honesty Policy & Procedures

From the MPC Academic Catalog: Academic honesty is a cornerstone of the educational community; therefore, students are expected to understand the standards of academic honesty as they pertain to students’ behavior in the classroom.

Plagiarism: It is important for students to acknowledge sources that are used for completing classroom assignments. Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism may be any one of the following:

Verbatim copying without proper documentation of the source(s).
Paraphrasing without proper documentation of the source(s).
Unacknowledged appropriation of information or ideas from someone else.

If students have any questions about these forms of plagiarism or about an assignment they are preparing, they should ask their instructor for clarification rather than risk unintentional plagiarism.

Cheating: It is important for students to act in an honest and trustworthy manner. Work performed on examinations or other forms of evaluation must represent an individual’s own work, knowledge and experience of the subject matter. Students are expected to follow the classroom rules established by the instructor. Cheating may be any one of the following:

Unauthorized looking at or procuring information from any unauthorized sources or from another student’s work during an examination or from any work that will be graded or given points.
Unauthorized acquiring, reading or learning of test questions prior to the testing date and time.
Changing any portion of a returned graded test or report and resubmitting it as an original work to be regraded.
Presenting the work of another as one’s own for a grade or points.
Knowingly assisting another student in cheating.

This list is not all-inclusive and the list itself is not meant to limit the definition of cheating to just these items mentioned.

Consequences: The disciplinary action for cheating or plagiarism is up to the discretion of the instructor. The instructor may select one or more of the following options:

Issue an oral or written notification and warn the student that further acts of this sort will result in additional disciplinary action.
Issue an “NP” or a failing grade (“F”) or “0” for the assignment in question.
Refer the student to the Vice President of Student Services for disciplinary action.

I added this to our syllabus because it is our academic policy at MPC. I trust that we will not have to worry about cheating, plagiarism, AI, and academic dishonesty, we are going to have a great semester together.

Instructor Policy on Artificial Intelligence (AI)

In this course I expect you to cite if you used any artificial intelligence like you would cite the words you use from an author's book. Ex. (ChatGPT, 2025).

Meet my AI bot who will read my AI policy to you in a video

What is AI and is it new?

This is new and emerging technology in some ways, and in some ways it is not. Grammarly (a writing aid) is a form of AI that has been around for a long time. Just like Turnitin Simcheck, a tool instructors use to flag plagiarism, has been around for a while. Both of those tools are a form of AI. I never rely myself on Turnitin Simcheck as 100% proof that a student plagiarized. We always have a conversation about it instructor to student. There is an AI tool out there called COMPAS that judges use to sentence criminals. It determines if the criminal will recidivate and therefore instructs the judge to give them a harsher punishment. As you can imagine, much like other forms of AI, the tools mirror our society, the machine uses our statistics to guide us the way it thinks we want to be guided based on our past decisions as a society. The COMPAS tool has been proven to systematically sentence Black criminals harsher than other races. When you use AI you are using the collective thoughts and feelings of those who programmed the algorithm. It may seem harmless, but you must consider the implications of relying on that practice in society. If an AI instructor only uses 1 book and 1 way to teach then the whole world will learn through that 1 lens that 1 person created.

AI Policy in academics

We have not yet established a policy on how to cite using AI in APA citations, in college policy, and as an industry. I feel as though I would be doing you a disservice to say you can't use it, I believe we will all be using it more and more in the future. However, I want you to learn to use it without completely relying on it. I also want you to learn how to use it effectively. Just like in a math course with a calculator you have to know how to input the equation you ask the calculator to solve. Citing the use of AI will allow you to measure how much you are using it, how much you are relying on it, and challenge you to not use it to complete an entire assignment. This will help you sharpen your AI skills and use it in your everyday life once you are in the workplace. At the same time it will allow you to retain a level of individuality. That is what makes humans a valuable commodity.

Who is responsible for the content produced?

There is a level of care that comes with using AI responsibly as a collective society. We are seeing that ChatGPT when asked to write a paper is making up citations and references that don't exist. We are seeing lawyers who are using AI to write legal briefs are getting themselves into trouble with AI citing fake cases to write law that could impact you or I. That is using AI without integrity and using it irresponsibly. We need to understand that in the end, it is the individual who is responsible for what they put their name on. While AI is awesome, it is still AI, it is not critically editing and thinking like a human. The decisions we make in the workplace could impact others and we need to understand that cutting corners comes at a cost in many industries.

I believe students come to college to learn and do their own work.

End of Course Policies

Page updated

Report abuse