Course Policies
COURSE POLICies
Classroom Civility
The University, through the Dean of Students Office, has established Guidelines for Classroom Civility and Respect. All students are expected to be familiar with and abide by those guidelines.
Accommodation Statement
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services (DS), you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to help you succeed in this course. If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify me within the first two weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate arrangements. For more information, consult the Disability Services website at http://www.umass.edu/disability/.
Course Inclusiveness Statement
The class is named "MAKE," embodying the Maker Movement's motto of "Everyone can make" and promoting the democratization of the manufacturing process. This course embraces and values everyone, regardless of age, background, citizenship, disability, sex, education, ethnicity, family status, gender, gender identity, geographical origin, language, military experience, political views, race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and work experience. Every individual in this course is deserving of respect and dignity. Our primary aim is to support your understanding of the subject matter in a way that is meaningful to you, fostering an enjoyable and empowering learning experience. Please remember that we all enter this class with varying backgrounds. Some may be new to hardware courses, while others bring prior experience. We are all on this learning journey together, and there are no "dumb" questions. This course involves working together on labs and projects, so it's important that we all treat each other with respect and offer assistance to one another as we learn.
Academic Honesty Statement
Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to- cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of a lack of intent.
Programming assignments present specific academic honesty issues. Programming is a creative activity, but also one where collaboration is both possible and desired. Students may work together on programming projects as long as two principles are observed: submitted programs must be the individual’s own work with respect to presentation, and all sources of help other than course staff must be declared. Students may determine the essential ideas of a solution together but should write the actual code separately. Copying and pasting another student’s code is a violation of academic honesty, and course staff will endeavor to detect this by any means including automated similarity analysis of submitted assignments. If in doubt about the ethics of any particular action, look at the university guidelines.
Names and Pronouns
Everyone has the right to be addressed by the name and pronouns that they use for themselves. You can indicate your preferred/chosen first name and pronouns on SPIRE, which appear on class rosters. We am committed to ensuring that we address you with your chosen name and pronouns. Please let me know what name and pronouns we should use for you if they are not on the roster. Please remember: A student’s chosen name and pronouns are to be respected at all times in the classroom.
To learn more read: Intro Handout on Pronouns.
Title IX Statement
UMass is committed to fostering a safe learning environment by responding promptly and effectively to complaints of all kinds of sexual misconduct. If you have been the victim of sexual violence, gender discrimination, or sexual harassment, the university can provide you with a variety of support resources and accommodations.
Please note that Prof. Levine is a Mandatory Reporter in terms of TItle IX. That means that if you tell him about a situation involving sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and retaliation, he must share that information with the Title IX Coordinator. Making a report to the Title IX Coordinator is a legal obligation, meets the University's goal of providing members of our community with supportive resources they might need, and enables the University to obtain a more accurate picture of the extent of sexual violence in our community. It will be completely up to you to determine if and how you want to work with the Title IX Coordinator's office. You will not be in trouble for reporting to Levine that you have experienced any of these situations, and the law prohibits retaliation against anyone who participates in a Title IX process.
If you experience or witness sexual misconduct and wish to report the incident, you can alternatively contact the UMass Amherst Equal Opportunity (EO) Office (413-545-3464, equalopportunity@admin.umass.edu) to request an intake meeting with EO staff. Members of the CICS community can also contact Erika Lynn Dawson Head, director of diversity and inclusive community development (860-770-4770, erikahead@cics.umass.edu).