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Objectives
Academic integrity
Attendance
Due dates/late assignments
Internet access
Contacting me
Students with disabilities
Learning outcomes
- A sociological perspective on the historical context of social welfare in the United States.
- Familiarity with the various types of social welfare programs and policies.
- A better grasp of some important political issues surrounding social welfare and reform.
- A robust understanding of relationships between inequality, social stratification and poverty.
- An understanding of the connections between welfare assistance and low-wage work.
- A greater sensitivity to portrayal of welfare-related issues in mass media.
Social welfare can be generally defined as social intervention designed to enhance or maintain human welfare. That’s pretty broad, and could include things like police and fire services (in fact multinational energy companies might say they’re in the welfare business with that sort of eligibility requirement). Most of the time we limit this to interventions designed to improve the lives or situations of the distressed and the disadvantaged. You can probably think of various populations that would meet these requirements—people and families falling below the poverty line, victims of natural disasters, refugees seeking asylum from political persecution, migrant farm workers, disabled persons, the elderly, parolees from corrections, the unemployed, people without housing, children who’ve been removed from their homes, AIDS patients, victims of sexual assault, etc. For each of these groups of people, there may be public, private or non-profit resources, agencies or programs available to help meet their needs. Social welfare is also a politically charged arena, especially in the U.S. where many believe that individuals are responsible for their own circumstances in life, and government shouldn’t be in the business of ‘providing handouts.’ A more structural argument contends that many people are in fact the victims—whether intended or unintended—of unresponsive, distorted or underfunded government policies that reflect the power of wealth, elite groups and corporations with greater political influence over decision makers, who are often far removed from the harsh realities of people living below the poverty line. Consider: government budgets are generally growing faster than people’s incomes. Conservatives use this as a rallying cry for limiting increases in the size of government; liberals will ask ‘do you think it’s a coincidence?’
Academic
integrity
The
university's official position: Eastern Oregon University places
a high value upon the integrity of its student scholars. Any student
found guilty of academic misconduct (including, but not limited
to, cheating, plagiarism, or theft of an examination or supplies)
may be subject to having his or her grade reduced in the course
in question, being placed on probation or suspended from the university,
or being expelled from the university--or a combination of these.
(see section II of the 2002-03 Student Handbook, p. 32ff, and
p. 41 ff).
My
interpretation: Plagiarism is taking credit for work, ideas, papers,
that are not yours. Universities make lots of literature available
for a nominal fee, the bargain being that if you use the ideas
of others, you'll credit them. So it isn't just wholesale theft,
but as the above says, deception, misrepresentation, etc. Be sure
you're familiar with what plagiarism is, and how to avoid it.
The Penn State University Library has a good Web page on citing
your sources. I recommend you look at it before you turn in
papers in this class or others. If you're caught plagiarizing,
you'll receive an 'F' on the assignment and possibly for the course.
Doing your own work turns out to be more rewarding in the long
term . . .
Attendance
You
are not required to attend class. However, you're rewarded for attending. I'll give a point per day--not enough to ruin your grade if you don't attend, but definitely easy points if you do. I don't much like 'taking roll,' but chronic
absence in general isn't fair to those
who make the effort to show up for class prepared. If you miss
any class, it is your responsibility to find out what has been
covered, get notes from other students, and find out whether there
were any announcements-don't depend on the announcements page to be up-to-the-minute, or lecture material online to
be comprehensive. While for parts of the course there will be
online lecture material, that material won't reflect the actual
discussions we had in class. You might look at it as the difference
between watching a movie, and reading a review of it.
If you know
you will be missing class, especially if it might happen on a
scheduled exam day, let me know in advance. However, don't
send me an email and assume I've read it if I didn't reply.
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Due dates
and late assignments
Assignments
are expected in class on the day they're due. Late assignments
will be assessed a penalty (one letter grade for each day, increasing
with lateness). You can turn in assignments
electronically by attaching them to e-mail and sending
them to me. No .wps file extensions, though. I can open .doc, .docx, or .rtf. You can also paste the document into the body of the email to be on the safe side. I will send back a confirmation e-mail that I
received and was able to open the attached document. Please don't
blame anything I never receive on technology--as Italians say,
chi non a la testa, a le gambe (essentially, forgetful
people get lots more exercise). If you have extenuating circumstances
for being late, I'm always willing to listen. But in fairness to others who've managed to get
them in on time, it needs to be good . . .
Posted
due dates are pretty firm. They may change over the course of
the semester, but they'll be the same for everyone. Turning in
an assignment late will lead to a deduction. If you notify me
on the due date that it will be late, and get it in the next day,
the deduction is one letter grade (the total number of points
you can get is 10% less than the total possible). Later notifications
or assignments turned in will be dealt with on a case-by-case
basis. Printer/server/computer problems are your responsibility--the
university is full of computers and printers, you can carry around
a file on a floppy--I'm not very sympathetic to computer excuses,
or last-minute excuses of any kind for that matter. If you're
having trouble for whatever reason, you need to plan for it and
let me know in advance. Meaning try to avoid waiting until the last possible minute.
As
for exams, if you're going to have a problem making the exam date
you need to let me know in advance so we can make arrangements. If I don't hear from you prior
to the exam, we'll have to talk about prospects for making it up.
Internet
access
You
will need access to the Internet for this course. And Blackboard, for some of the reading assignments. The course Web
page contains a great deal of information on the course itself,
course-related topics, and more general topics. Things happen,
and assignments and due dates may be subject to change, so check
the announcements page regularly. If Internet access is a problem,
you need to let me know at the beginning of the course (there
are multiple computer labs on campus (see
a list), and not having a computer or Internet access from
home won't be a valid excuse. I put this stuff up so that it's
available to you anytime you're on a computer, not just during
office hours, class time, or the regular school day.
Contacting
me
My
office number is 962-2591 (just push 23591 if you're on campus).
You have my email address (bgrigsby@eou.edu).
I have three office hours during the week:
Tu (2:00-3:30);
Wed (1:30-2:50)
or
by appointment. I usually use time prior to class to prepare
material, so drop by if you have something quick to say,
but this is not a good time to pop in for a chat.
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Students
with disabilities
Any student requiring assistance or accommodation from me in performing course-related work should make his/her needs known to me in a timely manner. If you have a documented disability or suspect that you have a learning problem, you are entitled to reasonable and appropriate accommodations. But you must work with the Disabilities Services Office (Pat Arnson, Director, parnson@eou.edu , or Lynn Tilley, ltilley@eou.edu ). The office is located in Loso Hall 234 (phone 962-3235).
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