Public relations – the practice and your education – requires strict discipline. I expect you to attend each class, for the entire session, just as you would attend a professional job every day. If you choose to not attend class, you are responsible for the material covered that day. The professor will record all classes via Zoom for you to watch.

If you are going to miss class, I must receive notice via email or text BEFORE class begins, or I will consider this an unexcused absence. Each unexcused absence will lower your participation grade.

At your discretion, please alert me to anything related to preferred pronouns, preferred name or nickname, or any extenuating circumstances or trigger warnings (personal, medical, etc.) that might impact your classroom experience. I want to make sure you have the most positive experience in the classroom as possible. If work that gets shown in this class, professional or student-generated, offends you in anyway, please mention it in class or talk to us privately about it so that we can all learn from each other. This is not to say we will ever restrict freedom of speech or water down an aggressive or edgy idea, but we want to discuss anything that someone deems troublesome or offensive.

Boston University’s founders opened its doors to all students without regard to religion, race, or gender. Building and sustaining a vibrant community of scholars, students, and staff remains essential to our mission of contributing to, and preparing students to thrive in, an increasingly interconnected world.

We strive to create environments for learning, working, and living that are enriched by racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. We seek to cultivate an atmosphere of respect for individual differences in life experience, sexual orientation, and religious belief, and we aspire to be free of intellectual parochialism, barriers to access, and ethnocentrism.

Success in a competitive, global milieu depends upon our ongoing commitment to welcome and engage the wisdom, creativity, and aspirations of all peoples. The excellence we seek emerges from the contributions and talents of every member of the Boston University community.

CM522 encourages open discussion and respectful debate, as students are expected to hold a variety of beliefs and attitudes, particularly regarding communication. At times, we may cover topics that you are uncomfortable with, or lectures may include information that cause you to feel uneasy. Such controversial topics will only be discussed if they hold academic merit.

However, discussion and debate will always be respectful and appreciative of others. If this is found to not be the case, or if statements are made that are decisively determined to not be respectful, appropriate action will be taken.

Hate speech will not be tolerated under any circumstances, and any instances of hate speech (either online or in-person) will result in the maximum allowable punishment, up to and including the potential for federal-level investigation and prosecution.

In the business world, if you miss even one deadline, you put your job and career in jeopardy. In our class, we respect deadlines. There is no such thing as late work. It is either done by deadline, or it is not. Assignments that fail to meet the assigned deadline WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED, and you will receive no credit for the given assignment. Assignments are due at the BEGINNING of the class period, unless otherwise specified.

All assignments must be typed, following the format requirements for each assignment and project. It is your responsibility to keep an electronic copy for yourself.

Remember to edit and proofread your writing before submitting it.

I am looking for your ideas and learning in written documents, but I will note grammatical errors, typos or misspellings in your assignments and presentations (but not for your quizzes or exam). With spell/grammar check and other software, there is no excuse for errors of this kind.

It is critical that you check your BU e-mail account regularly as I do send updates and messages to the class.

Each student involved in group work is responsible for all work turned in by the group. If a student knows or has evidence of academic misconduct within a group, the student should address it with his or her group or professor prior to submitting the assignment. Each member of the group will provide an evaluation of every other member’s contribution. The evaluations provided by group members will factor into the overall project grade, per the assignment rubric provided by the professor.

Boston University is committed to fostering a safe, productive learning environment. Title IX and our school policy prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, which regards sexual misconduct – including harassment, domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. We understand that sexual violence can undermine students’ academic success and we encourage students who have experienced some form of sexual misconduct to talk to someone about their experience, so they can get the support they need. Confidential support and academic advocacy resources can be found with the Center for Sexual Assault Response & Prevention (SARP) at http://www.bu.edu/safety/sexual-misconduct/..

BU has strict guidelines on classroom behavior and practices when it comes to treatment of students and guests on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, mental or physical disability, genetic information, military service, national origin, or due to marital, parental, or veteran status. Discrimination for any of these reasons is prohibited. Please refer to the Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Policy for more details.

If you are a student with a disability or believe you might have a disability that requires accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability and Access Services (DAS) at 617-353-3658 to coordinate any reasonable accommodation requests. DAS is located at 25 Buick Street, on the third floor.

All student-athletes should be provided with a sheet from Student-Athlete Support Services regarding absences throughout the semester. These sheets should be handed in as soon as possible to avoid potential conflicts and so arrangements can be made to provide for missed lecture notes, classwork, or discussion.

All BU students are bound by the Academic Conduct Code. Please review to ensure you are acting responsibly and ethically in regard to your academics.

Plagiarism is any attempt to represent the work of another person as one’s own. This includes copying or substantially restating the work of another person or persons on any examination, assigned paper or any other oral or written work without citing the appropriate source, including but not limited to books, journal articles, magazine or newspaper stories, Web site content, published or unpublished papers, reports, advertising or public relations materials, and translating a source directly from another language to English without citation. Plagiarism also includes colluding with someone else in an academic endeavor without acknowledging his or her contribution, using audio or video footage that comes from another source (including work done by another student) without the permission and acknowledgement of that source, citing authorities that do not exist, citing interviews that never took place, lifting material verbatim without using quotation marks and/or citing the source. Plagiarism is the act of representing someone else’s creative and/or academic work as your own, in full or in part. It can be an act of commission, in which one intentionally appropriates the words, pictures or ideas of another; or it can be an act of omission, in which one fails to acknowledge/document/give credit to the source, creator and/or the copyright owner of those words, pictures or ideas. Any fabrication of materials, quotes, or sources, other than that created in a work of fiction, is also plagiarism.