[THIS SYLLABUS IS IMPORTANT—PLEASE READ THOROUGHLY]

LEAD 4893 (25212): Civic Leadership Capstone

Prerequisite(s): LEAD 2213, 3313, and 4213 with a Minimum grade of “C”

and Junior or Senior Standing.

INSTRUCTOR:

Dr. Brett S. Sharp, Associate Professor, is Director of Leadership Studies at UCO. He has considerable professional and administrative experience in both government and business. He received his Ph.D. and Master of Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science/Public Affairs with a minor in Religious Studies from Oklahoma State University. Dr. Sharp has been certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the Society for Human Resource Management. He has won numerous awards for teaching and scholarship.

            Contact Hours: Mon/Wed/Fri 8:15-9:00 AM and Wed 6:30-7:30 PM (and by appointment)

            Office:             Liberal Arts Bldg 102-J (in Political Science suite)               Email: bsharp@ucok.edu

            Telephone:       (405) 974-5526 (with voice mail)                                       Fax:    (405) 974-3823

            Web Site:         http://www.libarts.ucok.edu/political/faculty/sharp               Office: LAR 102-J

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course provides practical experience for students pursuing training in leadership. Venues will vary upon approval of the instructor of the course.

TEACHING METHODS/LEARNING EXPERIENCES:

Students will engage in a project or experience that emphasizes leadership, civic engagement, social capital, or global awareness. Such experience can take the form of a significant volunteer activity, internship or practicum oriented toward leadership or community service, shadowing a leader or leaders, or a travel study oriented toward civic engagement, community service, or global competency. Students will prepare a portfolio of their experience including an accompanying written narrative.

LEADERSHIP PORTFOLIO

This portfolio assignment is an opportunity for students finalizing their coursework and activities toward the leadership minor to reflect on their overall experiences as campus and community leaders. The portfolio may include elements from previous coursework, leadership activities, volunteer experiences, internships, travel adventures, speaker presentations, readings, etc., but should be centered and framed within one significant, culminating leadership experience. The portfolio can be in written, graphic, audio-visual, or multimedia forms (or a combination thereof) and should document a student’s progress as a leader within the context of his or her final selected experience. As part of the overall portfolio, students are required to include a written narrative equivalent to ten (10) pages of double-spaced text.

However, that narrative may be “sprinkled” throughout the portfolio rather than as a single block of text. For example, if your portfolio takes the form of a 30-page scrapbook, photo album, or 30-minute PowerPoint presentation, the embedded text should be roughly equivalent to ten double-spaced pages.

If your portfolio is in the form of a video and little textual information is included within the video itself, it can be accompanied by a separate 10-page written narrative. Although students should use this project to reflect on their leadership activities while at the University of Central Oklahoma (within the framework of a contemporary experience), the portfolio should also address how students expect to capitalize on their past and current leadership activities with an eye toward future leadership opportunities. A major purpose of these portfolios is to provide examples for future students in the Leadership Minor to use as inspirations for their own leadership endeavors. As such, these projects may be returned to the students, kept by the professor, or forwarded to another arena for presentation such as the UCO Leadership Library (as appropriate). Therefore, students may consider making a copy of their portfolio if they would like to retain for their own purposes.

EVALUATION METHODS AND GRADING

            Instructor will determine course grades                 Grading components include: 

            using the following scale:                                         Leadership Portfolio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100%

                            90 -100       =         A                                            Grammar/Style

                            80 - 89        =         B                                             Presentation Quality

                            70 - 79        =         C                                             Substantive Content Delivery

                            60 - 69        =         D                                             Reflective Analysis

                              0 - 59        =         F                                             Research and Documentation

 ACADEMIC HONESTY

Cheating = Failure (please refer to attached Academic Integrity Statement). Cheating is unacceptable conduct and will result in an automatic grade of "F" for the course, and be reported to Academic Affairs. Students are required to do all of the work for this class on their own. Copying answers to exercises or examinations from anyone constitutes cheating. Allowing another student to copy one’s answers will be treated as cheating. Consulting with the instructor about any assignment does not constitute cheating and is encouraged.

Turnitin.com Plagiarism Syllabus Statement: UCO subscribes to the Turnitin.com plagiarism prevention service. Students agree that by taking this course, all required assignments may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted assignments will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com restricted access reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such assignments.

Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com website. Turnitin.com is just one of various plagiarism prevention tools and methods which may be utilized by your faculty instructor during the terms of the semesters. In the UCO Student Handbook, there is a process for contesting any plagiarism allegations against you.

The Political Science Department of the University of Central Oklahoma is asking all students taking political science courses to read the following Academic Integrity Statement. Our purpose in doing so is to ensure that all our students are aware of what is improper academic behavior.

Academic Integrity Statement

As members of the academic community, students are expected to recognize and uphold standards of intellectual and academic integrity. The Political Science Department expects that its students will conduct themselves honestly. This means, above all, that students submit for credit work that is the product of their own efforts. Principles of academic integrity require that all dishonest work be rejected as a basis for academic credit, and that students refrain from any and all forms of dishonorable conduct in the course of their academic work.

The examples and definitions given below are intended to clarify the standards by which academic honesty and integrity is judged. The list is merely illustrative of some of the more common infractions. It is not intended to be exhaustive. Any question a student has about what constitutes inappropriate behavior should be directed towards their instructor. The rule of thumb to follow is: If in doubt, ASK!

Definitions and Examples

Plagiarism - Plagiarism is presenting another person’s work as one’s own. Plagiarism includes not only the exact use of another’s words, word for word, but also the paraphrasing or summarizing of the works of another person without acknowledgment, including the submitting of another student’s work as one’s own. The student is responsible for understanding the legitimate use of sources, the appropriate ways of acknowledging academic, scholarly, or creative indebtedness, and the consequences of violating this responsibility. In case of doubt, give a citation of the author you are using. Failure to indicate the extent and nature of one's reliance on other sources is plagiarism. A plagiarized paper will result in a failing grade on the work in question, and perhaps, for the entire course.

Cheating on Examinations - Cheating on examinations involves giving or receiving unauthorized help before, during, or after an examination. Examples of unauthorized help include the use of notes, texts, or “crib sheets” during an examination (unless receiving instructor approval), or sharing information with another student either during or after an examination.

Falsification - It is a violation of academic honesty to misrepresent material or to fabricate information in an academic exercise or assignment (e.g. false or misleading citation of sources, the falsification of the results of experiments or of computer data).

Multiple Submissions - It is a violation of academic honesty to submit substantial portions of the same work for credit more than once without the explicit consent of the instructor to whom the material is being submitted the second time.