Dr. Brett S. Sharp, Assistant Professor, has been a practicing public administrator in state and local government for over fourteen years. He received his Ph.D. and Master of Public Administration from the University of Oklahoma and a B.S. in Political Science/Public Affairs with a minor in Religious Studies from Oklahoma State University. He is currently the Associate Director of the Oklahoma Policy Research Center at UCO. Dr. Sharp is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the Society for Human Resource Management. He is a past president of the Oklahoma Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration. The Oklahoma Political Science Association recently named him as the Oklahoma Political Science Teacher of the Year.

Attendance has its privileges. Class attendance is an important part of succeeding in this class and is expected of all students. Class time provides an opportunity for you to ask questions, clarify issues, and deepen your understanding of the concepts covered in the text. If you are absent, you are responsible for getting any notes, assignments, and schedule changes made on that day. If you come in late, you are responsible for seeing that the attendance record is correct.

The University of Central Oklahoma complies with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Students with disabilities who need special accommodations should make their requests by contacting the coordinator of Disability Support Services, Ms. Kimberly Fields, at 974-2459. Their office is located in the Administration Building, Room 309. Students should also notify the instructor of special accommodations needs by the end of the first week of class.

Up to five (5) percentage points of the overall total may be earned by attending select events related to the public policy issues or analysis. Typically, one point will be offered for each event.

To encourage faithful and current reading of the texts, quizzes may be administered occasionally during class time. Quizzes may be in short essay or multiple choice format. The first quiz is scheduled for Wednesday, September 1. If more than this first quiz is given, your lowest quiz grade will be dropped and the others will be averaged together. No makeups on quizzes will be offered.

Graduate students will make a class presentation focusing on Robert McNamara and his role in developing modern methods of public policy analysis. Creativity, imagination, and humor are very welcome. Although the intent is for this project to be fun and demonstrate creativity, a substantive and thorough review of both McNamara’s contributions and his failings is expected. Students should feel free to incorporate outside sources . This presentation should be between 30-60 minutes. The presentation will be given on Wednesday, December 1. Students may use audiovisual materials in the presentation. A VCR/TV/DVD and overhead projector will be available for your use. A 1-3 page handout should be distributed to classmates. Your final product will serve as a point of discussion for the rest of the class. The project will be graded on the following criteria: demonstrated teamwork (obvious collaboration, transitions, fun); content (coverage of materials presented in class and in the text, quality of content, preparation); analysis; organization (good introduction, understandability, conclusion); creativity (uniqueness of ideas, interest, humor); and format (grammar, length, presentation, class discussion).

There will be two exams during the semester. Both exams will be comprised of essay, short answer, and/or multiple choice questions. The final exam will be comprehensive. Make up examinations will not be offered except for documented emergencies. Even then, an alternate form of the examination will likely be substituted.

In case of school cancellation due to weather or other reasons during the scheduled time for the final exam, university policy will be followed in the assigning of grades, which in the past has included the professor’s best judgment to what the student has earned up until that point. Therefore, your best interest is to not depend upon the final exam to make up for previously poor grades.

Each student will write a 20-25 page double-spaced policy analysis paper over an issue facing the state of Oklahoma as a whole or one of its communities. Of course this paper can be linked to a broader public policy issue facing the rest of the nation, but the direct link to Oklahoma must be clear and substantive. You must cite enough references to make your paper convincing. Superior papers will demonstrate a significant measure of original research and should be of sufficient quality to submit to a regional, peer-reviewed political science or policy journal (such as Oklahoma Politics or Oklahoma Policy Studies Review).

Students must follow the American Political Science Association Author Date System (see discussion and examples in Scott & Garrison’s The Political Science Student Writer’s Manual). Selection of a policy area for research must be made by Wednesday, October 27 and subsequently must receive instructor’s approval. The first draft of the research paper (including title page, outline, first three pages, and preliminary list of references) is due on Wednesday, November 17.

The final draft of the research paper is due by 5:00 PM, Wednesday, December 8. Papers will be graded on topic selection, presentation/format, grammar, style, research documentation, research quality, methodology, content delivery, and analysis. Please refer to the discussion of plagiarism in the Academic Integrity Statement attached to the syllabus as well as the section on Ethical Use of Source Material on pages 145-148 in The Political Science Student Writer’s Manual.

Based upon the Oklahoma Regents’ Statement on Course Workload and Homework [OSRHE II-2-34], a college student should expect to spend 3 hours, on average, on outside work for each hour spent in class. The message the Oklahoma Regents are trying to communicate is that if you have a full time job (30-40 hours) you should not simultaneously expect to maintain a full-time academic schedule (15 hours). If you expect to do well, expect to put in the time!

Cheating = Failure (please refer to attached Political Science Department’s Academic Integrity Statement and the University’s Student Information Sheet and Syllabus Attachment). 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. A student may discuss exercises and case briefs with others before preparing his or her own answers, but the answers must be each student’s own work product. Consulting with the instructor about any assignment does not constitute cheating and is encouraged.

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!

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.