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Faculty Governance

I.D. Guidelines for Preparing Independent Study Proposals for Credit

1. Guidelines in Terms of CONTENT:

• The student should first discuss his or her proposal with an instructor who is willing to sponsor it. Usually the student is not familiar with the proposed subject of study and so will require careful advising.
• The Proposal will ordinarily require revision and rewriting before it is resubmitted to the faculty member for approval.
• The Proposal should include:
  1. A detailed Statement of Objectives:
     • that is, a list of the intended purposes or outcomes of this course of independent study: what the student will achieve as a result of this work Each objective should be written in the infinitive form:
     • e.g., “To acquire .....”
       “To learn .…”
       “To know .…”
       “To discover....”
       “To develop.....”
       “To create......”
     • In other words, this portion of the Proposal should present the specific reasons to the student wishes to engage in this study in terms of the outcomes to be achieved by the student.
  2. Description of the Study to be Undertaken:
     • that is, a detailed description of the project itself: the actual work to be done by the student and the role of the faculty member who is guiding this independent study. Here should be included whatever is pertinent of the following: the readings to be accomplished, the methods of study, the tasks to be done, the range of the work, the regular meetings with the instructor, the research techniques to be employed, the written and other assignments, In other words this portion of the Proposal should present what is to be studied and how it is to be studied. A Bibliography in standard form should accompany this portion of the Proposal.
  3. Methods of Evaluation:
     • That is, how the quality of the student's work will be evaluated and a final grade assigned. This portion of the Proposal should include specific reference to each in the process of evaluation and to the exact way or ways in which the final grade will be determined. Percentages should be assigned to the various components of the final grade.

No proposal will be considered to be in standard acceptable form unless it has these three sections as described above, under these three headings:

1. Statement of Objectives
2. Description of Study including Bibliography
3. Methods of Evaluation

II. Guidelines in terms of FORM:

1. The Proposal should have as its cover sheet the form distributed by the College of Liberal Arts. Regular typing paper may be used for the Proposal itself.
2. Five copies of the Proposal should be prepared.
3. The Proposal should be typed. Hand-written Proposals cannot be approved.
4. Standard English grammar, spelling, sentence structure, punctuation and usage should characterize each Proposal. Proposals with errors in any of these areas will be returned to the student for correction. Proposals notably deficient in any of these respects cannot be approved.

III. Deadlines:

1. The student should submit the final copies of his/her Proposal, with the completed cover sheet, to his/her Faculty sponsor by the first 2 of the Quarter in which he or she seeks credit.
2. The Faculty sponsor should forward the copies of the Proposal with his or her signature to the relevant academic committee who will review the Proposal and, if it finds it acceptable, forward it to the Assistant Dean of the College of Liberal Arts by the third day of the Quarter.
3. The Associate Dean should approve the Proposal by the fifth day of the Quarter and forward the signed copies to the appropriate offices and persons. If the Associate Dean does not approve the Proposal as presented it should be returned immediately to the academic committee Chairman and the Faculty sponsor.
4. It will be a great help to all concerned if Proposals are prepared and presented well ahead of these deadlines. This will also help to avoid the risk that a Proposal will not be eligible to be registered for credit in the desired Quarter.

IV. Registration of Independent Study Proposals for Credit:

1. Once the approved Proposal has been given to the appropriate person for processing. the student's name will be added to the course automatically. The student should not add the course during the registration period. However, the student should indicate one of the following course numbers in the space provided on the first page of the proposal:
   
   0502-599, Independent Study - Language
   0504-599, Independent Study - Literature
   0505-599, Independent Study - Fine Arts
   0507-599, Independent Study - History
   0508-599, Independent Study - Science
   0509-599, Independent Study - Philosophy
   0510-599, Independent Study - Anthropology
   0511-599, Independent Study - Economics
   0513-599, Independent Study - Political Science
   0514-599, Independent Study - Psychology
   0515-599, Independent Study - Sociology
   
   The following five courses should be used for professional credit only:
   
   0501-599-15, Independent Study - Criminal Justice
   0502-599-15, Independent Study - Professional &Technical Communication
   0511-599-15, Independent Study - Economics
   0516-599-15, Independent Study - Social Work
   0514-799-15, Independent Study - Masters Program in School Psychology
2. Credit for Independent Study may vary from 1quarter credit hour to 10 quarter credit hours. (The amount of independent work required for a student to earn 10 quarter credit hours in this way ought presumably to be double that required in a normal upper division Liberal Arts elective.)
3. In order to engage in an Independent Study project for credit a student must have a G.P.A. of at least 2.7 at the time of application. The student's G.P.A. must be given on the cover sheet and will be checked with the Registrar's Office by the Liberal Arts Dean's Office. This requirement is based on the assumption that worthy Independent Study requires previously demonstrated capacity to handle college level academic work with more than moderate success.
4. If work on the proposed Independent Study is to extend beyond one quarter, the cover sheet should indicate how much credit is to be earned in which quarter or quarters. A grade must be assigned for each quarter in which credit is proposed. If the work is not completed in the quarter for which credit is assigned, a grade of Incomplete can be assigned for that quarter.
5. Institute policy requires that Independent Study projects must be completed no later than the second full quarter following the quarter in which the Independent Study is taken. A grade of F will automatically be given to students whose study is not completed within that time. However, the instructor has the final responsibility for the student's grade and will use his or her judgment in such cases as when illness has delayed the completion of a program of Independent Study.
6. Independent Study is not to be used as a replacement for Liberal Arts Lower Division Courses, or service requirements; it may be used to replace Liberal Arts Upper Division electives.

Created October 26, 1977

Revised May 1, 1978
August 22, 1978
August 25, 1978