Department Bylaws

Policies and Procedures for Departmental Operation	Policies and Procedures for Student Activities	Responsibilities of Directors
Administrative Drop Policy	Capstone Project Style Guide (Graduate Students)	Assistant Director of Forensics
Advising Policy for Speech Communication Majors/Minors	Colloquium Presentation Waiver Policy	Director of Basic Course/Communication Lab
Assigning Summer Teaching by Non-Faculty	Department Policy on Plagiarism	Director of Forensics
Course Scheduling Policy	Funding for Student Participation in Conferences	Director of Graduate Studies
Nepotism Policy	Grade Appeal Policy	Director of Teaching Assistants
Personnel: Retention, Tenure and Promotion	Internships
Special Topics Proposals by Fixed-Term Faculty	Policy on Class Attendance
Standards for Graduate Faculty Review	Policy on Individual Study
	Policy on Pass/No Credit
	Qualifying Examinations

This policy applies to all performance-based courses. Individual faculty determine when a course is performance-based. This policy must be stated on the course syllabus.

Absences of up to 10% will not affect a student's final letter grade.
Absences from 10-15% will result in lowering the final course grade by one letter grade.
Absences of 15% or higher will result in a final course grade of F regardless of earned grade in the course.
Absences due to documented family or medical emergencies, or for university-sponsored activities (e.g., athletics, forensics, etc.) will be considered excused absences. Absences for university-sponsored activities must be provided in advance to the instructor. The instructor may request all work be completed prior to the absence.
Students with family emergencies should contact Student Affairs for appropriate notification to faculty.

Department Policy on Plagiarism

Students must present original work and must always document material drawn from other sources. Students are expected to research and prepare their own work when submitting written assignments, outlines, or presenting speeches. Plagiarism is the use of directly quoted material or paraphrased material without citing the source of the material. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Any incident of plagiarism will be reported to the Department Chair, may result in a failing grade for the assignment, and may result in a failing grade for the course.

The Department highly encourages faculty to provide students with the following Department statement on plagiarism:

When a student delivers a speech or turns in a paper, the student is claiming the speech or paper is an original and independent work, expressing ideas in one's own language, except where otherwise indicated by quotation marks and references. A student using the words or ideas of someone else in a paper or speech is expected to provide appropriate references. A student who fails to give credit in the form of footnotes or references is falsely representing someone else's words or ideas as their own. False representation is plagiarism.

The most common forms of plagiarism include: copying word-for-word from a source without acknowledging the source by quotation marks and an appropriate reference for written work, and by an oral citation for presentations; paraphrasing someone else's ideas in your own words without acknowledging the source by an appropriate reference; turning in as your own work a paper or portion of a paper conceived jointly with other students but not giving credit for others' contributions. Students may not use work developed in other classes without first gaining the explicit consent from all instructors.

Plagiarism consists of more than just copying someone else's words; representing someone else's ideas as your own is also plagiarism. This policy also prohibits turning in the same and/or highly similar paper, project, or assignment for more than one class unless prior approval of all instructors involved has been obtained.

Plagiarism is avoided by acknowledging the source by quotation marks if a word-for word citation, and an appropriate references in all occasions.

The Department of Speech Communication does not tolerate plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is one of the most serious infractions a student may commit in a Speech Communication class.

Course instructors have the responsibility of judging whether a student has committed an act of plagiarism and what punitive action may be taken for the course. Instructors are encouraged to ask the student for an explanation of how the paper or speech was prepared and to provide such materials as sources and notes which form the basis for the paper or speech. Students are expected to comply with these requests. Instructors are not required to act as "detectives" to produce publication(s) to demonstrate an act of plagiarism.

An instructor believing an act of plagiarism has been committed will bring the issue before the Speech Communication Department faculty and may recommend one or more of the following actions:

The instructor may refuse to grade the paper/speech and record a grade of "F" for the assignment.
The instructor may recommend to the department the student be dropped from the course with a grade of "F"
The instructor may recommend to the department chair the student be dropped from the course with a grade of "F" and request formal disciplinary action be taken against the student, including possible dismal from the university.

Advising Policy for Speech Communication Majors/Minor

Each major is to register with the department secretary in AH 230.

The department secretary will assign an advisor to each student and begin an individual file.
The student should meet with his/her advisor each semester. At the initial meeting, the advisor and student will work out a major/minor program. At subsequent meetings, the student and advisor will confer on class schedules for the coming semester.

Internships

General Guidelines:

Speech 497/697 are the course numbers assigned to in-house internships.
Speech 498/698 are the course numbers assigned to off-campus internships.

Internship Pre-Requirements:

Interns must have a minimum 2.5 GPA in Speech Communication.
Before a student starts an internship, the student must have completed Speech 102 and a minimum of 9 semester hours in Speech Communication. The student must also have completed a minimum of 60 semester hours toward graduation.
Undergraduate student interns assisting an instructor with a class must have completed and earned a grade in a minimum of two regular courses in Speech Communication.
The Department's Internship Contract form shall be used to establish the parameters of the internship.

Internship Credits:

All internships in 497/697 courses are for three (3) credits only.
Credit for internships in 498/698 courses accrue at the rate of 1 credit for each 30 hours of work.
A Speech Communication major may take up to twelve (12) internship credits; however, the student may only apply a maximum of six (6) credits of internship toward completion of the major. The remaining credits will apply toward general graduation requirements.
A Speech Communication minor may take up to twelve (12) internship credits, however, may only apply a maximum of three (3) credits of internship toward completion of the minor. The remaining credits will apply toward general graduation requirements.

Evaluation and Grading:

All off-campus internships are P/N only.
The intern will submit weekly reports to the faculty overseeing the internship. The form and style of the reports are determined by the intern supervisor.
The intern will write a paper demonstrating synthesis between communication theories and the work completed during the internship.
For internships under 497/697 course numbers, the intern supervisor shall determine the final grade.
For internships under the 498/698 course numbers, at the conclusion of the internship, the on-site internship supervisor will submit an evaluation to the faculty supervisor describing the intern's work performance.

Policy on Pass/No Credit

A Speech Communication major or minor may have 25 percent maximum total credits as P/N within the department.

Policy on Individual Study

A Speech Communication major may take three (3) semester hours maximum in the Department of Speech Communication for individual study.
A Speech Communication minor may take three (3) semester hours maximum in the Department of Speech Communication for individual study.
A graduate student may take a maximum of twelve (12) semester hours in the Department of Speech Communication for individual study (a description of the contract needs approval by the student's committee).

Qualifying Examinations (Graduate Program)

A. Description of the Qualifying Examination:

All graduate students must pass the Preliminary Exam.
Students must pass the Preliminary Exam before they can defend their thesis, alternate plan paper, or project.
The Preliminary Exam is offered twice a year: once during fall semester and once during spring semester on dates to be determined each fall by the Preliminary exam committee. Check with the Director of Graduate Studies or the Chair of the Preliminary Exam Committee for specific details about distribution of questions for the exam and the date the exam will be given each semester.
Students may take the exam during any semester of their program. Students are strongly encouraged to take the exam during their first year of the program.
A student’s Plan of Study must be filed with the Department before taking the Preliminary Exam.
A three-member committee of the graduate faculty administers the exam, giving identical questions to all students taking the exam in a given semester.
The exam will be given in-house over the course of six (6) hours on one day.
The committee evaluates the exam by blind review.
Students receive a Pass, Rewrite Required, or Do Not Pass on each question. Students must earn a “Pass” on the entire Preliminary Exam before they may defend a thesis, alternate plan paper, or project.

Pass on both questions indicates the student has completed the Preliminary Examination and may progress toward completing their degree program.
Rewrite Required on either/both question(s) indicates a portion of the exam is evaluated as insufficient. The student has the option of rewriting following these guidelines.
Students will have the option of rewriting that portion of the exam judged insufficient.
Students will have one week to complete the rewrite.
The rewrite period starts immediately after the student meets with the Preliminary Exam Committee.
A student will only have one opportunity to rewrite a question. If a rewrite on a question is deemed insufficient the student will receive a Do Not Pass on the question.
A student who chooses not to rewrite a question will receive a Do Not Pass on the question.
Do Not Pass on either question indicates a majority of the exam was evaluated as insufficient.

10. Students who do not pass on a Rewrite Required or receive a Do Not Pass may only take it one more time during a subsequent semester.

Assigning Summer Teaching by Non-Faculty

the chair sends out a "call" to all current Teaching Assistants (TAs) requesting interest in summer teaching.
All interested TAs must submit a letter of interest, current teaching evaluations, and a vita. The letter of interest should indicate any advanced education to teach the available courses (e.g., Advanced Interpersonal Communication, Advanced Public Speaking, Teaching Speech Communication).
The applicants are reviewed by the Director of Teaching Assistants. The Director of TAs sets a baseline to: (1) remove from consideration any TA who may be struggling as a classroom teacher; (2) determine TAs able to teach a summer stand-alone course. The Director of TAs is free to consult with any other faculty member in the department. The review does not establish a hierarchy of TAs to determine who is the "best" teacher, just a baseline for who shall be considered.
Any forensic TAs still in consideration after the review in step 2 is completed are given first opportunity for summer teaching.
If no forensic TAs are still in the pool (or more summer teaching slots are available than forensic TAs), the Department selects from non-forensic TAs.
If there are more TAs than positions (in either steps 4 or 5), we use a random selection process (e.g., flip a coin, draw straws).
If there are more positions than TAs interested in summer teaching, the Department may select from the current adjunct faculty pool.

Personnel: Retention, Promotion, Tenure

The language in sections I-VIII is drawn verbatim from appropriate sections of the 2001-2003 IFO—MNSCU collective bargaining agreement. Only language appropriate to the administration of the Department is included. Individual faculty members are encouraged to review the entire collective bargaining agreement for a complete description of personnel issues and processes. Sections IX-XI are Department guidelines and suggestions and are not included in the collective bargaining agreement. Any changes in future collective bargaining agreements take precedence over the provisions set forth below.

I. Establishing a Personnel Committee:
The department may establish appropriate committees as needed. The department may make recommendations, forwarded through the department chair, on its own behalf concerning such matters as personnel actions. Individual faculty members within departments may also make recommendations on these same matters. All departmental recommendations must be reviewed and approved by the department's faculty, and forwarded to the administration by the chair with a statement verifying that the requirement has been met.

II. Voting Eligibility:<