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Intructional Resources

Audiovisual Requests
Classroom Supplies
Copying Services
Course and Room Scheduling
Course Rosters
Final and Midterms Examinations
Instructional Assistance
Paper Return Services
Paper Submission Services
Student Enrollment
Student Referral
Turnitin.com


2009-2010 Academic Calendar

Instructional Resources

Audiovisual Requests

Most classrooms are equipped with screens and projectors, as well as dry erase or chalk boards.  Televisions and VCRs are also available in some seminar rooms. Please contact the IR/PS Computing Services if you require audiovisual equipment beyond what is provided in your classroom.

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Classroom Supplies

All classrooms are checked for adequate supply of dry erase markers and erasers on Monday morning.  If you find a classroom without needed supplies, please ask a student to come to the Student Affairs offices.  We will deliver the needed items to you as quickly as possible.

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Copying Services

Kate Savanh, Academic Advisor, will arrange for the reproduction of course materials.  Please allow up to two full business days for your request to be completed.  To place a request, please visit Kate in the Student Affairs Office or send an email to ksavanh@ucsd.edu.

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Course and Room Scheduling

Prior to the start of the academic year, faculty members are asked to submit to Student Affairs their preferences for teaching times.  Instructor preference, facility availability, and conflicts in curriculum are taken into account when preparing the quarterly schedule.  This schedule is announced to the student body during the fifth week of the prior quarter so that students may choose classes during the campus registration period. 

Classrooms are assigned according to the predicted size of the class.  Please contact Student Affairs if your assigned classroom does not accommodate your needs or the number of students enrolled in your course.  You may also contact Student Affairs if you would like to reserve additional classrooms for review sessions, presentations, or exams.

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Course Rosters

Course rosters are distributed to instructors after the quarterly add/drop deadline. Please contact Student Affairs if you would like a provisional course roster for the first two weeks of the quarter. Instructors may also generate their own course rosters at anytime through the "Student/Class Info" menu of the UCSD Blink website.

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Final and Midterms Examinations

While the campus publishes a finals schedule at the beginning of the quarter, this schedule requires faculty to hold unique exams for each course section.  To reduce the burden to faculty, and ensure academic integrity, IR/PS holds one exam time for each course.  To create the IR/PS finals schedule, Student Affairs collects student schedule information on the day after the add/drop deadline.  While Student Affairs does try to accommodate faculty preference for exam dates and times, the most constraining criterion is the campus policy that no one student has more than two finals exams in one day. 

Midterms are scheduled at the discretion of the faculty member.  Please contact Student Affairs if you would like to schedule a classroom in which a) all sections of the course take the exam at one time and in one centralized location, or b) at a time outside of your normally schedule course.  Student Affairs will schedule the facility so that you may include the midterm exam time, date and location on your syllabus.

University policy dictates that the faculty member be present at the final examination.  Under special circumstances, members of Student Affairs can serve as additional exam proctors for midterm or final exams.

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Instructional Assistance

Prior to the start of the academic year, teaching assistants are assigned to classes based on expected enrollment.  In general, IR/PS core courses are offered the instructional support of Ph.D. and/or Master's level teaching assistants.  In addition, classes with enrollment of over fifty students are assigned a grader based on funding availability.  Faculty members should note that graders can be difficult to locate as students who are well qualified in the subject matter are sometimes reluctant to undertake this lower-paid position (versus a full appointment as a teaching assistant).  In some cases, the professor may be asked to assist in the recruitment of graders and/or teaching assistants.

Student Affairs runs the Skills Development Center, which provides academic assistance to IR/PS students throughout the year.  The Skills Development Center is staffed by two Masters level students with extensive backgrounds in journalism and/or English as a second language training.  Students having difficulty writing in the classroom are encouraged to set appointments with the Skill Development Center writing coaches by visiting the center, located in the IR/PS computer lab.  In addition to one-on-one appointments, the writing coaches give presentations regarding research techniques, academic writing, and other academic topics.

In addition to the writing coaches, the Skills Development Center offers group tutoring sessions to students in the lowest quartile of the core courses, including quantitative methods, managerial economics, accounting, and international economics. To identify students who qualify for the free group tutoring sessions, Student Affairs occasionally requests midterm results and/or homework grades from the professor.

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Paper Return Services

If a faculty member prefers to return papers to students at a time outside of the normal class session, he or she can submit the papers into the Student Affairs mailbox, located outside of room 4210 of the Robinson Building Complex.   The mailbox will be cleared at the end of each business day by a Student Affairs intern, who will then return the papers to the individual student mailboxes located in the student lounge.  Faculty should note that the paper trays located in the IR/PS Computer Lab have been cleared due to student and staff complaints of disorganization and messiness.  Please feel free to contact Amanda Randolph if you have any questions or concerns.

Paper Submission Services

If a faculty member prefers to have an assignment due at a time outside of the normal class session, he or she can instruct the students to submit the papers to the Student Affairs mailbox, located outside of room 4210 of the Robinson Building Complex. Papers to be submitted to Student Affairs should be due between 9am and 4pm. It is Student Affairs procedure to collect papers from the mailbox at the appointed time and to time stamp them. After the appointed hour, Student Affairs checks the mailbox occasionally to timestamp each late submission. Unless otherwise instructed, Student Affairs puts the collected papers in the faculty mailbox the following day. If you would like to use this service, please contact Student Affairs; also, please instruct students to include their name, PID, the course title, and the faculty member's name on the first page of the paper.

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Student Enrollment

All non-IR/PS students (GLI, Extension, undergraduates, and graduate students from other departments) wishing to enroll into the Masters-level section of IR/PS courses must visit IR/PS Student Affairs prior to the start of the academic quarter. During an initial appointment, a Student Affairs officer will check the student’s academic history for prior training in the subject area, junior standing or higher, a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better, and that student has taken less than 12 units of IR/PS classes prior to their request to enroll in this class,.    

If approved for enrollment by Student Affairs, a confirmation email will be sent to the student and professor of the course.  If the professor approves enrollment, Student Affairs will remove registration holds from the student’s record and make arrangements for student access to the course electronic website.

All PhD students wishing to enroll into the PhD-level section of IR/PS courses will be automatically authorized to enroll in the course by Student Affairs, unless otherwise instructed by the instructor.

Only after the student has completed these steps should s/he attend the class. Conversely, instructors should not indicate to the student that s/he may join the class until the authorization process has been completed by Student Affairs.

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Student Referral

All students enrolled in IR/PS courses are expected to maintain the high standard of decorum appropriate to a graduate and professional school. If any student does not meet this expectation, faculty members may choose to refer the student to Student Affairs.  Students will be counseled as to how to improve their course performance and behavior.  If the student does not show improvement after receiving counseling, they will be advised to withdraw from the course.

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Turnitin.com

Student Affairs has secured access to Turnitin.com for instructors.  Please contact Art Guaracha at irps-studentaffairs@ucsd.edu if you would like an account to be set up for you and/or your teaching assistants.  Or, if you receive an individual paper that you suspect was plagiarized, you may ask the student to submit the document electronically to Art Guaracha.  He will use the Turnitin.com service and email the results of the individual paper analysis to you.

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