ONLINE COURSE. May Sociology 241OC Sociology of Crime: Structural Perspectives

Transcription

1 ONLINE COURSE May 2015 Sociology 241OC Sociology of Crime: Structural Perspectives This is an online course, OC, offered using mylearningspace.wlu.ca which is sometimes referred to as myls or D2L (Desire2Learn). The course and course outline were designed and prepared for the dept. by Dr. Michael Manley. Students should consult the webpage for the Centre for Online Learning (COL) for information about being an online student: Structural perspectives, including functionalism and social conflict with respect to capitalism, imperialism and patriarchy, are used to examine criminalization through the making of law, law enforcement, and the administration of justice. The course is designed to promote your understanding of crime by providing you with the intellectual tools that are needed to analyze the social interactions of crime. We need to recognize that different theoretical perspectives can be used in the study of crime and society and this course will familiarize you with the functional, class, neo-colonial, and gender approaches. The course does not have a textbook. The course does not have a course package of readings. Readings are listed below and are available on the myls for this course. The course is organized into twelve parts. You should read every word of this course outline very carefully. It is the responsibility of each student to be available as needed and to have an internet connection as needed to meet the requirements of this course. Good luck to you all! Dr. J. Klaehn jklaehn@wlu.ca

2 PROGRAM GOALS The sociology department has identified 13 Undergraduate Degree Learning Objectives which can be found at: The following 9 points are slightly reworded from the original as prepared by the department and are designed to suit the needs of this course. This course is designed to contribute to each of these goals: 1. Develop a detailed understanding of a major subfield of sociology; in this case, the sociology of crime. 2. Demonstrate an understanding of how culture, socialization, social situations, and social structure affect personal behaviour, ideas, choices and social opportunities. 3. Demonstrate awareness of social justice issues and the processes by which social inequality is generated, sustained, and potentially overcome. 4. Demonstrate an understanding of the major theoretical perspectives and debates in the discipline; in this case social constructionism, the structural conflict perspective, the neo-colonial perspective, and the feminist conflict perspective. 5. Access, interpret, and evaluate qualitative research. 6. Utilize library resources to identify and access relevant primary and secondary sources useful in answering research questions. 7. Identify, distinguish and critically evaluate scholarly arguments, the assumptions behind them, and their constituent theoretical and empirical components. 8. Produce and express coherent and persuasive written arguments (using relevant literature), with attention to academic integrity and a respect for diverse perspectives and disparate ideas. 9. Engage in critical social inquiry into contemporary social issues, as well as be able to apply resulting knowledge to everyday life. COURSE DESCRIPTION The purpose of the course is to teach you to think sociologically about crime. The course is based on pdf files of articles from academic journals so that you experience the production of the sociology of crime from an academic point of view. In so doing, to recommend a social constructionist approach to crime, one uncontaminated by passing correctional fads and fancies. More particularly, to provide exemplifications of how to use the sociological perspectives of the structural conflict perspective (SCP), the neo-colonial perspective (NCP), and the feminist conflict perspective (FCP). Finally, to show how sociology can teach valuable insights into crime and how the study of crime can provide an interesting vehicle for learning about sociology. We shall be using these approaches FN, SCP, NCP, FCP to focus on five central issues in the study of crime: 1. How crime is made by the creation of law (claims-making activities); 2. How crime is made by the public (recognizing and reporting crime); 3. How crime is made by the enforcement of law (the police); 4. How crime is made by the administration of justice (the courts); 5. How crime is made by the application of punishment (corrections).

3 COMMUNICATION POLICY My policy is to respond to s within 2-3 business days. Messages of a general interest to the class should be posted to the Discussions. Messages of a personal concern should be sent to me as an . If, for some reason, you are having trouble accessing the myls site for this course, you should contact the online centre: Do not use the myls to send s to me; myls has a d2l in the address. Send an directly to me at jklaehn@wlu.ca using your regular WLU or some other reliable system. GRADES Posting #1 3% Monday May 4 to Sunday May 10, inclusive Posting #2 3% Monday May 11 to Sunday May 17, inclusive Posting #3 3% Monday May 18 to Sunday May 24, inclusive Posting #4 3% Monday May 25 to Sunday May 31, inclusive Posting #5 3% Monday June 1 to Sunday June 7, inclusive Posting #6 3% Monday June 8 to Sunday June 14, inclusive (only best 5 postings count, you may skip one) Assignment #1 10% Monday June 1, by 11:59PM Late assignments will be penalized 2 point out of 10 per day (to a maximum of 10); this is non-negotiable Assignment #2 15% Monday June 8, by 11:59PM Late assignments will be penalized 2 point out of 10 per day (to a maximum of 15); this is non-negotiable Midterm 20% parts 1-4: Date and Time TBA Final Exam 40% parts 5-12: Date and Time TBA Students are advised that SY241 is a course in structural theory and there will be no marks given for work on interpretive theory which is covered in SY242. Students are advised that this is a course about crime. In particular, it is not a social problems course, it is not a deviance course, and it is not a mass media course. We must have crime and criminalization in all answers, references, and the assignments; and we must not have social problems or deviance or mass media studies. Students are expected to download all relevant course material to their own computers early in the course. Any failure of myls or the library s webpage to function properly will not be a basis for a deferred midterm or final exam, and will not be the basis for an extension for an assignment or a posting. The process for a deferred midterm is at: Mobile devices are absolutely prohibited during the midterm and the final exams. You must not possess, touch, access, observe, or interact with any electronic device.

4 COURSE REQUIREMENTS It is the student's responsibility to be available to take midterm and final examinations at the scheduled times. The midterm and the final exams are not done online. They are written at a specific location. Students can find the date and location of online midterms at this webpage: The midterm exam will deal with the material covered in the first four lessons of the course. The midterm will be 1.5 hours long. You will answer three questions out of four. The questions require essay answers emphasizing the importance of the structural perspectives and their concepts. You are required to make specific references to the theories and theorists covered in the readings and the lessons. The midterm will have a list of readings for parts 1-4 of the course. The final examination will be scheduled at the end of the course in the official examination period, at a location to be announced. It will deal with the material covered in the last eight lessons of the course. The exam will be 2.5 hours long. You will answer five questions out of six. The questions require essay answers emphasizing the importance of the structural perspectives and their concepts. You are required to make specific references to the theories and theorists covered in the readings and the course notes. The final exam will test on the readings for parts 5-12 of the course. I will not answer or comment about the midterm and the final exam questions. Students are not permitted to work with each other in order to prepare answers. In my experience the best students are not inclined to share their work because they give up more than they get. Students are advised that since there is a substantial amount of material being covered in the course, answers for the exams are expected to be of sufficient length to do justice to the material. Short meagre answers are unlikely to do well. Students are advised that they should consult the Department s Essay Writing Guidelines: Students are advised that they should consult the Writing Centre s webpage for handouts about writing: You should read the very good discussion of plagiarism at: In the postings and the assignments you are not permitted to quote or paraphrase any words from the articles or any source that you are using. It is your task to summarize what you have read in your own words and to cite the page numbers of a reference when you use an idea from a reference. To understand these distinctions, read this:

5 COURSE NOTES Under content you will find course notes for each of the twelve parts of the course. The course notes serve several purposes. They provide a condensed version of the readings which will be a guide as to what I think is important. Presumably you will read the course notes before looking at the readings in order to get a grasp of the material more quickly. The course notes provide commentary at the start of each part and at the conclusion in order to put the material in a larger context. After the notes for each reading there are questions called Critical Thinking to give you something to think about regarding the material; although no marks are related to these questions, they do indicate issues considered very worthy of thought. Also, at the end of the notes for each part of the course, there are some web links you may choose to pursue in order to access additional material regarding the readings but also some to get a wider perspective on how the material relates to social concerns. You need to read the readings with selectivity and purpose. This is true in this course and in many other areas as well. Assuming familiarity with the course notes, you need to read with the purpose of enlightenment and with the purpose of selecting some items worthy of being incorporated into your answers thereby demonstrating a wider grasp of the material than seen in the typical answer.

6 COURSE OUTLINE 1. Sociology and Crime Cohen, Stanley Moral panics and folk concepts. Paedagogica Historica. 35(3): Millie, Andrew Value judgments and criminalization. British Journal of Criminology. 51(2): Functionalism: Society Creates Crime Cloward, Richard Illegitimate means, anomie, and deviant behavior. American Sociological Review. 24(2): Ericson, Richard V Rules in policing: five perspectives. Theoretical Criminology. 11(3): Functionalism: Society Uses Crime Trotter, R. Clayton, Susan Day, and Amy Love Bhopal, India and Union Carbide: the second tragedy. Journal Of Business Ethics. 8(6): Kramer, Ronald C., Raymond Michalowski, and David Kauzlarich The origins and development of the concept and theory of state-corporate crime. Crime and Delinquency. 48(2): Class Conflict Perspective: Capitalism Creates Crime Spitzer, Steven Toward a Marxian theory of deviance. Social Problems. 22(5): Mitrani, Sam Reforming repression: labor, anarchy, and reform in the shaping of the Chicago police department, Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas. 6(2): Criminalizing Property Tillman, Robert Making the rules and breaking the rules: the political origins of corporate corruption in the new economy. Crime, Law and Social Change. 51(1): Friedrichs, David Exorbitant CEO compensation: just reward or grand theft? Crime, Law and Social Change. 51(1): Criminalizing Class Snider, Laureen Poisoned water, environmental regulation and crime: constituting the nonculpable subject in Walkerton, Ontario. Pp in What is Crime? Defining Criminal Conduct in Contemporary Society edited by Law Commission of Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. Tombs, Steve Violence, safety crimes and criminology. British Journal of Criminology. 47(4):

7 COURSE OUTLINE 7. Criminalizing Aboriginals: Imperialism Creates Crime Ward, Tony State crime in the heart of darkness. British Journal of Criminology. 45(4): Aas, Katja Franko Analyzing a world of motion: global flows meet criminology of the other. Theoretical Criminology. 11(2): Criminalizing Race: Neo-colonialism Creates Crime Harris, David A U.S. experiences with racial and ethnic profiling: history, current issues, and the future. Critical Criminology. 14(3): Hallsworth, Simon Racial targeting and social control: looking behind the police. Critical Criminology. 14(3): Chan, Wendy Undocumented migrants and Bill C-11: the criminalization of race. Pp in What is Crime? Defining Criminal Conduct in Contemporary Society edited by Law Commission of Canada. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press. 9. Criminalizing Terrorism Chomsky, Noam Terror and just response. ZNet. Welch, Michael Trampling human rights in the war on terror. Critical Criminology. 12(1): Practicing Punishment Martel, Joane, Renée Brassard, and Mylène Jaccoud When two worlds collide: aboriginal risk management in Canadian corrections. British Journal of Criminology. 51(2): Chan, Wendy Crime, deportation and the regulation of immigrants in Canada. Crime, Law and Social Change. 44(2): Feminist Conflict Perspective: Patriarchy Creates Crime Frazier, Carolyn and Dorothy Roberts Victims and villains in murder by abortion cases from the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Chicago. TriQuarterly. 124: Irving, Toni Decoding black women: police practices and rape prosecutions on the streets of Philadelphia. NWSA Journal. 20(2): Ahmetbeyzade, Cihan Gendering necropolitics: the juridical-political sociality of honor killings in Turkey. Journal of Human Rights. 7(3): Criminalizing Women Surtees, Rebecca Traffickers and trafficking in southern and eastern Europe. European Journal of Criminology. 5(1): Campbell, Kirsten Rape as a crime against humanity : trauma, law and justice in the ICTY. Journal of Human Rights. 2(4):

8 POSTINGS The dates of the postings are listed under The Grades. In each posting you use the theory of an article that is being used as a course reading to analyze the news from a newspaper. Posting #1 is be based on the readings for parts 1 & 2. Posting #2 is be based on the readings for parts 3 & 4. Posting #3 is be based on the readings for parts 5 & 6. Posting #4 is be based on the readings for parts 7 & 8. Posting #5 is be based on the readings for parts 9 & 10. Posting #6 is be based on the readings for parts 11 & 12. You will have 7 days inclusive to do each posting starting on a Monday at 12:01 am and ending on a Sunday at 11:59 pm. Each posting is marked out of 3 and is worth 3% of the final grade. Your best 5 postings count and, thus, you may skip one. The files needed to do all of the postings are available at the start of the course, but you can only provide your posting during the specified time period. When posting #1 takes place, I will open a forum on the Discussions bulletin board and within the forum there will be a topic area for each of the news stories. Your task is to use one of the readings for parts 1 or 2 of the course to analyze one and only one of the news stories. Do not discuss the theory in general. Do not review the news story. Your posting must directly apply the theory to the news so as to help us understand the news. Each student will provide one and only one response. You must provide your response during the specified time period. When the time period is up, no more contributions will be permitted. Your interpretation of the news is to be based on the reading you choose to use. You must state the page numbers of the reading that you have used. You are not permitted to quote or paraphrase any words from the articles or any source that you are using. If you do so, you will lose marks. All of the words must be your words and not words from any other source. When you discuss an idea from an article, in your own words, you need to cite the page of the article that develops the idea. You do not and must not provide your opinion of the news. You must not repeat or refer to what other students have already said. (This means that you will have to read the earlier postings to ensure that you are not being repetitious.) The statement you provide must be your work and only your work and you must not receive help of any sort from any source; any violation of this requirement is academic misconduct. Your statement must consist of 250 to 300 words. If you have too many words, you will lose marks. If you have too few words you will lose marks. If you do not meet the requirements as stated here, you will lose marks. At the end of your posting you must state the word count for your posting. Provide the word count before you list the references you are referring to, which will be the news story and the one course reference you are using. Normally students will get 2.5 marks out of 3 for each posting as long as they provide a legitimate and credible interpretation of the news. Postings that provide a superior interpretation of the news will get 3 out of 3 as a mark. If you have a legitimate a reason for not being available to make a posting (a medical reason or a significant accident or a death in the family), your reason must be relevant to all seven days of the posting and you must notify me immediately of the reason with documentation dated within one day of the deadline. Students are required to keep a printed copy and an electronic copy of each posting.

9 ASSIGNMENT #1 Your assignment will analyze the construction of a social activity that is relevant to some aspect of crime by using structural sociological theory to study the claims-making in a newspaper article. You must consistently talk directly about the police or the courts. You must not talk about social problems, deviance, the mass media, or any other area of sociology. The logic of your argument should demonstrate the principles of social constructionism. The article must not involve the simple presentation of hard news. Rather, it must be an editorial or column or opinion-piece which provides an interpretation of some aspect of crime. Students are encouraged to use the library s news resources at: library.wlu.ca/subject/news or the news component of google at: news.google.com for a suitable source. Your assignment must provide a direct link to the original source of the article which must be dated after July 1, That is, you cannot provide a link to Proquest, LexisNexis, or any other aggregator of the news. The link will not be a link to the library, google, or any other intervening webpage. The link must be directly to the actual original source of the opinion. You may wish to go directly to a major newspaper such as the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, or other reputable newspaper. In your assignment you will provide direct answers to the 20 questions. Do not provide an introduction (since question 1 is the introduction) and do not provide a conclusion (because question 20 is your conclusion). Your answers typically are 50+ words per question totalling at least 1000 words and not more than 1200 words. You will lose marks if you are under or over these limits. If an answer is inordinately short, this is a problem. The choice of news to analyze is important because you need to select a source with sufficient detail to permit good answers to all the questions. Do not make up answers based on speculation. Your analysis must answer the following questions in this order: 1. what problem, issue, or topic about crime is being formulated? 2. what claims are being made about the phenomenon? 3. where is the problem? 4. which people are involved? 5. what about the activities is said to be wrong? 6. what evidence is being presented? 7. who are said to be the victims of the state of affairs? 8. is the problem said to be related to other problems? how? 9. what are the imputed causes of the problem? 10. what are the proposed remedies for the problem? 11. what obstacles make it difficult to treat the problem? 12. on whom are the claims for remedy being made? 13. who are the claims-makers? 14. what values do the claims-makers appeal to? 15. what social positions do the claims-makers hold? 16. what is the relationship of the claims-makers to the problem? 17. who is the audience for the claims-making? 18. what presentational strategies or rhetorical devices are being employed? 19. why are the claims being presented in a newspaper? 20. what do you believe?

10 Your answers to the questions must be numbered Do not repeat the question in your answer. Just answer the question directly. Your answers to these questions should constitute the development of a coherent argument that leads to the conclusions expressed in the answer to question 20. You are not permitted to quote or paraphrase any words from the articles or any source that you are using. If you do so, you will lose marks. All of the words must be your words and not words from any other source. When you discuss an idea from an article, in your own words, you need to cite the page of the article that develops the idea. The assignment is worth 10% of the final grade and is marked out of 10. You must put the word count of the assignment on the cover page; if you do not you will lose 2 marks out of 10. The word count must include absolutely every word. (That means every word including the cover page, the link, your name, your id number, every word without exception.) If your assignment has more than 1200 words, you will lose 2 marks out of 10. If your assignment has less than 1000 words it is unlikely that you have met the requirements of this assignment and your mark will suffer. The first page of the assignment absolutely must be a cover page with: your name, your id number, SY241OC Assignment 1 Intersession 2014, the word count, and the link to the news story you are using. If this page is missing, misplaced, or incomplete you will lose 2 marks out of 10. The assignment must be submitted by you directly to the dropbox for this course. The submission date is definitive. You do not submit a print copy to anybody. You do not it to anybody. The due date is Monday, June 1 by 11:59 pm. For each calendar day, or part thereof, that your assignment is late you will lose 2 marks out of 10 per day. In other words, after five days, the entire value of the assignment would be lost. If there is a legitimate reason for an extension (a medical reason or a significant accident or a death in the family), you must advise me of it at the June 1 deadline with documentation dated within one day of that deadline. The extended end date of the dropbox is only for those who have been granted an extension. The assignment must be submitted with: docx or doc or rtf as the filetype. If you use any other filetype you lose 2 marks out of 10. In particular, if you submit a text file or a pdf file you lose 2 marks. Students are required to keep a printed copy and an electronic copy of their assignment.

11 ASSIGNMENT #2 Select two articles from scholarly refereed sociology journals. The assignment absolutely must have two and only two references. You may use an article from a non-sociology journal only with my permission. An article used as a reference for the assignment must not be an article that is used or referred to in this course. Each article must be available as a pdf file using the library s catalogue or databases. Each article must deal with the sociology of crime using a structural approach of the sort used in this course. You must offer theory directly about the police or the courts and you must discuss the police or the courts consistently throughout the assignment. You must not offer theory about social problems, deviance, the mass media, mental illness, or any other area of sociology. Each article must make an original contribution to sociological theory and must not be a review. Articles must not use quantitative or statistical methods. Your assignment must have exactly three parts and these must be labeled as such. Each part is important. You are expected to: Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: summarize the original contribution to theory presented in the first article; do not review the whole article and do not review any research; be specific about what is original, provide your critique of the theory in the first article in general terms using the theory in the second article as a reference (without discussing the second article in detail); be specific as to what each element of your critique is, and provide theoretical improvements to the theory in the first article by summarizing the theory in the second article; be specific as to what each improvement is. Students will normally find the two articles by going to the library s web page and using one of the database search procedures to find the articles. Each article must deal with the same aspect of crime that is being analyzed. It usually works better if you find both references at the same time. Another tactic is to find an article, not discussed in this course, written by one of the author s referred to in this course. Another tactic is to go to specific journals, such as those listed in the readings, that deal with the sociology of crime and consider what has been published there. Another tactic is to look at the references in the articles on the reading list for this course. If one tactic does not work for you, use another. The two articles must all be academic sociology published in scholarly peer-reviewed journals. Each article must be published during or after 1994; and absolutely not before In order to use an article as a reference, you must be able to download the pdf file of the article directly from the publishing journal. You are not permitted to use articles from aggregators or indirect sources such as Proquest, LexisNexis, or any other aggregator of articles. There will be exactly two references and no more. You must not indirectly refer to a third source by referring to something in the two references you are using. Remember that you are discussing an original contribution to sociological theory. There is no need to refer to predecessors. Simply state what the original contribution is and be specific. You are not permitted to quote or paraphrase any words from the articles or any source that you are using. If you do so, you will lose marks. All of the words must be your words and not words from any other source. When you discuss an idea from an article, in your own words, you need to cite the page of the article that develops the idea.

12 Use an in-line parenthetical format to refer to references in the assignment, such as (Goode 2008, p. 533). As you summarize an article, you need to provide the page numbers for the ideas that you use. Provide references at the end of the assignment using the format found for the readings in this course outline. Do not use footnotes. Do not use endnotes. If your references are incomplete or missing, you will lose marks. The assignment is worth 15% of the final grade and is marked out of 15. You must put the word count of the assignment on the cover page; if you do not you will lose 2 marks out of 15. The assignment must have less than 1500 words. The word count must include absolutely every word. (That means every word including the cover page, the references, your name, your id number, every word without exception.) If your assignment has more than 1500 words, you will lose 2 marks out of 15. If your assignment has less than 1400 words it is unlikely that you have met the requirements of this assignment and your mark will suffer. The first page of the assignment absolutely must be a cover page with: your name, your id number, SY241OC Assignment 2 Spring 2015, and the word count. If this page is missing, misplaced, or incomplete you will lose 2 marks out of 15. The assignment must be submitted by you directly to the dropbox for this course. When you submit your assignment to the dropbox, you must submit three files. The first file you submit will be your assignment as a file with your last name as the file name. The second file you submit will be the first article you are using as a reference. It must be a pdf file. It must have as a filename the last name of the first author followed by the date of publication (such as Burns2003.pdf). The third file you submit will be the second article you are using as a reference. It must be a pdf file. It must have as a filename the last name of the first author followed by the date of publication (such as MacKinem2005.pdf). If you fail to submit a pdf file for a reference, you will lose 3 marks. The pdf files you submit must be from the journal itself accessed through the library s website, and not from any aggregator of articles. The assignment file must be submitted with: docx or doc or rtf as the filetype. If you use any other filetype you lose 3 marks out of 15. In particular, if you submit a text file or a pdf file you lose 3 marks. If an article reference file is not a pdf file or is not properly submitted by you, will lose 3 marks. The submission date is definitive. You do not submit a print copy to anybody. You do not it to anybody. The due date is Monday, June 8, before 11:59 pm. For each calendar date, or part thereof, that your assignment is late you will lose 2 marks out of the 15 that the assignment is worth. An assignment will not be accepted after Monday June 15 at 11:59 pm and will be marked as zero. If there is a legitimate reason for an extension (a medical reason or a significant accident or a death in the family), you must advise me of it at the June 8 deadline with documentation dated within one day of the deadline. The extended end date of the dropbox is only for those who have been granted an extension. Students are required to keep a printed copy and an electronic copy of their assignment.

13 ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH MISCONDUCT copied from: Academic misconduct is an act by a student, or by students working on a team project, which may result in a false evaluation of the student(s), or which represents an attempt to unfairly gain an academic advantage, where the student either knew or ought reasonably to have known that it was misconduct. Whether or not a student intended to commit academic misconduct is not relevant for a finding of academic misconduct. Hurried or careless submission of assignments does not excuse students from responsibility for verifying the academic integrity of their work before submitting it. Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to, the following acts which are presented as examples or a guide since not every possible circumstance can be anticipated: 1. plagiarism, which is the unacknowledged presentation, in whole or in part, of the work of others as one's own, whether in written, oral or other form, in an examination, report, assignment, thesis or dissertation; 2. cheating, which involves the using, giving, receiving, or the attempt to use, give or receive unauthorized information during an examination in oral, written or other form; or, copying an essay, examination or report, or allowing someone else to copy one's essay, examination or report; 3. submitting the same piece of work, or a significant part thereof, for the same course or for more than one course without the permission of the instructors involved in each course; or, submitting an essay or other work which has been submitted elsewhere, previously or at the same time, without the written permission of all academic units or institutions involved in the submissions; 4. impersonating another person in an examination or test; 5. buying or otherwise obtaining term papers or assignments for submission of another person's work as one's own for evaluation; 6. falsifying, misrepresenting or forging an academic record or supporting document. Research Misconduct includes, but is not limited to, the following types of behaviour: 1. the failure to recognize by due acknowledgement the substantive contributions of others, or the use of unpublished work of other researchers without permission, or the use of archival material in violation of the rules of the archival source; 2. the fabrication or falsification of research data material, or making a purported statement of fact or reference to a source which has been concocted; 3. the violation of Senate policies, or material failure to comply with Senate policies, as they apply to research ethics, or to the use of computers, human subjects or animals.

14 NOTICES Student Awareness of the Accessible Learning Centre: Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier s Accessible Learning Centre for information regarding its services and resources. Students are encouraged to review the Calendar for information regarding all services available on campus. Guidelines regarding the consideration of such students can be obtained by contacting the Accessible Learning Centre, ext. 3086: waterloo.mylaurier.ca/accessible/info/home.htm Academic and Research Misconduct: Academic misconduct is an act by a student, or by students working on a team project, which may result in a false evaluation of the students(s), or which represents a deliberate attempt to unfairly gain an academic advantage. Academic misconduct includes: please refer to web site: Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism. Examination Deferrals: The academic date section of the 2014/2015 calendar: (Deferred Examination Policy section) clearly states the examination policy and date period for each semester. Students must note that they are required to reserve this time in their personal calendars for the examinations. Students who are considering registering to write MCAT, LSAT or GMAT or a similar examination, should select a time for those examinations that occurs outside the University examination period. For additional information regarding special circumstances for examination deferment, consult the Examination Policy web site and check the Deferred Examination Policy section: (Special Examinations section) of the 2014/2015 University on-line calendar. The up to date, official Academic Calendar is posted on Wilfrid Laurier University s web site: Go to Academic Info/Academic Calendars/Undergraduate Academic Calendar/