CMSC 417 Other Information and Policies

Disability accomodations: Any student eligible for and requesting reasonable academic accommodations due to a disability is requested to provide, to the instructor in office hours, a letter of accommodation from the Office of Disability Support Services (DSS) within the first TWO weeks of the semester.

Excused Absences: The university also now allows for self-documentation for some absences. As per university guidelines, the following rules apply. Any student who needs to be excused for an absence from a single lecture, recitation, or lab due to a medically necessitated absence shall:

Make a reasonable attempt to inform the instructor of his/her illness prior to the class
Upon returning to the class, present the instructor with a self-signed note attesting to the date of their illness. Each note must contain an acknowledgment by the student that the information provided is true and correct. Providing false information to University officials is prohibited under Part 9(i) of the Code of Student Conduct (V- 1.00(B) University of Maryland Code of Student Conduct) and may result in disciplinary action.

The self-documentation may not be used for the Major Scheduled Grading Events as defined below and it may only be used for only 1 class meeting (or more, if you choose) during the semester. Any student who needs to be excused for a prolonged absence (2 or more consecutive class meetings), or for a Major Scheduled Grading Event, must provide written documentation of the illness from the Health Center or from an outside health care provider. This documentation must verify dates of treatment and indicate the timeframe that the student was unable to meet academic responsibilities. In addition, it must contain the name and phone number of the medical service provider to be used if verification is needed. No diagnostic information will ever be requested.

Religous Observance: The following dates are recognized by the campus for religious observance. During these times we will not administer exams or require submission of graded material: Rosh Hashanah September 25-26; Yom Kippur Octtober 4. We accommodate students of other faiths on an individual basis. If you wish to indicate some specific holiday dates we want to consider, you can provide me the information by the end of the first week of classes (September 5).

Course Evaluations: Course evaluations are important and the department and faculty take student feedback seriously. Students can go to the www.courseevalum.umd.edu to complete their evaluations.

Policy and Academic Honesty: An academic integrity action will be filed with the Judicial Programs Office for inproper actions of students: plagiarism, cheating, copying, distributing code, etc. Posting project solutions in a public online location is a violation of our academic integrity policy. Suggestions:

Turn assignments in on time. Unless previously negotiated, you will receive no credit for work that is not turned in on the day and time it is due. The only exception is for excused absences as defined by the university (Section V-1.00(G) of the Consolidated USMH&UMCP Policies and Procedures Manual).
Do not miss exams. Unless previously negotiated, you will receive zero credit for missed exams. Once again, the only exception is for excused absences as defined by the university.
The punt box rule: on any problem you turn in (homework or exam), if you clearly mark a rectangular box with an “X”, if there is such a box, we will not grade the problem and you will receive 10th the points for that problem. All punt points are added, and rounded up. This is to stop you from guessing and making our life more difficult while grading. If there is no punt box, the rule does not apply.
Please read and understand the UMCP code on academic integrity (Section III- 1.00(A) of the Consolidated USMH&UMCP Policies and Procedures Manual: http://www.inform.umd.edu/PRES/policies/iii100a.html). Do not violate it. It is not worth your time (or mine) to be here if you do.

In general, we do not mind your working together on projects. In fact, we encourage it. (Do not work together on in-class exams. If you have trouble with homework questions, post to the newsgroup and ask for hints.) Unless otherwise instructed, homeworks/programs you turn in must be your own, i.e., written completely by you. An example for clarification: Suppose Alice and Bob are working on a programming project/homework. It is fine for Alice and Bob to discuss their proposed solutions, work on a whiteboard together, and even ask questions on the newsgroup. Once they figure something out, they can also answer specific questions on the newsgroup. However, they should not post complete solutions (or code snippets), unless specified by the instructor or the TAs. After discussing their solutions, Alice and Bob go off and write up their work/code up their project. This level of cooperation is allowed and encouraged. However, if Alice or Bob had simply copied code or text from each other, their effort would be deemed dishonest. They should not use “old versions” of the other’s code, or steal throwaway code from a temporary directory or a dustbin, or “look at the other’s screens” while typing in their solution. When you are writing/coding something you will turn in, you should be working by yourself. Even mundane pieces of code that you turn in, and was not provided to you by us, should be written entirely by you. When all is said and done, you are the final authority on whether you did something wrong or not, and we are certain you will know as well as any professor when you do something wrong. Please try not to put yourself in those situations where you have to ask yourself whether something you’re about to do is corrector not. If there is any debate about the authenticity of your work, we will have no recourse but to recommend a hearing before the honor board. We sincerely hope this is the last we have to say on this subject for this semester.

Information Privacy: Protecting student privacy is both the right thing to do and a legal requirement. Scores and grades from assignments will not be posted on office doors, nor on web sites. We will use the grades.cs.umd.edu system to provide secure electronic scores to students.

Web Accessibility