STUDENT HANDBOOK 2007-2008

Special Problems (aka Independent Study)

1. BACKGROUND

Each PPA student is required to take three elective courses in addition to completing the core curriculum. Such elective courses are to focus on a particular substantive or skill area (e.g., education policy, conflict resolution), and are chosen in consultation with the student's advisor. At least one elective must be a PPA course.

Recently many students have chosen to petition for independent study credit to fulfill one or more elective requirements. In some circumstances such an approach is appropriate, especially when course offerings in the area of the student's interest are very limited. However, in many other situations students' education is better served by avoiding the independent study approach and enrolling in traditional courses that offer structured meetings and interaction among classmates. There is a need to clarify what distinguishes these two sets of circumstances.

2. POLICY

We begin with the presumption that students normally will enroll in three traditional elective courses. Students wishing to petition for independent study credit in lieu of taking a regular course must justify the conclusion that their educational needs are better served by undertaking an independent study. As appropriate, students must provide supportive evidence (e.g., evidence that existing courses do not cover adequately the subject area in question). All petitions for independent study credit must be signed by both the proposed faculty advisor and the department chair; if the chair is the faculty advisor an additional faculty member must sign the petition. While the major product for an independent study may be a final paper due at the end of the semester, independent study plans must include means of periodically evaluating the students' progress (e.g., through assessing shorter papers and/or exams).

3. EXAMPLES OF APPROPRIATE AND INAPPROPRIATE USES OF INDEPENDENT STUDY CREDIT

Appropriate uses of independent study credit include but are not limited to the following:

• Learning about an area of study relative to public policy and administration (e.g., public policy with respect to government regulation of industry) for which there currently are not courses offered at CSUS; and
• Prior to beginning a thesis, developing a familiarity with a broad area of literature (e.g., the literature on negotiation) to determine what controversies or questions might be addressed by a culminating thesis or project.

Inappropriate uses of independent study credit include but are not limited to the following:

• Substituting independent study for a course that is regularly offered at CSUS but only by a faculty member with whom the student is unfamiliar;
• Substituting independent study for a course that is offered during the regular school year but not in the summer;
• Allowing credit for developing a literature review chapter for a thesis that's already well in progress, with a well defined topic that has already been approved by the thesis committee; and
• Taking an independent study in place of a course the student previously had taken but earned a grade lower than a "B-."
4. QUESTIONS

Students should consult the department chair with questions about the appropriateness of an independent study project for elective credit.

See Special Problems Petition (Appendix F)