Policies

The department reserves the right to manage waitlists for its courses. This includes, but is not limited to, the right to give priority to declared majors or minors. All waitlist changes are initiated by the instructor and entered by the department manager. All specific waitlist questions should be directed to the relevant instructor. General questions can be directed to Academic Department Manager Sùsanna à'Kinlochaline. 

Students interested in directed independent studies should approach specific professors with their proposals. Once a professor agrees to a proposal, students should obtain a registration card from the department manager, get signed approval from both the instructor and department chair, and turn the enrollment card into the Registrar. Once enrolled, students should work with their professor to compose a syllabus that specifies the requirements for the course. Both the professor and the student should keep a copy of this syllabus for their records.

Following department guidelines, Professors use their own discretion when evaluating directed independent study proposals and are under no obligation to approve them. Only tenure-track and tenured faculty may oversee directed independent studies.

All directed independent studies must be consistent with the mission statement of the department. In particular, all directed independent studies should help students develop the skills that we value as a department - skills like critical thinking, critical reading, analytic writing, and effective speaking – and they should do so through the study of philosophical topics.

The department of philosophy does not offer any internship courses. However, students may propose a directed independent study with an internship component.