Political Science 200 (Video)
American Government and Politics
Syllabus and Course Information
Spring 2004

Scott McMillan
Assistant Professor of English, History, and Political Science
Office Hours: MW 11:30-5:300/R 5:30-6:00/F 11:30-1:00
800.563.8220/931.823.7065/Ext. 238
931.403.3220 (VSCC-LIV Fax)
931.761.3585 (Home)
scott.mcmillan@volstate.edu

Political Science 200 is a general survey of the history, structure, characteristics, and applications of both American government and politics from the development of the Constitution in the 1780s through events of the present day.

The goals of this course are to familiarize you with the major theories, developments, and issues involved in the continuing evolution of American public life and to teach you how to analytically approach the scientific study of American government and politics.

Three videos—Voices in Democracy: United States Government—must be checked out from the College-at-Home staff at the Livingston Center (see Brent Carter or Barbara Baert). Gallatin students can check out videos from the College-at-Home office on the second floor of the Thigpen Library. If you have any technical problems with your videos, please contact the College-at-Home staff in Livingston at 800.563.8220 or in Gallatin at 888.335.8722, ext. 3409.

Three tests will be given during the semester with all three tests counting equally. Each test will consist of three sections:

Test dates are listed in the course guide. It is your responsibility to take each of the three scheduled tests, so please plan your schedule to come to the Livingston Center on test days. Gallatin students have the option of either taking the tests at the Livingston Center or at the College-at-Home office in the Thigpen Library on scheduled test days.

If major extenuating circumstances prevent you from taking a test at the scheduled time, then you may request a makeup, which may or may not be given at my discretion. If approved, makeup tests will be scheduled at the convenience of the College-at-Home staff. All makeup tests must be completed by the Friday following the official test date.

Each student will also complete three homework assignments during the semester. These assignments will count 33 points each and the total points received on these assignments will equal a test grade.

Each student also has the option of writing a short research paper (4-6 pages) on an approved topic in American gov’t/politics for "extra credit." Contact me for details about this project if you are interested.

Tests and papers will be graded according to the following scale: A=90-100,

B=80-89, C=70-79, D=60-69, and F=59 and below.

All writing for this class must be your own work! Obviously, this means not using materials (books, articles, web sites) written by someone else and presenting them as your own work. It also refers to simply restating material without originality of thought and development. Any such activity constitutes PLAGIARISM, which will result in an automatic F for the course and the filing of a report with the Office of the Vice-President of Academic Affairs.

Video classes require initiative and self-discipline, because a video class is essentially a self-study in a particular academic discipline. This means it is extremely important for you to set aside enough time (at least an hour a day for this class) to read and study. To be successful in this class be sure to:

        1) watch the lessons on the videos
        2) carefully read the assigned chapters in the textbook and study guide
        3) take good notes over both the video and the readings
        4) as you take notes, be sure you know and understand the meaning of terms, the details/background of events,
            ideas, ..., and why these things are significant in American gov’t/politics
        5) answer questions in your study guide for each chapter using your notes

Check your VSCC student email frequently for messages from me regarding the class, especially before tests! I frequently offer bonus points on tests through email-only questions, so it is definitely in your best interests to check your email.

It is the student’s responsibility to identify himself/herself with the Office of Disability Services in order to receive accommodations. Disability Services is located in C-206-B in Gallatin and in Livingston in the Office of Student Services. Only those students with official documentation from the Office of Disability Services will receive services.

Volunteer State Community College is an Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Educational Institution. No person shall be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefit of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity of the College because of race, national origin, age, or handicap.

"Government is a plain, simple, intelligent thing, founded in nature and reason, quite comprehensible by common sense. . ."

--John Adams

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed;. . ."

--Thomas Jefferson

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

--Abraham Lincoln

"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine destiny."

--Robert F. Kennedy

"I believe that America today stands between hope and history—at the edge of a moment when these two powerful forces are as one, when we can embrace the dawn of a new century, drawing strength and guidance from our past, filled with confidence that in this new age of possibility, our best is yet to come."

--Bill Clinton

Each video lesson is approximately 30 minutes long.