Course Description:

This course explores the balance in American life between personal happiness and civic virtue, individual freedom and community responsibilities, market capitalism and social justice, and consumerism and citizenship. The implications of these democratic (im)balances for our communities and ourselves in the 21st Century will be examined through the spatial lens of the decline of the city, the rise of suburban sprawl, and the potential for recovery of urban community. Macon will be our local case study in the civic arts and civilization, with Charleston, SC as a point of comparison. The course will require a team-based service-learning project.

You are finishing your careers as undergraduates at Mercer. This course is intended to help you reflect on the studies of the past few years and to think cogently and critically about issues that will affect you for the rest of your lives. You will bring to bear the knowledge and insight gained through your major subjects, as well as other academic and personal experiences, and through your fresh reading of the required texts. This is not a lecture course that seeks to provide right or wrong answers to the questions raised. Rather, you yourselves and the several other teachers and professionals involved in the course as guest speakers and mentors will be the primary instructors. My task is to guide you through some of the material, to keep the discussions focused and productive, and to serve as a resource for your service-learning projects. I am looking forward to a rich experience for all of us.

Course Objectives:

1. To understand the scope and complexity of the issues facing urban civilization in the 21st Century as a built environment and as a social, political, economic, aesthetic, and spiritual way of life, with a particular focus on the American city.
2. To read critically and interpret texts related to these issues.
3. To enhance research, analytical, interpretive, oral, writing, presentational, and collaborative skills.
4. To work together successfully in circumstances that mirror the demands and expectations of post-graduate study and professional practice.
5. To produce for key decision makers in Macon, Georgia, an analysis of Macon’s attractiveness as a destination for knowledge workers and strategies for enhancing that attractiveness.

Required Texts:

The Urban Reader (3rd edition), ed. LeGates & Stout
Richard Florida The Rise of the Creative Class
On Reserve:
Grace Paley The Collected Stories
John Cheever The Stories of John Cheever
Edward P. Jones Lost in the City: Stories

Attendance and Participation:

The success of a discussion class of this type depends on the active presence and prepared participation of all students. The degree and quality of your participation will determine roughly 1/3 of your final grade.

Since there is only one class meeting per week, you may not miss more than two classes for whatever reason. Exceptions may be made for University business, such as debate team, sports, Mercer Ambassadors, etc., but you still must clear these absences with me ahead of time. Each absence beyond the second one will reduce your final grade by one full letter grade.

Class Sessions:

Each class session will typically be divided into three distinct activities.

1. Class will begin with the analysis of the assigned readings from The Urban Reader. This discussion will be conducted on the model of law school classes. Each student will be expected to be able to answer any of the following questions: What is the author’s main point? What are two considerations given in support of it? What is one important secondary point made by this author? What is one consideration given in support of it? What is one critical question you would raise about the author’s argument? Why? I will conduct the examination of the subject by calling on students or asking for volunteers to answer these and other questions. Every student should also be prepared to explain why he or she agrees or disagrees with another student’s previous answer. Over the course of the semester, every student will have a number of opportunities to respond in class.

2. The second period of the class will focus either on a guest speaker, with a question and answer session following, or on short stories by the three authors on reserve at the library, with a student led discussion. Every student will have an opportunity to lead a discussion (sometimes as a team of two). Discussion should be Great Books style with the discussion leaders prepared with two opening questions to help start discussion and lead it deeply into the story.

3. The third period of the class will be devoted to the service-learning project, with teams working together to present their work as it develops.

Site Visit to Charleston, SC:

Each service-learning team will select two members to participate in a site visit to Charleston SC to interview professionals who are responsible for aspects of Charleston’s urban design and development and to analyze Charleston’s urban fabric and social history. Charleston is recognized as an exceptional example of urban renaissance. We want to know why and how it declined and recovered—and we want to bring back possible lessons learned for Macon.

The site visit will take place over fall break from Sunday, Oct. 8 through Tuesday, Oct. 10. All expenses for this site visit will be covered.

Papers:

You will write five short papers (2-3 pages) during the semester. These papers will be part of the electronic portfolio that reflects your understanding of and response to the texts, speakers, experiences, and issues of the course. They may take the form of analytic essays, critical responses, self-reflections, or summary statements. The five papers in your portfolio should reflect your best thinking and writing for the course. Two papers are due by September 29 and three additional papers are due by November 29. The earlier you submit these papers, the sooner you will have feedback from me as to their strengths and weaknesses. You will be allowed to substitute one additional paper for one of your submitted papers if you wish to improve a grade.

Service-Learning Project:

Service-Learning is a reciprocal exchange. Students should benefit by applying their knowledge and skills in a way that meets a community need. The student must benefit, and the community must benefit.

The service-learning project for this course will be set up as if we were a consulting firm working with urban communities to increase their competitiveness as good places to live, work, play, and raise children. The “firm” has three consulting teams who will each work with a different local client to analyze the competitiveness of the local community and to propose a strategy to improve that competitiveness. Each team will focus on Macon, but each team must satisfy a different client. The three clients are the City of Macon’s Economic and Community Development Department, NewTown Macon, Inc. (a nonprofit organization charged with revitalizing downtown Macon), and the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce. Minimal deliverables for the client will include a 10-15 page report and a Powerpoint presentation of the report. You must negotiate the time and venue for your presentation to the client at their convenience—but, in any case, before the close of business December 15.

The service-learning project will determine roughly 1/3 of your final grade.

Final Exam:

As the course progresses, we will identify key urban issues. These issues will be posted as they are identified and articulated. (These issues are one possible topic for your papers in your portfolios.)

For your final exam, you will be given a choice of three issues. You will write a 750-1250 word essay on one of them during the exam period, accompanied by a 75-word abstract. The exam must be a typed, finished product. During the exam period, you will be free to write your essay at the location you choose—but you will be limited to the 3-hour block of time to complete it.

Criteria for Grading: Grading Scale:
Portfolio 30% A 90-106 points
Final Exam 10% B+ 86-89
Participation 30% B 80-85
Service-learning Project 30% C+ 76-79
C 70-75
D+ 66-69
D 60-65
F

Senior Learning Community:
As the ultimate goal of the Senior Program, all Business seniors merge the breadth of a liberal education with the depth of specialized knowledge into a real-world applied practice. As such, the Senior Learning Community in the Business major focuses on the development of analytical as well as professional skills by engaging students in the rigorous teamwork required in the case studies of corporate strategy employed in the senior capstone course (MG401). Students in this capstone course learn how to intelligently practice in an increasingly cross-functional business environment. In addition, students learn how to synthesize various elements of the strategic process into a well-formulated plan that addresses all aspects of a firm?s internal and external environments. The themes discussed in MG401 are applied through an experiential component in the BU400 ? Senior Reflective Tutorial course.

Course Description of BU400:
This course allows students the opportunity to complete a field-based, real-world experience, prompting them to reflect on their practical training within their chosen concentration of Finance, Accounting, Marketing, Management or International Business. Issues pertaining to all aspects of professional development are discussed in the weekly RFT sessions, with particular emphasis on the challenges of the transition from student to civic-minded professional. In particular, this RFT is devoted to civic engagement. Partnered with the Staten Island Economic Development Center, and part of P.L.A.C.E.?s Civic Engagement grant, this class will devote 100 hours per student to the improvement of the St. George area in Staten Island. The class is made up of six students from the varied concentrations in the Business Department: Accounting (1), Finance (2), International (1), Management (1), and Marketing (1). These students will interview the business community, local public officials, government leaders, leaders from the St. George Civic Associations, and residents of the area to identify the economic, social and civic problematic issues. Operating under a similar guise as a business consultant in his or her own field of specialization, collectively, they will then develop a needs-assessment plan of the area and propose viable solutions. It is the hope of SIEDC (and ours) that the culmination of these efforts will serve as a springboard to the actual implementation of some or all of the proposed changes that reflect the needs and wants of the St. George community and its partners. The class will be making a presentation of their final research to the Wagner community on Tuesday, April 20 (part of the ACE program) and at the SIEDC yearly seminar to be held on Tuesday, April 27, 2004.

Course Objective:
Together with the Capstone course of Business Policy, the practicum and the thesis paper should prepare the student for the ?real world? environment they are about to face. Other specific objectives include

1. Learn to develop & research a topic of interest
2. Improve your professional writing and communication skills
3. Set personal standards of excellence
4. Establish your individual mode of handling heavy workload and establishing priorities to meet deadlines
5. Establish the discipline required to compete in the marketplace
6. Practice working specifically toward a final result (completion of a needs-assessment plan of the St. George area).

Course Requirements:
The Reflective Tutorial (BU400) is designed as a one-unit course, to be taken concurrently with MG401, to include the following components:

• 100 hours of field or applied work. Business students will be partnered with the Staten Island Economic Development Center. Students are to maintain a log/diary of their field work that, at a minimum, includes the dates they attended, a brief description of the duties performed on each date, and the signature of an appropriate supervisory person, verifying the dates and work performed. This component constitutes 30% of students? final grades.
• A senior thesis project, in this case a needs-assessment plan of the St. George area, involving applied and/or research-based learning, is required. The expectation is of a well-defined and rigorous paper (about 15-20 pages in length) that will ideally encapsulate the student?s field experiences and personal reflections, integrating them to a larger academic theme and body of literature. During the semester, there will be several intermediate due dates for the topic, thesis statement, reference list, outline and initial draft of this paper. These due dates are absolute, and failure to submit required material on time would have an adverse effect on the student?s grade. This component constitutes 50% of student?s final grades.
• Students are to maintain a log of their hours and have it signed by their supervisor upon completion of the field work. This is to be coordinated through the Office of Career Development. There will be an evaluation form to be completed by your practicum supervisor and submitted to me.
• A weekly (subject to the instructor?s discretion) RFT meeting, to include class discussion of any assigned readings, class discussion of students? field experiences and progress on their senior theses, and professional/career/civic development issues through guest speaker presentations, field trips or any other suitable on/off campus events. This component constitutes 20% of students? final grades.

Required Text for the Course:
Bergman, Garrison and Scott, The Business Student Writer?s Manual, Prentice-Hall, 1998.
Tooch, David E., Building a Business Plan, Person Education, 2004.
Pocket Guide to APA Style, Robert Perrin
All business students are to use APA style paper format & citations in writing their papers.

Grading:
As mentioned above, final grades will be determined as follows:

Misconduct:
Any student suspected of academic dishonesty or misconduct will be immediately sent to the Academic Honesty Committee for review. See ?Student: Academic Honesty and Integrity Handbook.?

Final Note:
It is the expectation of your RFT instructor that all students will approach this Senior Learning Community with the professionalism and commitment appropriate for college seniors who are on the brink of beginning their professional careers. As such, students are expected to be in attendance at all required RFT meetings, to submit all required material on time and in proper form, to dress appropriately, and to perform their fieldwork with integrity and professionalism.

IMPORTANT DATES/COURSE OUTLINE

Rethinking Urban Poverty: Philadelphia Field Project is an interdisciplinary service learning course offered through the Department of Geography at Penn State. The objectives of the course are to understand why existing poverty policies in the US have failed, and to develop an alternative framework for action in cooperation with residents in a poor neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Each year we select about 10 students to participate in a yearlong course of 3 to 6 hours of credit offered in three parts.

Part 1: Spring Semester (1-3 credits) – Social theories of poverty.

Readings in conservative, liberal, and radical theories of poverty. An introduction to postmodern thinking. Using postmodern thinking to seek new answers to urban poverty. Social movements of the poor. Theories of community empowerment. Foucault's theory of non sovereign power. In addition to the readings all the participants will be given a rapid introduction to interview methods, basic data processing, Geographical Information Systems, and working with the US Census

Readings:

Grenz, S. J. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1996.

Kretmann, J.P. and McKnight, J. Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing A Community's Assets. Chicago, 11: ACTA Publications, 1993.

McKnight, J. The Careless Society: Community and Its Counterfeits. New York, N.Y: Basic Books, 1995.

Poverty: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1994

Schram, S.F. Words of Welfare: The poverty of social science and the social science of poverty. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1995

West, C. Race Matters. New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, 1994.

Yapa, L. "How the Discipline of Geography Exacerbates Poverty in the Third World." Futures: the Journal of Forecasting and Planning, Vol. 32, 2001.

Yapa, L. "How Social Science Perpetuates Poverty and What the University Can Do About It." Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society. Vol. 19, 1999, 544 546. Guest editorial.

Yapa, L. "What Causes Poverty? A Postmodern View." Annals of the Association of American Geographers. Vol. 86, 1996, pp. 707 728.

During the Spring Semester we will do two weekend field trips to West Philadelphia. This is to acquaint the participants with Penn State Cooperative Extension Services in West Philadelphia, the Belmont Mantua neighborhood, and to conduct preliminary discussions with community residents and representatives of neighborhood organizations.

Part 2: Summer Field Project from May 10 to June 10 (1 to 2 credits)

This is a 1-2 credit unit on the fieldwork component of the course. Participants will stay in residence in a row house for four weeks researching for their project while working at a neighborhood organization and doing some volunteer work. Participants are encouraged to look at the community within the framework developed in class during the spring semester. That implies working in partnership with the residents to study, uncover, and harness community assets that already exist. In the past students have looked at issues of nutrition, urban gardening, transport options, different models of schooling, learning to access health information on the web, children's poetry, use of vacant lots, electronic marketing of inner city products, access to credit and the role of credit cooperatives, the use of Geographical Information Systems for community development, and so on.

Part 3: Fall Semester Writing Seminar (1 to 2 credits)

Most of the substantial writing of the thesis or report will be done in the fall semester. Despite the sponsorship provided by the Geography Department, the idea is for each student to work closely with thesis advisors in their respective departments. It is our hope that the research will reflect the substantive knowledge of the subjects in which the students are majoring. When appropriate, students will return to West Philadelphia to present their findings in a community setting. I also encourage the students to consider writing a publishable quality paper based on their research.

Advantages to students

1. A research and cultural experience in an inner city urban setting
2. An exposure to a range of social theories of urban poverty.
3. An opportunity to participate in a field experience, facilitating their entry into a job upon graduation
4. Training in the practical application of statistical methods and GIS.
5. A formal structure to pace the research and writing of their theses.
6. An opportunity to publish a paper in a professional journal.
7. A learning community of students from a variety of disciplines

Prof. Tricia Waters
Office: 229c Palmer, Phone: 389 6595
Office Hours: MTF: 1:00 2:00, or by appointment
Email: twaters {at} ColoradoCollege(.)edu

PURPOSE:
This course is designed to help you integrate and apply conceptual, empirical and theoretical material related to the study of morality. This course includes a community based learning component. Working 6-8 hours per week in a local agency (see attached list of sites and descriptions) you will have an opportunity to experience, first hand, the complexities of everyday moral decision making. You will be asked, through a series of journal entries, seminar reflection papers, and a final course paper, to integrate the materials you are encountering in class with the "material" of real life.

This course is a collaborative effort. You will be called upon to bring your considerable training in the field of psychology to our conversations and explorations of morality. The core reading materials are meant to stimulate discussion and your own creative thought process. Readings will range from historical and philosophical renderings of morality and moral reasoning to a more detailed examination of moral issues as social, developmental and clinical psychologists have conceptualized them. The success of this course depends on your active participation and commitment. Be here, be prepared.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and its discontents
Nietzsche, Friedrich, On the genealogy of morals
Olson, James & Roberts, Randy, My Lai: A brief history with documents

GRADING:

Community based Placement Journal (10%)
The success of a community based experience rests on your capacity to make connections between the work you are reading for class, and the work you are doing in the agency. We will spend time during class engaging in a reflection process (see "sit update" dates listed in course schedule). Some of these responses to agency work will be verbal, some written.

You might identify follow up questions for your next visit, or include references to course readings that could apply to the situation described. Date your entries. Include an entry for each site visit. This material may serve as a basis for your reflection papers.

Reflection Papers (30%)
On 11/5, 11/11 & 11/15 you will turn in a brief (2 3 page) reflection paper. In these papers you will make explicit links between the community based experience and course readings. This course is meant to be an on going discussion of core ideas in morality and moral reasoning. In fact, the more you discuss and write about the issues raised, the greater will be the development of your own reasoning capacity in this realm. In some cases, you may need to draw more broadly than your immediate on site experience to make connections to the study of morality. For example, you may wish to consider the role of this agency in the community (e.g., if this service were not available, what would happen to this population?). You may need to educate yourself on how this agency operates (e.g., the politics of funding non profits). Your task in these three papers is to integrate some aspect of your experience in the community with course related material. Two of the reflection papers will be swapped with a classmate for discussion and review (see course schedule, below).

Research Paper & Presentation (30%)
You will write a review of the literature on an area of morality stimulated by your community based agency work. The goal of the paper is to explore in detail one aspect of morality as it applies to your community setting (Paper should be approx. 12 14 pages in length). In considering your topic, be sure to narrow your focus so that you can do an adequate review of the literature (e.g., "Death and dying" is too broad. "Spousal reactions to decisions regarding hospice care" is better). This paper should follow standard APA guidelines, and should approximate a Psychology Bulletin review article. You will present your research to the class in the last week of the course.

In-Class Participation (10%)
You will be asked to conduct two moral reasoning interviews for the developmental section of the course. The interviews will follow a semi structured format (to be handed out in class), and should be rendered legible (either typed or neatly handwritten) before class on Tuesday of the second week of the block. You will work in pairs to present one of the "File" articles on specified days (see sign up sheet).

Midterm & Final Exams (20%)
There will be a mid term and final exam in this course. The format will include fill in the blank, matching, basic definitions and essays. Exams are non-cumulative.

COURSE SCHEDULE:
(Complete readings for date listed)

WEEK 1:

Mon. 10/28: Introduction and Overview of Course
Community based learning Site Selection
Making contact and setting up initial appt.

Tues. 10/29: Theorizing about Morality: Philosophy
Wilson, J. "What is moral and how do we know it?"
Frankena, W., "Morality and moral philosophy"
Orwell, G. "Shooting an Elephant"

Wed. 10/30: More Philosophical Musings
Nietzsche, F. Genealogy of Morals. (Preface and Essays 1&2)

Thurs. 10/31: Philosophical Psychology
Nietzsche, F. Genealogy of Morals. (Essay 3)
Freud, S. Civilization and Its Discontents. (Ch.1 2)
Fri. 11/2: Philosophical Psychology
Freud, S. (cont., ch. 3 end)
Site updates
1:00 p.m. Film: "Crimes and Misdemeanors"

WEEK 2:

Mon. 11/4: Social Psychological Perspectives on Morality
FILE: Zimbardo, P. "The human choice"
Milgram, S. "Some conditions"
Milgram. S. "Issues in the study of obedience: A reply to Baumrind"

1:00 p.m. "Quiet Rage: Stanford Prison Experiment" Milgram study

Tues. 11/5: Site Updates/Discussion:

Reflection Paper #1 Due (2 copies, SWAP)
BRING MORAL REASONING INTERVIEWS TO CLASS
(Read ahead day My Lai)

Wed. 11/6: Development of Morality I: Theory & Behavior
FILE: Saarni, C. "The capacity for empathic involvement"
Kohlberg, L. "Moral stages and moralization"
Kohlberg, L. "The cognitive developmental approach to moral education"

Thurs. 11/7: Development II: The Injunction to Care
FILE: Gilligan, C. & Attanucci, J. "Two Moral Orientations"
Eisenberg, N. & Miller, P. "The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors"
Walker, & Taylor "Family interactions and the development of moral reasoning"

Fri. 11/8: EXAM 1

WEEK 3:

Mon. 11/11 Post Modern Critiques: Gilligan Reconsidered
FILE: Pollitt, K. "Are women morally superior to men?"
Benhabib, S. Situating the Self, "The generalized and concrete other"
Eisenberg, N. & Lennon, "Sex differences in empathy and related capacities"
Reflection Paper #2 Due (2 copies, SWAP)

Tues. 11/12 History Revisited: My Lai
BOOK: Olson, My Lai
FILE: O'Brien, T. "On the rainy river" from The Things They Carried
Darley, J. "Social organizations for the production of evil"
1:00 film "My Lai"

Wed. 11/13: Perspectives on War and Terrorism
FILE: Excerpts from Social Psychology of Terror

Roy, A. "The algebra of infinite justice"
Said, E. "Special Report: Terrorism in the U.S."
Siddiq, H. "Bin Laden's jihad, not Ours"
Hochman, B. "Double evil"

Thurs. 11/14: "Do No Harm" Ethics and Expert Witnessing in Clinical Practice
FILE: Pope, K. "Dual relationships in psychotherapy"
American Psychologist "Ethical principles of psychologists"
Keith Spiegel, P. & Koocher, G. "Privacy, confidentiality, and record keeping"
Faust & Ziskin "The expert witness in psychology and psychiatry"
Site updates
1:00 p.m. Film "My Doctor, My Lover"

Fri. 11/15 Clinical considerations (cont).

FILE: Abramson, L., Seligman, H., & Teasdale, J. "Learned helplessness in humans"
Darley, J. & Latane, B. "Bystander apathy"
Walker, L. "Psychology and violence against women"
Walker, L. excerpts from Why Battered Women Kill
In class film: "Defending our Lives"
Reflection Paper #3 Due (2 copies, SWAP)

WEEK 4:

11/18 Site Updates & Final Paper Presentation Day (sign up)
5:00 p.m. Research Paper Due

11/19 Final Paper Presentation Day (sign up)

11/20 Final Exams