Please indicate whether your schedule is correct or incorrect by Wednesday, February 10th. The sooner you let us know about problems with your schedule, the sooner your issues can be resolved. If you fail to indicate whether your schedule is correct or not, you risk not being allowed to participate in April pre-registration for Fall 2010 courses.

Grading mode and cross-listing changes were due before the end of the Drop/Add period and can no longer be made.

If you have any questions, please contact the Registrar’s Office at x2810.

GOVT 190 meets Thursdays 7:00-9:50 in PAC 421.  Students may register online, the course is open to students from all four class years.

Course Description:
In this weekly writing seminar, we will explore how journalists exercise their roles as citizens, and, in turn, how journalism affects the functioning of our democracy. Using historic and contemporary examples, we will examine how, at its best, the media exposes inequity, investigates wrongdoing, gives voice to ordinary people, and encourages active citizenship.

Instructor Bio:
Jane Eisner, a pioneer in journalism, became editor of the Forward in June 2008, becoming the first woman to hold the position at the influential Jewish national weekly newspaper. Eisner held numerous executive editorial and news positions at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 25 years, including stints as editorial page editor, syndicated columnist, City Hall bureau chief and foreign correspondent. In 2006, she joined the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, where she served as vice president for national programs and initiatives, with responsibility for all adult programming, the Liberty Medal, and the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution. Since 2002, Eisner has been a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Robert A. Fox Leadership Program, as well as an adjunct professor in the school’s political science department. In 2006, she was one of three women chosen to be the first fellows of the new Katharine Houghton Hepburn Center at Bryn Mawr College, where she led conferences and workshops and was the college’s 2007 commencement speaker. In 2009, Eisner was selected to be one of 20 fellows in the Punch Sulzberger Executive News Media Leadership Program at the Columbia School of Journalism. Her book, “Taking Back the Vote: Getting American Youth Involved in our Democracy,” was published by Beacon Press in 2004. In addition to her Inquirer column “American Rhythms,” which was syndicated to 100 newspapers, Eisner has contributed articles to a number of Jewish publications, including The Reconstructionist, Ma’ayan and the Forward. She has also written for the Washington Post, Newsday, Brookings Review and Columbia Journalism Review, and served as a regular panelist on the WPVI television talk show “Inside Story.”

An active member of her local community, Eisner is a board member of the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy, a past president of the Pennsylvania Women’s Forum, a former trustee and secretary of The Philadelphia Award, and a mentor with Philadelphia Futures. Nationally, she is a member of the Columbia School of Journalism Alumni Board, the National Conference on Citizenship’s advisory committee, and the Encore Leadership Network. Eisner received a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism and graduated from Wesleyan University cum laude in 1977, where she was the first female editor of the college newspaper and was a member of the board of trustees. She recently was the first woman to win Wesleyan’s McConaughy Award for contributions to journalism and public life.

To apply for these courses, please submit 5 pages of your writing (in prose or poetry, depending on the course to which you are applying) along with a cover page that includes the following information: 1) your name, email address, year in school, major (if any), some of your favorite writers and any other influences, and 2) a short biographical paragraph describing your history and/or interest in writing.

Please submit these materials electronically in a single attachment to the professor who is teaching the course (see below) by 10 a.m. on Monday, January 18, 2010. Please use either Microsoft Word or rich-text-format for your attachment.

You may take one of these workshops along with either Hilton Als’s “James Baldwin in Black and White” or Paul La Farge’s “Space and Place in Fiction”; however, you may not take two courses designated as “advanced workshops” (ENG 326, 337, or 342) concurrently. If you are applying to more than one of these courses, please include the ranking of your request on your submission.

This information will also be available on the WesMaps pages for these courses.

• ENG 326: Lisa Cohen <lcohen@wesleyan.edu>
• ENG 342: Deb Olin Unferth <dunferth@wesleyan.edu>
• ENG 337: Elizabeth Willis <ewillis@wesleyan.edu>

If you are thinking about withdrawing from a course:

• Do use this time to talk to your professors, your advisors, and me about your concerns. If you can’t make my drop-ins, please email me at dphillips@wesleyan.edu or call me at x2757 to schedule an appointment.
• Do make sure you are taking advantage of all the resources available to you.
• Do get the signatures of your instructor and advisor on your drop/add form. I cannot sign for either without his or her permission, so please save yourself the trouble of waiting to see me during drop-ins just for me to tell you that.
• Do not wait until Thursday at 4:00 p.m. to see me or you may find yourself waiting in a very long line!!!

Drop-in Hours: M 2-3; Tu 3-4; W 5-7; Th 11-12; F 2-4

Chem 180: Writing about Science
Instructor: Prof. David L. Beveridge, Chemistry Department
Teaching Assistant: Ms. Oriana Korol ’09, Ford Fellow of the Wesleyan Writing Center
Class meets Tu Th 2:40 – 4 PM in NSM Conference Room ST

Course Description: A writing intensive course open to both science and non-science students interested in investigating and writing about the content, process and human elements of science and nature in the various genres found current newspapers, magazines, scientific journals, monographs and scientific biographies. The structures characteristic of each these forms will be critically considered, based on examples of each from the current literature. Both practical matters in learning the craft of science writing as well as a consideration of special topics chosen on the basis of general relevance to science literacy will be included. Students will undertake a series of six writing assignments of progressively increasing length, leading to a term paper in the form of a full article of the type found in Omni, Discover, or Natural History. Students will be expected to pitch their proposed writing projects, read from their work in progress and contribute short responses to class topics on a weekly basis to a class blog. The choice of topics for writing assignments will be tailored to individual student interests. The WAS class will function both as a source of original writing and as an editorial board for the production of a new issue of Synthesis, Wesleyan’s webzine of science and nature writing. This course fulfills an NSF expectation in General Education.

Textbooks: D. Blum, M. Knudson and R. Henig, eds., A Field Guide for Science Writers, 2d ed. Oxford University Press, New York (2006).Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Guide to Modern Science Writing, Oxford University Press, New York (2008).

You can access the evaluation through your Electronic Portfolio by clicking http://quicklink.wesleyan.edu/TeachEvals or:

• Go to your Portfolio and open My Student Portfolio
• Then navigate to the Wesleyan Career list
• Click on Teaching Evaluations

If you have any questions about the teaching evaluation process, please contact tevals@wesleyan.edu.

If you are thinking about withdrawing from a course:

• DO use this time to talk to your professors, your advisors, and me about your concerns. If you can’t make my drop-ins, please email me at dphillips@wesleyan.edu or call me at x2757 to schedule an appointment.
• DO make sure you are taking advantage of all the resources available to you.
• DO get the signatures of your instructor and advisor on your drop/add form. I cannot sign for either without his or her permission, so please save yourself the trouble of waiting to see me during drop-ins just for me to tell you that.
• DO NOT wait until Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. to see me or you may find yourself waiting in a very long line!!!

Drop-in Hours: M 2-3; Tu 3-4; W 5-7; Th 3-4; F 2-4

• Planning:  Opens Friday, April 3, at 8:30 a.m. and closes Tuesday, April 14, at 5:00 p.m.
• Scheduling:  Wednesday, April 15
• Adjustment: Thursday, April 16, at 8:00 a.m. through Tuesday, April 21, at 5:00 p.m.

All students participating in April pre-registration are required to receive advisor plan finalization by 5:00 p.m. on April 14. Students must meet with their academic advisor to have their plan finalized. Unfinalized student plans will not be included in the scheduling program, which will run on Wednesday, April 15.

Students who have not confirmed their current course schedules are not eligible to participate in the Planning phase of pre-registration.  If you still need to confirm your course schedule, login to your e-portfolio and navigate to Current Classes & Schedule (EP > Student > Wesleyan Career > Current Classes & Schedule) and click on either the “Schedule is Correct” or “Schedule is NOT Correct” button. If you click on the “Schedule is NOT Correct” button, you will be provided with instructions on how to correct your schedule.