The classroom setting is such that not all needs can be met within it.  I encourage you, therefore, to visit my office often.  It is my pleasure to discuss grades, attendance, notes, lectures, or anything else which will make you a better student.   Your grades can only benefit from regular communication with your professors.  I will gladly work with you to arrange meeting times convenient to us both. Feel free to contact me:

The ideololgical influence of electronic media makes them indispensible and powerful tools of cultural transformation.  It is thus incumbent on at least a few Christians to step beyond consumption and analysis, to acquire the collaborative skills of project management, lighting, audio, camera operation, and editing.

Technical expertise -- framed holistically in a liberal arts context -- prepares Calvin graduates to craft images for a meaningful presence on movie screens, airwaves, cable systems, and the internet.  CAS Media Production courses are designed to move students toward better media for personal, professional, educational, and liturgical venues.

If you write a good essay or fail a math exam, you do so as an individual.  But the success of a video production is often a collaborative endeavor that begins with attendance.  You jeopardize any group project for which you show up late (or not at all).  Reflecting the emphasis Calvin's Media Production professors place on collaboration, strict attendance is required.  Students will be penalized for late arrivals and early departures.

Classes will not be held on holidays officially recognized by the college. All other days of the term are fair game for lectures, quizzes and assignments. Those students who plan to leave early for or return late from holiday breaks may not reschedule exams or other work.

The professor reserves the right to answer any cell phone call received by a student during class time.

The current edition of the Calvin College Student Conduct Code notes that "the student-faculty relationship is based on trust and mutual respect which can be seriously undermined by the suspicion or reality of academic dishonesty."  It elsewhere defines plagiarism as "the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgment."

Though expected to abide by the document as a whole, Media Production students may benefit from specific awareness of conduct proscribed by Article IV of the Code:

The standards of honesty and the penalties of dishonesty apply equally to words, ideas, visual images, auditory images, and all electrochemical means of storage and communication.

I will vigorously pursue prosecution of academic dishonesty to the very limit of sanctions allowed by the college (Article V, Sections D and E), up to and including failure of the course and expulsion from the college.  I will just as vigorously work with student to prevent even unintended lapses of integrity.  If you are uncertain about how to avoid plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty, please consult a member of the English faculty, the most recent edition of The Little, Brown Handbook,or (preferably) ask me.

While student media producers retain copyright ownership of their respective work, enrollment in this course constitutes your permission to let Calvin College , the Communication Arts and Sciences Department, the professor, their representatives, and successors, exhibit and distribute for promotional purposes those media projects submitted in fulfillment of course assignments.  Without any effect on your grade you may withhold or limit such permission by indicating your wish to do so in a note to your professor signed, witnessed and dated before the course’s drop date.

Exceptions to the policy require a note of permission from a faculty member, submitted electronically to Campus Safety at least 24 hours in advance.  To address concerns of personal safety and security, it is suggested that a minimum of two students remain in the building together.

Subject to responsible use, students of CAS 190 and 250 are permitted key card access to the Video Editing Labs (DeVos 055). Students of CAS 249, 290, and 351 are permitted key card access to the Video and Audio Editing Labs (DeVos 045). Access to other workspaces must be scheduled in advance with the Chief Engineer.

The CAS Media Production Faculty approved the following facilities use policy in May 2011.
To maximize opportunities for collaborative learning, Calvin College offers Media Production instruction in a pedagogically-informed, server-based post-production environment. When student teams edit video and audio projects from shared files to common workflow standards, they are learning organizational and interpersonal skills that will benefit them in the workplace and in other relational settings. While we understand and support students' preference for many different hard- and software combinations, project work for Media Production classes will be done on facilities and equipment in the DeVos Communication Center.

Media Production lab aides are available in DeVos 025A (hours posted there) to check out equipment for class projects.  It is often advantageous to alert them to your equipment needs in advance by sending an e-mail to CalvinCheckout@gmail.com.

The CAS Media Production Faculty approved the following equipment loan policy in March 2009.
Governed by the following priorities, equipment and facilities are available to those students currently enrolled in Media Production classes:

As in the regular semester, instruction, scholarship, and maintenance, regulate equipment use over breaks, vacations, reading recess, interims, and summer. Exceptions follow the same guidelines enumerated above.