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The first requirement of the college is presence. Learning through discussion requires regular presence in the classroom in a way that other modes of learning may not. There are no books one can read to take the place of a missed discussion. Learning through discussion implies a sharing by all students in the activities of teaching as well as learning; thus, regular uninterrupted participation is essential for the good of all members of a class. All students are therefore required to attend all seminars, tutorials, preceptorials, and laboratories to which they are assigned.
Students also attend the Friday-night lecture or concert and the question period that follows. This makes it possible for a piece of music or the content of a lecture to be the subject of conversation either in class or wherever members of the community gather. Students are urged to participate actively in the question period that follows lectures. There they may both observe and join their fellow students and their tutors in public conversations with the lecturer.
Students should be prepared for class. Preparation for class is first of all evident in the student’s use and comprehension of the books read for class. The prepared student recalls details from the text and recognizes major points, key questions, and important tropes and images, making use of them to raise questions and to offer explanations.
Students are expected to participate in class discussions. Appropriate and constructive participation can take a variety of forms, including but not limited to: breaking complex ideas into parts (analysis), integrating ideas into larger wholes (synthesis), venturing hypotheses, opening new lines of inquiry, and expanding the understanding of already established ideas and methods of inquiry.
In classes our learning is collaborative. Students should be willing to listen to others, be open to constructive criticism, and have the courage to offer even their tentative opinions in public. In addition to providing original contributions, they should speak in ways that help advance lines of inquiry initiated by others. These expectations concerning participation in conversation and collaborative learning in the classroom are applicable in conferences with their tutors and in a more concentrated way in the seminar orals.
Along with preparing for class and sharing their work in class, students are expected to complete the work specific to each tutorial or laboratory. This includes translations and interpretative possibilities in language tutorials, demonstrations in mathematics tutorials and in laboratories, analyses of musical works, and understanding and conducting laboratory practica. In each case this work requires basic knowledge appropriate to that class, including foreign language grammar and vocabulary; the elements of mathematics; musical notation, vocabulary, and theory; and comprehension of the purposes of laboratory practica and the physical theories related to them.
For all classes, students write papers and essays. These should exhibit many of the same qualities appropriate to student participation in class discussions. In addition, written work should exhibit sufficient command of the English language, clarity of purpose and expression, an organized structure, appropriate and supporting evidence and arguments, seriousness of purpose, and the exercise of imagination. While we value the collaboration and spontaneity of conversation, we also value the focus, discipline, and coherence that can be achieved in writing. We expect clarity and technical competence, but beyond these we value thoughtfulness, cogent argumentation, sound analysis, imagination, and exploration.
On the whole students working successfully through the program become practiced in various modes of learning in different areas of inquiry, such as dialectical discussion, experience, reflection, inference, hypothesis, experiment, calculation, measurement, and analysis. Students read with attention to content, form, and language. They listen attentively to conversation, to prose, poetry, and music. They become practiced in formulating oral and written judgments, distinctions, questions, and arguments, and in looking for, examining, and discussing underlying principles.
According to the Code of Maryland Regulations, in order to confer a baccalaureate degree an institution shall require the satisfactory completion of no fewer than 120 semester hours, or equivalent hours of college credit distributed according to the requirements of the curriculum. A minimum average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale shall be required for graduation for both degree and certification programs. Keep in mind that F means no credit; D’s and F’s lower the average.
Seniors who have met the state requirements and the requirements listed below are recommended by the tutors to the Board of Visitors and Governors for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts at the last faculty meeting of the year. Graduating seniors must:
Attendance in all classes is a central part of a St. John’s education. Class attendance is an academic issue, in that it affects the work of the student, as well as the work of the class as a whole. It is expected that a student will attend every class meeting. Each student has a responsibility to their classmates to attend and participate in their classes. Because classes at St. John’s ideally involve all students in the class making contributions to the learning of the whole, attendance is both a constituent part of collaborative learning, as well as a mark of respect for other students and tutors. Students should take this responsibility to the community seriously and contact their tutors when they have missed or will miss class. Moreover, missing classes can impede student’s progress through the work of the class; students with excessive absences have not, in effect, done the work of the class. In the case of excessive absences, the Assistant Dean looks to the following policy.
Class attendance is reported weekly by tutors and recorded in the Assistant Dean’s Office. These records may be consulted by students and tutors during office hours. Students who fail to meet the obligation to attend a class will be withdrawn from that class and will need to repeat the class to get credit and continue in the Program. Students who routinely fail to meet the obligation to attend classes may be expelled from the college, whether or not they have accrued enough absences in any one class to warrant withdrawal. Students who have been withdrawn from a class or expelled because of absences will usually have to wait at least a full year to apply for readmission and to repeat the work. Attendance is a factor in evaluating a student’s academic work, including decisions about continuing into the next semester and about Sophomore Enabling.
The following guidelines specify the number of absences that will merit an absence related withdrawal from a class:
A student who has accrued
will be withdrawn from that class. A notification letter will be sent to students who have been withdrawn, and a copy of this letter may be sent to parents of dependent students. After receiving a notification that they will be withdrawn, students should contact the Assistant Dean as soon as possible to discuss the ramifications. Whenever possible, warning letters will be sent to the college e-mail accounts of students who are accumulating absences. These warnings are a courtesy: students always have the responsibility to know how many absences they have accrued, and a student may accrue enough absences to be withdrawn from a class or expelled from the college before receiving any letters of warning.
The Assistant Dean, in consultation with the tutor, may increase the number of absences which merit withdrawal to as many as eight for classes which meet three days a week, and as many as five for classes which meet two days a week.
Although no absences from class will be “excused,” the Assistant Dean will always consider extraordinary circumstances that prevent attendance.
Even the best reasons for missing class cannot diminish the fundamental importance of presence in the classroom. For this reason, students who have missed classes because of illness, or for other compelling reasons, may have to withdraw from a class or from the college. In any case, students should always advise the Assistant Dean if they expect to miss more than a few classes and should consult with him if their absences have mounted. One of the primary aims of the Assistant Dean is to help students succeed at the college; it is always advisable to consult with him about a question or problem affecting class attendance.
When a student’s absences habitually approach the maximum number, a student may be placed on absence probation at the discretion of the Dean or the Assistant Dean. In such cases the number of absences that merit withdrawal will be reduced. Absence probation lasts for one year from the date it is imposed, unless otherwise specified. (It is for this reason that alternate methods of academic evaluation are not permitted.)
Students are required to pass an algebra test or to complete an online algebra learning program specified by the Assistant Dean as a condition for entering the sophomore year. The test is simple, covering rational operations with polynomials, factoring, exponents, simultaneous equations, and quadratic equations. Help in preparing for the test is available in the form of sample tests and student math assistants.
The test is given several times each year. Freshmen are required to take the test to clear the requirement out of the way. Those freshmen who do not pass the test are required to complete the online learning program in order to continue into the sophomore year. No student may be enabled to continue into the junior year without fulfilling the algebra requirement.
