Welcome to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Please take a few minutes to review our policies designed to guide your academic progress.

Once you have read the below, please fill out the agreement form.

Temple E-mail: All students are required to obtain a Temple e-mail address (Temple policy #04.74.11). The department policy establishes your Temple e-mail account as an approved channel of communication for sending official course notifications and important information.  Students must check their e-mail messages everyday at least once every 24 hours in order to be sure to receive key announcements regarding your courses. If you prefer to receive messages at a non-Temple e-mail address, use the forwarding function in your Temple email account to have your e-mail messages forwarded to the e-mail address of your choice.  In addition, please be advised that it is your responsibility to maintain and monitor your e-mail account(s) such that enough free space is available to receive incoming messages.  If you do not receive emails from your instructor due to your e-mail account(s) space being over the allotted quota of space, therefore causing the message to be returned to your instructor, it is not the responsibility of him/her to seek alternative means through which to contact you. For that reason, it is crucial that your email account be maintained such that there is always enough free space for you to receive incoming emails.

Registration: Students must be appropriately registered for all courses. Please make sure you are in the course and section corresponding exactly to what is listed on your official course schedule.  Students not on the published grade list may not receive a grade or credit for the course.  If you add or drop a course, or revise your class schedule, check OWLnet to make sure that your registration record is accurate. Please be advised that if you are not registered for the course, you will not receive a grade.

Blackboard: If you are registered in a course that uses blackboard, you are responsible for downloading and printing out the course syllabus, homework assignments and any other materials assigned by your instructor. Technical difficulties with printers, computers, Internet connections, incorrect browser settings, etc., are not acceptable reasons to submit late work, whether you are submitting work electronically or in printed form. Therefore, you will not receive credit for the assignment. Be sure to plan ahead such that you can use the computing resources on campus, in the event that you encounter difficulties with personal computer equipment, to ensure that you are able to submit all work by the deadline indicated by your instructor.

Prerequisites:  Before enrolling in any course, make sure you have completed all of the established course prerequisites or receive written permission and properly documented and filed authorization from the appropriate faculty advisor(s) to be enrolled in the course.  These prerequisites are given in each course syllabus and are also available in the Undergraduate Course Descriptions both online and in print. The University reserves the right to cancel the registration of any student who has not satisfied the prerequisites for any course in which the student has enrolled.  If you have questions or doubts regarding course prerequisites, consult with your instructor or with the department’s Undergraduate Advisor, Professor Hiram Aldarondo (haldaron@temple.edu). 

Withdrawal from Courses: Students thinking about withdrawing from a course should consult with the instructor and must receive approval from their academic adviser (Temple policy #02.10.14).  A student may not withdraw from the same course more than once.  Anyone who withdraws from a course after the drop/add period during the first two weeks of the semester is responsible for full tuition payment.

No student may withdraw from a course after the ninth week of classes.  Students who are registered for a course after the ninth week of the semester will receive the letter grade earned in that course. Any exceptions to this policy must be approved by the Director of Academic Advising for the College of Liberal Arts, in conjunction with the appropriate faculty member(s), after reviewing the circumstances under which the request to withdraw is made.

Repeating a course: As of the Fall 2003 semester, the calculation of grades for a repeated course has changed.  Instead of only the highest grade being used to calculate students’ grade point averages in such cases, all grades for the repeated course except the lowest will be averaged together and used for the student’s GPA calculation. All grades will appear on the student’s transcript (Temple policy #02.10.12).

Official Language Policy: Spanish or Portuguese are the languages of instruction and communication during class hours.

Mandatory Attendance: Department policy requires that students attend classes on a regular basis, since it is crucial to the successful attainment of the course objectives. You may miss the number of classes equivalent to the number of times your class meets in a one-week period without penalty. For example, if your class meets on MWF, you are permitted to miss three (3) classes throughout the semester without it negatively affecting your final grade. If your class meets on TR, you may miss two (2) classes without penalty, and so on.  Be advised that these are not “free days,” rather they are to be used to cover any absences you are anticipating, such as weddings, interviews, religious holidays, etc.  However, any work (i.e., quizzes, exams, compositions, homework assignments, etc) missed during these allotted absences or otherwise (i.e., additional absences incurred beyond the allotted number described above) may not be made up without providing documentation duly certified by a physician or other appropriate official excusing your absence. Student athletes, band members, and members of other official Temple University organizations must bring an official letter (on Temple University letterhead) from the supervisor of your program indicating the dates which you will miss class and providing an explanation for the absence(s) from class.  Such documentation, in all cases, must be presented to your instructor in original form.  Photocopies or electronic copies (e.g., scans, digital images, etc.) of the documentation will not be accepted.  If you miss more than one day of class, the documentation must contain a list of specific dates that you were to be excused from class – not a range of dates.  Your instructor will make a photocopy of your documentation for his/her records and return the original to you in the next class period.  You must present documentation to your instructor the same day that you return to class. Your instructor reserves the right to refuse any documentation submitted any later than the same day of your return to class and therefore not allow you to make up any missed work, resulting in a grade of zero (0) for any and all assignments missed. In addition, if you must miss a considerable number of consecutive class periods due to an illness or extenuating circumstances, you must keep your instructor informed and up to date concerning your situation. In other words, do not “disappear” for an extended period of time and “reappear” to class without 1) having kept your instructor duly informed via email, telephone, or sending a friend/classmate to talk to the instructor on your behalf and 2) without the documentation containing the specifications outlined above. Again, failure to carry out either or both of the aforementioned procedures will result in your instructor’s reserving the right to not allow you to make up any missed work, thus resulting in a grade of zero (0) for any and all missed work during your absence.

Beginning with the first additional absence beyond the allotted number of absences, you will be penalized 2.0 points from your final grade calculation for each absence over the allotted number. If, for example, you have an 82% average or a B- at the end of the course and you have five unexcused absences past your allotted number of absences, your final grade average would be reduced to a 72% or a C-. Needless to say, frequent unexcused absences will have a negative impact on final grades.

You are also expected to be on time for class.  Repetitive tardiness (i.e., arriving to class 10 minutes late or more) for a period of a week of class will count as one (1) absence.  If you are not a morning person and have difficulty waking up early in the morning, please choose a late morning or afternoon section. 

Homework and Exams: There will be NO MAKE-UP EXAMS, COMPOSITIONS OR QUIZZES due to unexcused absences. Make-ups may be given only in cases of a serious illness or other properly documented extreme circumstances.

Extra Credit Work: No extra credit work will be given.  Therefore is important that you don’t miss any homework, and study for all your quizzes or exams. 

Cell phones: must be turned off and out of view during class, as well as any other electronic device.  Any telecommunication devices visible to the instructor or seemingly being used by a student (cell phones, pagers, palm pilots, etc.) during a quiz or an exam will automatically be construed as an incident of academic dishonesty and therefore will result in an automatic failing grade for the quiz or examination and is also subject to further action under the University Code of Conduct.

Eating in classrooms: There is no eating allowed in the classrooms. Drinking (water, coffee, tea, juice or any soda) is permitted except during class periods during which quizzes or exams are administered.  In these class periods, all drinks must be concealed and out of view both from the student and the instructor.

Code of Conduct: Plagiarism and academic cheating will not be tolerated in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another individual's ideas, words, labor, or assistance. All coursework submitted by a student, including papers, examinations, laboratory homework, and oral presentations, is expected to be the individual effort of the student presenting the work.Although the consultation of resources such as journals, books, or other media is generally appropriate, material in the form of direct quotes or other ideas or information incorporated from such sources into the work of the student must be must acknowledged using appropriate citation form.  Failure to cite borrowed material from the Internet is a common form of plagiarism.

Academic cheating includes, but is not limited to, falsifying data; submitting, without the instructor's approval, work in one course that was done for another; helping others to plagiarize or cheat from one's own or another's work; or undertaking the work of another person. The use of online translation programs to do compositions or essays is a form of academic cheating.  Use of these programs for any part or for the entirety of the composition/essay will result in a grade of “0” for the entire assignment and will be considered an incident of academic dishonesty.

The penalty for plagiarism or academic dishonesty can vary from a reprimand and receiving a failing grade for a particular assignment, to a failing grade in the course, to suspension or expulsion from the University. The penalty varies with the nature of the offense. Disciplinary action will follow the policies outlined in Temple University’s statement on Academic Dishonesty.

Incomplete grades: An incomplete (“I”) may only be given in cases of extreme medical or family emergency (students need to present appropriate documentation from a physician or an appropriate individual). Only students who have completed about 75% of the course work can be eligible for an incomplete. Instructors submitting a grade of “I” for students must file with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, a written agreement describing the nature of the work to be completed and the completion deadline. The instructor must report a default grade that will be entered if the student’s work is not completed or if the instructor does not change the “I” grade within a year (Temple policy #02.10.13).  Be warned, incomplete grades that default after the one-year time limit cannot be changed. Grades will not be changed to incomplete after the grade list is submitted.

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