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The Department of French and Francophone Studies
Graduate Handbook

Graduate Student Responsibilities and Privileges

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. It is the responsibility of graduate students to remain informed about departmental and Graduate School policies and procedures. All such policies have been clearly formulated in this Handbook and more extensively in the Graduate School Bulletin. Failure to read pertinent information or to obtain it from appropriate sources may result in serious delays in progress toward the degree.
   
   
2. It is the responsibility of students to strike a reasonable and manageable balance between teaching responsibilities and academic work. It is best to determine early in one's graduate career how much time should be devoted to both sets of responsibilities in order to accomplish them both successfully.
   
   
3. It is the responsibility of students to seek out their advisors, understanding that faculty members are not necessarily always available when students find it convenient. Faculty members are engaged in teaching, research, committee work (departmental, College, University), advising, departmental administrative duties, and a variety of consulting activities. They must often juggle complex schedules that allow for little flexibility. However, every faculty member has posted office hours. Students should take advantage of these hours to have frequent discussions with their advisors.
   
   
4. It is the responsibility of Teaching Assistants to fulfill all of the terms of their employment contracts in a professional manner. For specific information on teaching responsibilities, please see the Handbook for Teaching Assistants.
   
   
5. Most important, it is the responsibility of students to engage in their academic work in a manner consistent with the scholarly goals set forth by the Department and with the more tangible goal of completing the degree requirements in a timely fashion through work of high quality. Students should not define academic work as merely the material assigned in courses but should also supplement their learning through independent research in the library and by attending lectures given by faculty and visitors. And finally, engaging in informal conversations with colleagues and faculty as well as with students in small groups goes a long way in furthering the learning process. As Martin Kramer states in his article "Curriculum Reform" (Change, July/August 1990, p. 54), "When a good deal of 'extra-academic' transfer takes place, one can be pretty sure that learning has been internalized in important ways."
   
   Students should feel assured that the faculty of the Department of French and Francophone Studies will make every effort to facilitate the learning process. We recognize the crucial role that graduate students play in the intellectual well-being of the Department and of the profession as a whole. We appreciate the contributions that they make, not only in the teaching of undergraduates, but as future scholars in both academic and non-academic professions. In short, we view our graduate students as colleagues.
   
   

RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES

1. Students can expect that, although any programmatic modifications cannot be applied retroactively, they always have the choice of entering the modified program. Policies and procedures in place at the time of admission to the program will continue to apply to them through the end of their program. However, interrupted study is likely to result in the application of the new policies at the point of re-entry (with the exception of participation in Penn State international exchange programs).
   
   
2. Students can expect faculty to react substantively and in depth to written and oral work presented in courses. They should feel free to discuss their work in separate meetings with instructors in order to get corrective feedback and constructive criticism.
   
   
3. Students have the right to evaluate each faculty member at the end of each course, using both the standardized University evaluation form and the departmental qualitative form.
   
   
4. Students, either individually or through the FGO, should feel free to raise issues and make suggestions to the Department Head and to individual faculty members. We believe that the channels of communication have been firmly established in the Department and that faculty members welcome student input into matters of concern to the Department as a whole.
   
   

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