Seminar Remote Viewing Policy
Many (probably most) of our seminars are now webcast and archived online (see Seminar Series). Students have sometimes asked if they can view the seminars remotely on a regular basis, rather than attending in person. In consultation with the program faculty we have established the following principles and policies, behind which there is a strong consensus.
First, our emphatic default expectation is that you attend the seminars in person. When physical attendance at a seminar is light, it is a sign of disrespect to our guest speakers, diminishes a speaker’s opinion of our program, contributes to a reduced sense of responsibility among other students, and deprives the onsite audience of the value of your questions and comments. And obviously, if viewing the seminars remotely means not viewing them at all, or viewing them less attentively than if you were onsite, then it is a rebuff to our efforts to offer you speakers involving a wide diversity of issues and perspectives, and a detriment to your own education.
Having said that, however, we recognize the value of having the remote viewing option, when the alternative is not physical attendance, but rather an inability to attend at all. Accordingly, we do allow you to take advantage of the online option when legitimate extenuating circumstances justify your physical absence from a seminar.
To receive credit for any missed seminar attended online, we now require that you attend online (either real time or after the fact) and write a 750-word essay on that seminar. There are no specific requirements for its content, other than the obvious ones that it be coherent, cogent, and pertinent. You could summarize key points, describe your reaction to them, discuss a broader context, or whatever. You must send the essay to the TTP 281 instructor of record at least one week before the end of the quarter for which you need to receive the credit.
On occasion, seminar speakers will present confidential or copyrighted material in their presentations that causes them to not want to share the live and/or recorded links. To receive credit for those seminars, you must attend them in person and sign the attendance roster.
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