policies

The rules that move your grade (the 3-3-3 rule, late work, AI) live on the home page. This page is the layer underneath: what Indiana University and the O’Neill School require every syllabus to say, and the support you’re entitled to as an IU student. Where a policy belongs to the university or the school, this page links to it rather than reprinting it: those documents get revised, so theirs is the version that governs, and anything summarized here is orientation.

Credits and workload

SPEA-V 221 Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector · 3 credits

A hands-on survey of civil society and the U.S. nonprofit sector, run as the Bloomington Nonprofit Lab. The home page has the full description, the seven learning objectives, and the grading table; the Schedule lays out the term.

Expect an average of 6 or more hours a week outside class on reading, fieldwork, writing, and team work. Site-visit weeks and the two big deadlines run heavier; each week page ends with a Looking ahead note so a heavy week never arrives unannounced.

Course policies

These are the policies IU requires every syllabus to state plainly. The full versions of the first three live under Policies on the home page.

• Attendance. Three absences carry no penalty; after that each one costs a point off your final grade, and nine absences is an automatic F. You’re present when you’ve both signed in and handed in that session’s in-class work. Attendance is recorded in Canvas so you can check your own count whenever you like (full rule).
• Missed in-class work and make-ups. There are no exams in this course, so no make-up exams. In-class work is earned in the room and can’t be made up; the one exception is an approved religious observance or AES accommodation, arranged in advance (full rule).
• Late assignments. Three no-penalty late submissions, each valid within 72 hours of the deadline (full rule).
• Technology in class. Bring a laptop or tablet when a session calls for one; the week page will say so. Otherwise use your judgment and keep devices on course work. The studio sessions only work if people are actually talking to each other. Keep your phone on silent rather than off: IU sends campus emergency alerts by text.
• Withdrawing from the course. Deadlines are on the official Registrar calendar. After the auto-W deadline withdrawal is significantly limited, needs permission, and must meet O’Neill’s requirements. Come talk to me early. There are usually better options than withdrawing.
• Changes to the schedule. The schedule is subject to limited change in the event of extenuating circumstances. Any change is announced in class and on Canvas.

O’Neill Student Honor Code

The O’Neill School substantially revised its Student Honor Code (PDF, two pages) for 2026–27, and it applies to you here. It covers academic conduct (incorporating IU’s Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, & Conduct and its definitions of cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, interference, violation of course rules, and facilitating dishonesty) and civility and professional conduct: attending prepared, staying for the session, following the device policy, carrying your share of team work, treating people with respect.

One clause is the hinge between it and this course: academic misconduct includes AI use “that is not permitted by the instructor.” Here it is permitted and expected. See below.

Academic integrity

Your responsibilities as an IU student are defined in the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, & Conduct; its academic misconduct section is what any integrity question in this course gets decided against.

Two edges are specific to this course.

Acknowledgment keeps AI use clean. Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work as your own without acknowledging it, so with AI expected here, the disclosure is what does the work. Disclosed use never costs you points; undisclosed use is the violation. The AI Process Log shows exactly what to write.

Fieldwork has to be real. Site visits need verifiable proof of contact (a dated photo, a named staff member, an emailed confirmation, a logged call) cross-checked against the organization’s real Form 990. Inventing a visit or an organization is the fastest way to fail an assignment, and it goes through the academic-misconduct process. If a visit falls through, the fallback ladder is there so it never has to.

Course materials and AI

This course’s AI policy is what governs your work: AI is allowed and expected, you disclose and cite it, you verify every fact about a real organization against a primary source, and you own every word. The AI Process Log spells it out.

O’Neill asks every syllabus to state the instructor’s rights over course materials. In my words: I hold the rights to what I make for this course. Take notes and use them however you like for your own learning; don’t re-post, distribute, sell, or upload them to a generative-AI tool without permission. Selling gets reported to the Dean of Students as academic misconduct, and doing it over IU email or through Canvas pulls in IU’s IT and intellectual-property policies too.

Here is that permission, in writing. Everything published on this website is cleared: these pages, the weekly lesson pages, the assignment prompts, the rubrics. Paste them into whatever tool you like. It does not cover:

• anything I hand out in class or post to Canvas that isn’t published here;
• another student’s work, in any form: a draft, a shared doc, a photo of their notes, a team file;
• anything I mark as not-for-AI.

The selling clause isn’t boilerplate I’m quietly ignoring: don’t post this course’s materials to Chegg, Course Hero, Studocu, or a shared drive.

Support, accommodations, and safety

Use these. Asking early is always cheaper than asking late.

Accessible Educational Services (AES)

Accommodations are a shared responsibility between you, me, and the AES office. Send me your memo early in the term and we’ll set things up quietly. You never have to explain the underlying reason. If you think you might qualify and have never registered, AES is where to start.

If anything on this site is hard to use with a screen reader, keyboard, or magnifier, tell me. IU is working toward full digital-accessibility compliance, and I’d rather fix it than have you work around it.

Religious observance

IU policy ACA-59 protects your right to observe religious holidays without academic penalty, and it’s the one route by which missed in-class work can be made up. The form, deadline, and procedure are on IU’s religious observances page, currently a Request for Accommodation for Religious Observances form to me at least two weeks ahead, one per absence per course. Please get them to me by the end of Week 2 where you can, so we can plan the alternative work together.

Counseling and mental health

• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS): IU’s counseling service, included in your student health fee.

If something bigger is going on in your life, tell me what you can. I don’t need details, and I’d much rather help you plan around a hard stretch than watch you disappear from the roster.

Sexual misconduct and Title IX

Title IX and IU’s Sexual Misconduct policy prohibit sexual misconduct, and IU’s Office of Civil Rights Compliance is the office that handles it. For confidential support, IU’s Find Help page lists the current Bloomington contacts: the Sexual Assault Crisis Service, CAPS, the Confidential Victim Advocates, and the IU Health Center. If you’re in immediate danger, call or text 911.

I am not a confidential resource. University policy requires me to pass along any report of potential sexual misconduct to the Title IX Coordinator, after which a small number of people work to offer resources and appropriate measures, sharing information only with those who need it to respond. I’m telling you up front so you can choose who you talk to.

IU Culture Centers

The IU Culture Centers offer community, programming, and a place to land. Open to everyone.

Syllabus posting follows IU policy ACA-85: this site is the syllabus for V221, and it’s posted to the Canvas syllabus page before the term begins.