CS 475: Computer Networks

Ursinus College, Spring 2025

Instructor: Christopher J. Tralie

Table Of Contents

Overview Technology Logistics Readings

Deliverables Schedule Grading

Classroom Environment Collaboration Policy Other Resources / Policies

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Overview

Class Times / Locations

• Monday/Wednesday/Friday, 11:00 AM - 11:50AM Pfahler Hall, 106

Student Office Hours

• Monday/Wednesday/Friday 3:30PM - 5PM, Pfahler Hall, 106

Prerequisites/Requirements

CS 274

Instructor

Christopher J. Tralie

I grew up right around the corner in the Montgomery County and attended Upper Dublin High school (class of 2007). I then did my undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University and my master's and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical And Computer Engineering at Duke University (heavily studying math and CS along the way). I finally started at Ursinus College in Fall of 2019! You can read more about my interests on my professional web site. Looking forward to getting to know everyone as we work through this course together!

Course Description

Somehow, humanity has pulled off an amazing engineering feat whereby it is possible to have video conversations and to play games with people on the other side of the world with 10s-100s of millisecond latency! To make this happen reliably and in a secure fashion, we need an incredibly complex system of interlocking communication protocols and algorithms. The Internet is the largest example of a so-called "computer network," or a system of computers/hardware devices that communicate with each other in a reliable way.

In this class, our primary focus will be on the engineering design of a system that reliably transmits information from one device to another. Specifically, we will explore a 5 layer version of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (where all of the application layers are wrapped into one layer). This model divides computer networks into various layers of abstraction, each with their own specific responsibilities, which is crucial for making such a complex system work. Students will gain hands on experience with each layer by coding up important protocols and algorithms in each layer. We will follow a "top-down" approach where we start off taking a lot of the nuts and bolts of routing and the network core for granted, but eventually students will understand how those layers work as well, even implementing parts of the TCP protocol and a router from scratch by themselves(!), using a software defined network platform known as mininet.

Regardless of whether students use this topic in their career or not, they will grow as programmers during the class, as this is likely the first time they'll put their systems programming to use at such a scale. I will also be slightly more hands off with some of my hints on assignments, instead having students read documentation and official specifications of various protocols.

Finally, since we don't have a dedicated cybersecurity course at Ursinus, and since this topic follows naturally after students have a nuts and bolts understanding of computer networks, this course will culminate in an informed discussion about various cybersecurity topics, which will ultimately be led by students.

Learning Goals

1. Articulate the role and importance of abstraction in designing a complex system, and classify network functionality into the appropriate abstraction layer
2. Identify tradeoffs between robustness and efficiency in a complex system
3. Leverage expert knowledge about the network stack to inform cybersecurity discussions

Learning Objectives

1. Refine C programming and debugging skills in the context of a complex system
2. Practice reading documentation for a diverse set of APIs as you code
3. Implement parts of some popular network protocols in the application layer (HTTP, SMTP, DNS, etc.).
4. Implement lower levels of the stack; i.e. TCP in the transport layer and some parts of routing in the network layer
5. Develop a working knowledge of some physical layer design strategies (e.g. FDMA)

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Technology Logistics

We will be using a zoo of technologies in the course, as has become standard in 21st century work environments. Below is a table summarizing what kinds of communications/activities occur via each technology, and below that there are more details on everything. This is admittedly complex, and it will take some getting used to, but it will be worth it once we get it nailed down.

NOTE: I will repeat the same announcements across e-mail and Discord, so you don't have to check all both for announcements.

Class web site (You are here!)	Schedule (Topics, Study Resource Links, Assignment Deadlines) Assignment descriptions
Canvas	Assignment Deadlines, Submission, and Feedback
Discord	Chat/polls during class Announcements Class-wise questions and discussions, including anonymous questions Individual chat with Prof. Tralie of a less sensitive nature (e.g. tech support, assignment questions not appropriate for the entire class)
E-mail	Announcements Individual chat with Prof. Tralie of a more sensitive/private nature (e.g. questions about grades, academic planning, personal issues) Individual chat with Prof. Tralie of a less sensitive nature (e.g. tech support, assignment questions not appropriate for the entire class), though I prefer Discord for this and will respond more quickly there

*: For privacy reasons, anything of a personal nature, and particularly things that have to with educational records (e.g. grades), need to be kept within Ursinus sanctioned platforms like Outlook e-mail.

Canvas

We will be using Canvas, but only to submit assignments and to store all of the grades. I will also keep all of the due dates current on the calendar there, as students have appreciated this common space for all of their classes in the past.

Discord / Anonymous Questions

To facilitate informal, class-wide discussions about the class, as well as buddy group coding with screen sharing, we will have a Discord channel for the class. My goal is for this to turn into a flourishing area to work through confusion and to share ideas as a group.

Voltaire Anonymous Questions

All questions are welcome! To help break down the barrier of asking questions, we will be using the chat bot Voltaire so students can ask questions anonymously. This has worked very well in the past. To use Voltaire, send a direct message to the Voltaire bot with the following syntax:

where channel_name is the name of the channel you want to post to, and message is the text you want to send. Below is an example:

Answer:

In Class Anonymous Questions

In addition to Voltaire, I'll be running a bot during class that accepts questions to help quieter student who want to participate anonymously to do so. I've found this sort of thing to be particularly helpful with students from underrepresented groups. To ask a question during class, visit this link.

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Readings

We'll be primarily be using two textbooks in the course, neither of which you need to purchase!

1. Kurose/Ross

The first book is Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach by Jim Kurose and Keith Ross. Students can purchase this as a reference if they want, but it is not required to purchase this book. Instead, we will be going through online videos that Dr. Kurose has incredibly generously made available online at this link. Students will watch a selection of these videos and complete pre-class modules on them.

I love this book because, as the title suggests, it slowly peels back the layers of the network from the outside in, which I believe really helps students to create the proper scaffolding to understand the "why" before getting down to the lower layers

2. Peterson/Davie

I'll also link to parts of Computer Networks: A Systems Approach by Larry Peterson and Bruce Davie. This book goes in the reverse order through the network stack, so the readings may seem a bit scattered throughout the schedule, but students who don't want to purchase Kurose/Ross may find this helpful to refer to.

Other Texts

In the first half of the course, we'll be writing code in C. There's a fantastic book on systems programming that exclusively uses C that I'll refer to called Dive Into Systems by Suzanne J. Matthews, Tia Newhall, and Kevin C. Webb (the latter two are right down the road at Swarthmore!).

When we program sockets in C, we will also refer to the famous Beej's Guide To Network Programming by Brian "Beej Jorgensen" Hall. This is an awesome resource, and the author somehow manages to be even goofier and more sarcastic than I am.

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Deliverables

Assignments

The bulk of the grade in the course will be earned by completing assignments. Some of them are larger than others, so it may seem like I'm giving out more assignment than in some of my other classes, but the workload will be similar overall. To help you manage your time, I'll split the larger ones into smaller components. Be sure to start them early! Note that collaboration and sharing rules differ slightly between the individual assignments and the large assignments.

Programming Languages

Most of the assignments will be completed in C. This will be a nice followup from CS 174, and it will allow us to interact more directly with system calls than higher level languages. The input/output is also much more direct/straightforward than it is in other languages (including C++).

On some occasions, though, assignments will be in python, particularly when we want to do higher level data analysis, plotting, etc.

Debugging Principles

If you're taking this course, then you've certainly had experience with debugging, but it is a skill you will still need to work on, so you should expect to hit some roadblocks. In fact, it is time consuming and difficult even for very experienced programmers. So do not be hard on yourself if your programs don't work the first time around (they rarely do, even if you've been programming for decades!).

I have had over 20 years of programming experience at this point, and I have learned the hard way what works and what doesn't. Here are my main debugging principles in a nutshell

1. Leave yourself adequate time to work on the assignments, because the amount of time it takes to resolve issues can be unpredictable.
2. Write small bits of code and test them right away. Don't write a wall of code and test it, only to find out that something doesn't work. By contrast, if you write bits at a time, you will know right away what code you wrote caused things to be wrong.
3. Apply the scientific method: have in mind hypothesis for what might be wrong, design a quick experiment to test your hypothesis, draw conclusions, and repeat.
4. Fail quickly. If you're working on a larger scale program that processes a lot of data, do not wait for several minutes for data to load every time you make a small change. Instead, come up with the minimum, simplest experiment you possibly can which will tell you whether your code is correct or not.
5. Don't forget that you can write code to help you automate debugging. Otherwise, it's sometimes tedious to repeat the same steps over and over again as you're changing things.
6. Know when to walk away. We often get stuck in loops wanting to resolve things, but then our logical thinking goes out the window and we start randomly trying different things. Even if you're up against the clock, it is often good to take a little break and come back again a little bit later.

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Schedule

Outlined below is the schedule for the course, including lecture topics and assignment due dates. All assignments are due at 11:59PM on the date specified. The specific dates of different topics are subject to change based on the pace at which we go through the course.

Finally, unless otherwise specified, all of the assignments are in C.

Lecture	Date	Lectures (click for notes)	Readings/Links	Assignments/Deliverables
The Application Layer
1	Wed 1/22/2025	Intro To Networks, Layering/Encapsulation	ByteByteGo: How The Internet Works in 9 Minutes	HW0: Software Test / Wireshark / Mininet Intro Out
2	Fri 1/24/2025	IP Addresses And Ports, Cat/Netcat	IANA Ports List Wireshark display filters	Module 1 - Intro To Networks And The Network Stack (Kurose/Ross 1.1, 1.2, 1.5) Due Before Class HW1: "Bear Crawl" Web Crawler (Python) Out Syllabus Quiz Due
3	Mon 1/27/2025	The packet concept, wireshark intro, firewalls, traceroute	Richard Clegg Computerphile video on traceroute The Week: "How an internet mapping glitch turned this Kansas farm into digital hell"	Module 2 - Network Core And Performance (Kurose/Ross 1.3, 1.4) Due
4	Wed 1/29/2025	File descriptors, sprintf, sscanf		C Programming, Pointers Review Module Due Before Class HW0: Software Setup Due
5	Fri 1/31/2025	structs in C, Socket programming in C	Peterson/Davie 1.4 Beej's Guide To Network Programming	C Structs, File Descriptors, And Sockets Module (Kurose/Ross 2.7) Due Before Class
6	Mon 2/3/2025	The HTTP Protocol	Mozilla documentation on HTTP messages Kurose/Ross Section 2.2 Peterson/Davie 9.1.2 ByteByteGo: HTTP 1 Vs HTTP 2 Vs HTTP 3!	HW2: HTTP Web Get Out C Sockets Part 1 Module Due
7	Wed 2/5/2025	Continue Socket Programming in C	My video on getaddrinfo in C Code example of getaddr info Beej's notes on getaddrinfo
8	Fri 2/7/2025	Designing Application Layer Protocols Begin Instant Message Program		HW1 Due
9	Mon 2/10/2025	Multithreaded Socket Programming Continue Instant Message Program	LLNL Notes on POSIX Threads in C
10	Wed 2/12/2025	Multiprocess Socket Programming, Web Proxy / CDN Concept Finish Instant Message Program	TechWorld with Nana: Proxy vs Reverse Proxy The pitfalls of Nagle's algorithm
11	Fri 2/14/2025	SMTP And Email Protocols
	Sun 2/16/2025			Module 8 Due
12	Mon 2/17/2025	The Domain Name System (DNS)	How to flush DNS caches on different sytems	HW2 Due
The Transport Layer
13	Wed 2/19/2025	Transport Protocols, UDP / Multiplexing	Peterson/Davie 5.1 RFC 768 for UDP	Module 6: SMTP and and Module 7: DNS Due Before Class HW3: Web Proxy / Web Cache Out
14	Fri 2/21/2025	Reliable Transport Algorithms
15	Mon 2/24/2025	Reliable Transport: TCP	Peterson/Davie 5.2
16	Wed 2/26/2025	TCP Sliding Window Protocols
17	Fri 2/28/2025	Principles of Congestion Control	Richard Clegg Computerphile: The 1986 Internet Congestion Collapse Original Van Jacobson Paper on Congestion Avoidance And Control	HW3 Submission 1
18	Mon 3/3/2025	TCP Congestion Control, And Wireshark Examination Thereof	Peterson/Davie 5.3
The Network Layer
19	Wed 3/5/2025	The Network Layer and IPv4		Intro To The Network Layer (Kurose/Ross 4.1, 4.2 part 1) Due Before Class
20	Fri 3/7/2025	IPv4 Addressing And Subnets		Kurose/Ross 4.2 part 2, 4.3 part 1 Due Before Class HW3 Submission 2 HW4: TCP Receiver Out
--	Mon 3/10/2025	Spring Break		No CS 372 Class. Enjoy the break!
--	Wed 3/12/2025	Spring Break		No CS 372 Class. Enjoy the break!
--	Fri 3/14/2025	Spring Break		No CS 372 Class. Enjoy the break!
21	Mon 3/17/2025	IP with wireshark		Kurose/Ross 4.3 part 2 Due Before Class
22	Wed 3/19/2025	IP Multiplexing with Network Address Translation (NAT)		Kurose/Ross 5.6 (ICMP) Due Before Class
23	Fri 3/21/2025	Intermezzo: Raw Sockets, ICMP	A guide to using raw sockets Peterson/Davie 3.3.8	HW4 Part 1 Due
24	Mon 3/24/2025	IPv6
25	Wed 3/26/2025	Introduction To Routing, Link State Algorithms
26	Fri 3/28/2025	Continue Link State Algorithms		HW4 Part 2 Due HW5: Mini Router Out
27	Mon 3/31/2025	Distance Vector Algorithms
28	Wed 4/2/2025	Routing at Scale: Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
The Link Layer
29	Fri 4/4/2025	Introduction To The Link Layer, Parity Checks		HW5 Part 1 Due
30	Mon 4/7/2025	Checksums, Cyclic Redundancy Checks (CRC)
31	Wed 4/9/2025	Switching, Ethernet Protocol
32	Fri 4/11/2025	Address Resolution Protocol (ARP), And Security Vulnerabilities Therein
33	Mon 4/14/2025	Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP)
The Physical Layer
34	Wed 4/16/2025	Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)		HW5 Part 2 Due HW6: Beeps And Boops: The Audio Physical Layer (Python) Out
35	Fri 4/18/2025	Aloha Protocol
36	Mon 4/21/2025	Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
Cybersecurity
--	Wed 4/23/2025	COSA Day		No CS 372 Class. Enjoy the break!
37	Fri 4/25/2025	Basics of encryption		HW6 Due HW7: Student Cybersecurity Presentations (NO DROP) Out
38	Mon 4/28/2025	Public key encryption algorithms, RSA
39	Wed 4/30/2025	VPNs And Tunneling
40	Fri 5/2/2025	Student Presentations: Group 1: DDOS Attacks Group 2: Man-in-the-middle (MITM) Attacks
41	Mon 5/5/2025	Student Presentations: Group 3: Phishing attacks (including whale/spear) Group 4: Password Attacks
42	Wed 5/7/2025	Student Presentations: Group 5: DNS Spoofing / MAC Address Spoofing Group 6: Web Attacks (XSS, CSRF, SQL Injection)

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Grading

Breakdown

Class Engagement / Pre-Class Modules	20%
Programming Assignments	70%
Comprehensive Final Exam	10%

Deadlines Policy

I have been very flexible in the past, but I have observed that this is usually to the detriment of students who let certain assignments drag on well past the deadlines and fail to move onto subsequent assignments, ultimately failing the course or getting artificially low grades that do not reflect their abilities. Moving forward, I would like to prevent this, and I would like all students to learn how to triage and submit "good enough" work on individul assignments so they can keep moving, and to practice valuable accountability skills that will benefit them in future endeavors past Ursinus. At the same time, I recognize that many things happen outside of the classroom that are beyond your control; life is inherently difficult and unpredictable, particularly for those who come from different backgrounds and who have responsiblities beyond the classroom. Therefore, I am building an oxymoronic "rigid flexibility" structure into the course, without exceptions outside of official accommodations. The rules are as follows:

• All programming assignments are due at 11:59PM EST on the date(s) stated on the schedule

• You have 5 free late days to use on programming assignments throughout the semester. These will go down to the decimal point if you submit minutes or hours after a deadline, so students don't have to fret about submitting at, e.g., 12:05 AM. You will get extra credit for any days you do not use, but no work will be accepted once the lateness days are used up

• To help you adjust to the above policy, I will drop the lowest score on a mini-deadline in the assignments category by the end of the semester. For instance, if homework X has 3 mini deadlines and you miss the third deadline and get a 0, but you hand in both other parts and all parts of all other assignments on time, then I will ignore the third deadline on homework X.

• Labs will not be accepted late because the timing has been planned very carefully to set you up for class and for subsequent assignments, but I will drop the lowest lab score at the end of the semester to help you adjust to this new policy.

• Pre-class content modules that are submitted after class will get half credit.

To reiterate, you will find lots of flexiblity built into these policies, but they are designed to prevent you from getting too stuck on an individual assignment, and also to incentivize people to come prepared for lively class discussions. I hope we will all have more positive experiences moving forward with this.

Letter Grades

Letter grades will be assigned on the scale below at the end of the course.

A+: 99+ A: 93-98.9 A-: 89.5-92.9

B+: 87-89.49 B: 83-86.9 B-: 79.5-82.9

C+: 77-79.49 C: 73-76.9 C-: 69.5-72.9

D+: 67-69.49 D: 63-66.9 D-: 59.5-62.9

F: 59.49 and below

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Classroom Environment

Inclusive Environment

Computer science is a field that has historically been and continues to be steeped in inequalities. Mindful of this, my goal in class is to foster a environment in which students across all axes of diversity feel welcome and valued, both by me and by their peers. Axes of diversity include, but are not limited to, age, background, beliefs, race, ethnicity, gender/gender identity/gender expression (feel free to tell me in person or over e-mail which pronouns I should use), national origin, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation. Discrimination of any form will not be tolerated.

A slightly more subtle thing that we want to watch out for in class is not to assume anything about others based on implicit biases. I have heard from quieter students at Ursinus from different backgrounds in the past that they sometimes feel their contributions aren't valued from their group members and that they're talked over during collaborations. So be mindful of this and be sure to curb this behavior in yourself if you notice it...this is something immediate you can to do help stem the leaky pipeline in our field.

.Furthermore, I want all students to feel comfortable expressing their opinions or confusion at any point in the course, as long as they do so respectfully. As I will stress over and over, being confused is an important part of the process of learning computer science. Learning computer science and struggling to grow is not always comfortable, but I want it to feel safe. In other words, I will regularly keep you at the boundary of your comfort zone with challenging, real-world assignments, but I want you to feel comfortable with me and your peers and respected as a learner during the process.

Finally, I am aware that, particularly during the pandemic, there are a variety of factors that may make it difficult to perform at your best level in class. At Ursinus, we are fortunate to have quite a mix of students from different backgrounds, many of whom need to work part time, and an increasing number of whom are commuters and have family obligations. If you find yourself having difficulty performing at the level that you want and/or turning assignments in on time because of any of these issues, communicate with me, and we can come up with a solution together (I will gently reach out if I notice any slips even if you don't communicate). This is an exciting capstone course, and I want to work to keep your excitement alive, regardless of your personal circumstances. We will get you through the course as long as the lines of communication are open and we work together. You belong in CS!

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Participation

Classroom Attendance And Etiquette

Students are expected to attend class in person. We're shooting for engagement over mere attendance; students are expected to be active in class exercises and to be fully invested in the class (i.e. no internet browsing). Students who are unable to attend class for significant reasons (whether isolation or quarantine for students who have received a positive test, those experiencing Covid-related symptoms while awaiting test results, or other issues that make it difficult to attend class) should work pro-actively to make up any class exercises that they missed. To help with this, I will do my best to put up Youtube videos from other instructors on topics that we cover.

Finally, students are expected to follow any college policy requiring mask wearing on campus, in addition to following any guidance faculty provide for their individual classes.Masks should be available in every academic building, if needed.

Maximizing Your Communal Experience

Here are ways students can maximize their experience as a class community, and which could lead to extra credit in certain situations.

• Helping to teach a student a topic during office hours.
• Certain calls for participation in class
• Particularly helpful or insightful messages on Discord
• Finding mistakes in the book or on the assigned homework

Discord Communication Policy

Since this is a class-wide communication, the following rules apply to online communication

• Students are expected to be respectful and mindful of the classroom environment and inclusivity standards. They are equally applicable to a virtual environment as they are in class.
• Students are not permitted to publicly share direct answers or questions which might completely give away answers to any homework problems. When in doubt, send me a direct message on Discord.
• I will attempt to answer questions real time during my student office hours. Otherwise, I will make every attempt to respond within 24 hours on weekdays. I cannot be expected to respond at all on Saturdays or Sundays or outside of 10AM-8PM on weekdays, so plan accordingly. (Of course, students can and should still respond to each other outside of these intervals, when appropriate).

The points above are part of a more general term referred to as "netiquette." Refer to the chart below, provided by Touro College

Collaboration Policy

Overall Philosophy

The collaboration policy for this class walks the line between encouraging openness and collaboration during a challenging learning process, while also making sure that each students is progressing technically at an individual level without relying on 100% on other classmates. Communication between students is allowed (and encouraged!) on most assignments, but it is expected that every student's code or writeups will be completely distinct. General rules are as follows:

• Do not copy code off of the Internet

• Use of ChatGPT or other large language models is not permitted in this class. Later in your career once you've mastered the fundamentals we're covering, it's more appropriate to use it as a co-pilot. But you have to learn how to do it on your own first. Furthermore, since these models are optimized to sound convincing rather than to output correct information, it's quite likely that they will introduce bugs into code that they generate. So it's likely it will be easier to write your code from scratch anyway.

  Finally, even for more basic questions about syntax, etc, I don't want you to use ChatGPT; rather, I'd like you to share these questions with the class on discord (anonymously, if you'd like) so that others can see what common points of confusion are.

• Please do cite any sources in addition to materials linked from the course website that you used to help in crafting your code and completing the assignment

Assignment Buddies

To encourage collaboration, students will be allowed (not required) to choose one or more "buddies" to work "near" during assignments. Students are still expected to submit their own solutions, but they are allowed to provide substantial help to each other, and even to look at each others' code during the process. Students should indicate their buddies in the README upon assignment submission. Let me know if you would like a buddy but are having trouble finding one.

Individual Assignments

There will be a few assignments that students are expected to complete on their own with no communication with anyone but me. They will be limited in number, but this will be just to make sure every individual students is progressing technically. You can think of them like an open-ended, open-book take-home quiz where you can ask me questions.

Collaboration Scenarios Table

Below is a table spelling out in more detail when and how you are allowed to share code with people (table style cribbed from Princeton CS 126).

Click on each button below to view the collaboration parameters for each scenario. Labs are more permissive than assignments, which are more permissive than individual tasks

LabAssignment BuddyIndividual

* You may view and copy code from class exercises and class resources without citing them, but you should not copy solutions from previous semesters that the instructor may have provided

NOTE: The terms "exposing" and "viewing" exclude sending or ingesting electronically, which would be considered copying. Exposing and viewing are normally done in the context of in-person working or in the help room. When students work remotely, what this means is that buddies can screen share as they are working through things, but they should not send code directly.

NOTE ALSO: "Other people" includes internet sources.

If the collaboration policy has been violated in any way, regardless of intent, then it may be an academic dishonesty case, and it will be referred to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. I am required to make this report in every occurrence, so it is best to speak with me first if there are any questions about the policy or expectations. You should feel free to have these conversations with me anytime prior to making your submission without fear of penalty.

On a more personal note, though a willful violation of academic honesty may seem merely transactional to a student, faculty take violations very personally, as they are disrespectful to the time and effort we put into our courses. I would also like to emphasize that your reputation is much more important than your grades. The recommendations we as faculty write go a long way, and we are much happier to write positive recommendations for students with lower grades who show grit and growth than we are to write recommendations for students with higher grades who have cheated.

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Other Resources / Policies

Accommodations

In addition to our general awareness diversity, Ursinus College is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. Students with a disability should contact the Directory of Disability Services ASAP at disabilityservices@ursinus.edu. They are located in Lower Wismer. Visit this link for more information on the process. I will do my best to accommodate your requests, and they will be kept completely confidential.

One on One Tutoring

One on one tutoring for up to two hours per week is available through the institute for student success. Click here to fill out a Qualtrics survey if you'd like to take advantage of this.

Let's Talk

Mental health care is increasingly recognized as a crucial service for the undergraduate population. Visit this link for more information about complementary counseling services provided by the college. The Wellness Center has a virtual drop-in crisis hour at 2-3 pm each weekday, which is available for students in crisis who need to be seen immediately by a clinician. If you are still hesitant to go, take me (Professor Tralie) as an example of someone who has benefited greatly from talk therapy and medication in the past. I am happy to discuss this in student office hours in more detail.

Beyond that, please have a look at this document for a variety of resources related to mental health at Ursinus.

Finally, be aware that there are resources outside of mental health care proper to address some core sources of mental stress and strain, such as time management and writing at the Institute for Student Success and the Center for Writing And Speaking.

Title IX

Title IX is a federal law, under which it is prohibited to discriminate on the basis of gender. The Title IX Coordinator is available to receive inquiries and to investigate allegations in this regard.

Inclement Weather Policy (aka COVID Policy)

In the event that the College closes due to inclement weather or other circumstances (such as a COVID lockdown), our in-person class sessions, drop-in student office hours, or other meetings will not be held. I will contact you regarding our plan with regard to rescheduling the class or the material, any assignments that are outstanding, and how we can move forward with the material (for example, any readings or remote discussions that we can apply). If necessary, I may schedule online virtual sessions in lieu of class sessions, and will contact you with information about how to participate in those. I will communicate this plan to the department so that it can be posted on my office door if it is feasible to do so. This policy and procedure will also apply in the event that the College remains open but travel conditions are hazardous or not otherwise conducive to holding class as normal. Should another exigent circumstance arise (for example, illness), I will follow this policy and procedure as well.