A reading course is a specially designed course not normally offered as part of the curriculum that is arranged between a student and a faculty member. The course is run as a tutorial and counts as a regular course. It may count as a departmental in your concentration but may not satisfy distribution requirements.
If you are interested in a particular topic or subject that complements your academic program, you should discuss your interest with a faculty member. If he or she is willing to direct your reading course, the two of you should design the course together. You should agree on the reading list, the assignments that will be due, the meeting time, how the course will be graded and whether or not it will count as a departmental.
In most respects, the requirements of a reading course are essentially the same as those of regularly scheduled courses. Both the amount of work and the amount of class meeting time should be similar to that of a regularly scheduled course; that means that you and the faculty member should plan to meet approximately three hours per week over the course of the semester.
You will need to submit your application in the Reading Course Proposal portal. Be prepared to includes course information along with a complete syllabus for review. The system will notify the supervising professor and the chair or departmental representative of the supervising professor's department for review and to sign off on the proposal. Once the departmental review process is complete, the course will be reviewed by Dean Peeples. Please contact Racheal L. Jones with questions or to schedule an appointment to discuss your proposed course in person. Please keep in mind that the reading course approval and entry into TigerHub must be completed before the deadline for adding/dropping courses in that term. To allow for the necessary processes to be completed before the end of the add/drop period, all proposals must be received by the deans’ assistant during the first week of classes. Students participating in a reading course for the first time are also expected to meet with Dean Peeples in person during the third week of the term.
Students are normally limited to one reading course per term.
A reading course will appear on your transcript with the department code, a special 090-level course number and a descriptive transcript title.