PUAD 4010/CRJU 4600: Public Service in Emergency Management and Homeland Security

PUAD 4010/CRJU 4600: Public Service in Emergency Management and Homeland Security

Instructor:

Sheila M. Huss, Ph.D.
School of Public Affairs; 1380 Lawrence Street, 5th Floor (525P)
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:15 to 10:45; by appointment

Phone: (719)660-8511 (cell); (303)315-0526 (office)
E-mail: (preferred method of communication)

Welcome to PUAD 4010/CRJU 4600! I am looking forward to a great semester with everyone! The syllabus lays out what to expect in terms of course material, expectations, objectives, and assessments that will evaluate how well you are accomplishing the course objectives.

Course Description:

This course, whether taken as a Criminal Justice class or a Public Service class, is an upper-division or a graduate elective. The class is cross-listed, and graduate students will have some different requirements to reflect a more rigorous degree pursuit. Public Service in Emergency Management and Homeland Security, “introduces emergency management and homeland security including: management of hazards, emergencies, disasters, and the networks of government and nonprofit organizations providing services. Focuses on principles of emergency management and homeland security at state and local jurisdictional levels.”

In the School of Public Affairs BAPS Program, graduates should participate in and contribute effectively to public service; analyze, synthesize, and think critically; solve problems; and make decisions. Students should demonstrate integrity and communicate and interact productively with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry. Outcomes associated with this goal include field specific knowledge, personal and professional growth, quantitative and qualitative research skills, and communication skills.

In the School of Public Affairs Criminal Justice Program, students will become innovative thinkers and skilled professionals in the fields of Criminology and Criminal Justice by developing five main competencies, including: (1) substantive knowledge, (2) research skills, (3) critical thinking, (4) effective communication, and (5) diversity and cultural literacy.

Student Learning Objectives:

1. Be familiar with the principles of emergency management and theories relevant to homeland security and emergency management.

1. Know how and why the fields of emergency management and homeland security changed after September 11, 2001.

1. Understand the nature of risk, crises, disasters, and catastrophes.

1. Be familiar with government regulations and requirements.

1. Understand issues of governance—how emergency management fits in the community, in government, and in business.

1. Understand concepts of public-private partnerships, like mutual aid agreements

1. Understand the crime of terrorism and its impact on homeland security (and also how homeland security strategies impact potential terrorist threats and behaviors).
   
2. Understand the role of local and federal law enforcement in homeland security.
   

Required Textbook and Readings:

Robert S. Radvanovsky and Allan McDougall. Critical Infrastructure: Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, 3rd Ed. 2016. You do not need this book until the 4th week of the semester. You can rent the e-book for under $50 if you do not want to purchase it.

Other readings will be required, and they can be accessed on the Canvas course page. Be sure to check the weekly modules each week to ensure you are obtaining all the required readings. Some are on the syllabus, but others will be added as the course progresses.

Some weeks, there will be an oral lecture for you to listen to—you are required to listen to the lectures.

You need to have an active CU Denver account (including e-mail); you need to be able to access the Canvas course page, as this page is where you will find readings, assignment descriptions, course announcements, etc. Please pay special attention to announcements and modules. Canvas also is where you will submit assignments. If you have difficulties with Canvas, please contact the Canvas Help Desk.

Disability Accommodations:

CU Denver is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities. The syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. If you have a disability that may impact your work in this class and for which you may require accommodations, please contact Disability Services at (303) 556-3450. Students who receive accommodation letters, please contact me to discuss the provisions of those accommodations as soon as possible. If you do not have a disability, but are dealing with an issue that may affect your performance in this course (e.g., English is your second language), please let me know, so we can work together to manage the issue in a way that will facilitate your success in this course.

Academic Dishonesty:

All students must be honest and forthright in their academic studies. To falsify the results of research, to steal the words or ideas of another, to cheat on an assignment, or to allow/assist another to commit these acts corrupts the educational process. Students are expected to do their own work and neither give, nor receive, unauthorized assistance.

Because academic dishonesty seems to be a systemic problem at CU Denver, you are required to review the Canvas module on plagiarism and take a multiple choice quiz (built into the module) on each section.** This exercise is a way for you to learn about academic dishonesty in a proactive, non-threatening manner. You must complete all three of the section quizzes and either copy and paste them (with your results showing a perfect score) or take a screen shot of each one (again, showing a perfect score). I just need to see evidence of all quiz questions answered correctly (screen shots or copy/paste or a certificate of completion, as I said in the previous sentence)—no need to stress about how you submit the documentation! The academic dishonesty quizzesare an ungraded assignment on Canvas, but required. Failure to complete this exercise will result in half of a letter grade deduction in your final grade.

**Click “Academic Integrity Course” to get started

Additionally, here is a link that discusses how to avoid plagiarism. This document gives specific examples of how to summarize and synthesize information and how to appropriately cite the information. You are required to familiarize yourself with this information.

Finally, I use a program on Canvas called turnitin. Turnitin provides a report of originality of your work, along with a score, which reflects the percent of your work that is not original. You should submit your assignments early, so that you will be able to see your turnitin report. If you submit an assignment and notice a turnitin score of (for example) 10%, I recommend reviewing the report and, if necessary, revising and resubmitting your assignment. There may be reasons other than plagiarism for a high turnitin score, so you should review the report to see what material is identified as unoriginal. For example, in classes where I have given essay exams, students were instructed to copy and paste the essay questions above their answers. Everyone had a turnitin score of about 15% because the essay questions were identical on everyone’s exam. Viewing the turnitin report will show you this type of thing. You have an opportunity to self-correct—please take it. Once an assignment is due, you may not resubmit it, so if you would like to take advantage of the opportunity to check your own work for plagiarism, you need to turn in the document before the due date/time.

Because you have multiple opportunities before you turn in an assignment to learn what academic dishonesty is, to ask questions about it, and to correct your own work, if I catch academic dishonesty, the consequence very likely will be an automatic F in the class and notification of the dean. Your intent is irrelevant (i.e., “I didn’t know that was cheating” is not an excuse). Part of being fair is being consistent, so I will not consider individual circumstances—all instances will be treated the same.

Late Assignments:

For each day (24-hour period) an assignment is late, 5 points will be deducted from your total score on the assignment.

Email Etiquette:

I frequently check e-mail and will make every effort to get back to you in a timely manner; however, I also maintain an active social and professional life outside of class and may not be able to provide as prompt a response as you desire. Typically, I respond to e-mails within 24 business hours and almost always within 48 business hours. If you wait until the day before an assignment is due to ask a question, you risk not receiving an answer in time—please do NOT send multiple e-mails in a short period of time. I do not ignore e-mails, so when I receive your e-mail and have a chance to respond, I will.

Evaluation of Student Learning:

Students will be evaluated according to the following grading scale and criteria:

93% -100%(555-600)A
90%-92%(537-554)A-
88%-89%(525-536)B+
83%-87%(495-524)B
80%-82%(477-494)B-
78%-79%(465-476)C+
73%-77%(435-464)C
70%-72%(417-434)C-
60%-69%(357-416)D
Below 60%(356 or below)F

You will be graded on weekly quizlets,five threaded discussions, some smaller projects (op ed piece, twitter feed, career brief, top ten list…), and a large case study.The total number of possible points is 600. Detailed assignment descriptions are available on Canvas—you should read them prior to submitting assignments.

Weekly Quizlets (15 weeks x 10 points = 150 points/25%): Each week, you will create a quizlet to demonstrate your understanding of the required reading. More details are discussed in a separate assignment sheet. If you read what was assigned, you should not have difficulty with the quizlets.

Threaded Discussions (5weeks x 10 points = 50 points/8.3%):Five weeks of the semester, you will be required to participate in a threaded discussion. Details are provided on the discussion threads. You will have one week to participate in them and reply to your classmates.

Op Ed (75 points/12.5%): You will pick a controversial topic (can be local or national) and write a letter to a relevant newspaper (so, if it’s a local issue in Tampa, FL, write to the Tampa paper about it). Your letter will draw on research to delineate your position on the issue. You should read existing op ed letters and model yours after those. I have given this assignment in the past, and at least one student had theirs published!

Career Brief (25 points/4.2%): Choose a public service career in emergency management or homeland security and put together a document (pamphlet or page) with job possibilities and brief descriptions of the job possibilities. Your brief should contain graphics and logos; it should be colorful (or on colored paper and scanned), and it should have some substance on the career you chose.

Twitter Feed (50 points/8.3%): You will choose a specific disaster, emergency, or catastrophe and write a Twitter feed (no more than 140 characters) on the human side of whatever you chose. Your story should be real—you can look up newspaper accounts, blogs, etc.—whatever resources you need to find stories.

Top Ten List (50 points/8.3%): You are going to write the ’10 most important take-aways’ from the book and write them with humor (like you’re doing a Saturday Night Live skit or stand-up or something).

Case Study (200 points/33.3%): This is your big semester project! You will choose an emergency, disaster, or catastrophe (a general one—so, something like “avalanches” or “mountain rescues” or “domestic terrorism”); you may need to narrow it down from these broad categories, but you are not choosing a specific event that already occurred (9/11, Hurricane Katrina, etc.) You will write on several dimensions of your chosen case: history and general background, specific instances that inform it (e.g., if you are writing about hurricane threats in a coastal area, then you would talk about specific hurricanes that have occurred in this part of your case study), a theoretical perspective, policy and regulation related to your emergency, disaster, or catastrophe, and development of an emergency plan—so, for each phase of the emergency management cycle, you need to include all stakeholders and talk about their role in your plan. Your case study should include tables, figures, appendices, diagrams, and anything else you can think of to enhance its presentation.

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Due dates are noted on the course calendar—all assignments, including quizlets, discussions, and smaller assignments are due on Saturdays by 11:59 PM, unless otherwise noted.

Class Schedule and Reading Assignments:

Week 1:Introductory Material (1/17-1/21 – short week)
Readings:See Canvas Module 1
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; threaded discussion 1

Week 2:Historical Context of Emergency Management (1/22-1/28)
Readings:See Canvas Module 2
Assignments: Weekly quizlet

Week 3:Theoretical Perspective in Emergency Management (1/29-2/4)
Readings:See Canvas Module 3
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; career brief

Week 4:Introduction to Critical Infrastructure (2/5-2/11)
Readings: Text with that title; see Canvas Module 4
Assignments: Weekly quizlet

Week 5:Demand, Capacity, Fragility, and Emergence of Networks (2/12-2/18)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 5
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; Twitter feed

Week 6:Beyond National Frameworks (2/19-2/25)
Readings: Text chapter; see Canvas Module 6
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; threaded discussion 2

Week 7:Public-Private Partnerships (2/26-3/4)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 7
Assignments:Weekly quizlet

Week 8:Reinvention of Information Sharing and Intelligence (3/5-3/11)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 8
Assignments:Weekly quizlet

Week 9:Emergency Preparedness and Readiness (3/12-3/18)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 9
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; threaded discussion 3

CU Denver spring break is from 3/19 to 3/25/17. Have an awesome break!!

Week 10:Security Vulnerability Assessment (3/26-4/1)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 10
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; Op Ed letter

Week 11:Regulations (4/2-4/8)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 11
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; threaded discussion 4

Week 12:Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (4/9-4/15)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 12
Assignments:Weekly quizlet

Week 13:Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (4/16-4/22)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 13
Assignments:Weekly quizlet

Week 14:Critical Infrastructure Information (4/23-4/29)
Readings:Text chapter; see Canvas Module 14
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; Top Ten List assignment

Week 15:Applications to Real-Life Events (4/30-5/6)
Readings:See Canvas Module 15
Assignments:Weekly quizlet; threaded discussion 5

Finals Week:May 7-May 13
Assignments:Case Study Project – due Monday, 5/8 by 11:59 PM

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