1. The school requires instructors to make sure that their courses adhere, for the most part, to the official descriptions published in the Undergraduate Degree & Course Catalog (and which are reproduced on HUB in your course schedules). So, here is the official description of this course in generic terms:
   

   “The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for [1] critical thinking, [2] ethical reasoning, and [3] oral communication, and [4] learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.” (Enumeration and emphasis added.)
   

   Syllabus Course Description (What this specific course is about)
   Our purpose in this course is to explore the societal significance, in terms of culture, identity, politics, etc., of select images and symbols that dominate the media (both traditional media and social media) from the perspectives of such social structural markers as ethnicity, race, gender, disability, class, and so on, against the background of, to quote the official course description above, “common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for (a) critical thinking, (b) ethical reasoning, and (c) oral communication, and (d) learning at a university.” Ultimately (that is, in the final analysis), this course at the sub-textual level seeks to explore the meaning of democracy in terms of these two of several very consequential and revolutionary quotes that mark the long blood-soaked journey of this country--involving thousands upon thousands of deaths--toward peace and democracy, as we have come to understand it today:
   

   "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [persons] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among [the people], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" (from the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, signed August 2, 1776--emphasis in this quote is not in the original).
   
   "[T]hat this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" (from the Gettysburg Address by President Abraham Lincoln, delivered on November 19, 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, at the height of the U.S. Civil War--emphasis in this quote is not in the original.)
   

   Pedagogy
   (a) This course will be taught from an inter-disciplinary perspective (combining primarily political science, history, sociology, and law). That is, it will introduce you to whatever insights, concepts, and theories relevant to the study of a given topic, regardless of their disciplinary location.
   (b) From a structural point of view, the course has three parts to it: (a) class lectures, (b) course readings, and (c) audio-visual material. While each of these three parts will, of course, be related, they, however, will not have identical content. For example: class lectures will not always be a repetition of material in course readings. In fact, my primary concern during class lectures/discussions will be to highlight macro-societal processes and events (leaving the rest of the heavy lifting to assignments). Therefore, attendance in this course is absolutely mandatory. Missing the audio-visual material, for instance, will have severe repercussions on test-performance. (NOTE: Audio-visual material screened in class will not always be available outside class.)
   
   Because the course is also expected to meet Gen Ed requirements, you will also be introduced to material on succeeding in a research university, as well as ways to enhance your executive function skills and critical thinking skills that can help with meeting this objective.
   
   Generic Learning Outcomes
   The following are the learning outcomes for this course, as mandated by the University's Gen Ed Curriculum:
   
   
   1. Think critically using multiple modes of inquiry. [E.g., confirmation inquiry, structured inquiry, open inquiry, guided inquiry.]
   2. Analyze disciplinary content to identify contexts, learn fresh perspectives, and debate and discuss problems in the field.
   3. Understand and apply methods of close reading, note taking, analysis, and synthesis.
   4. Recognize and debate ethical issues and academic integrity in a variety of settings.
   5. Demonstrate proficiency in oral discourse and written communication.
   6. Develop essential research and study skills, such as time management.
   7. Understand the academic expectations pertaining to being a student at the University at Buffalo and to higher learning at a research university.

Critical Thinking
So, what is "Critical Thinking"? 
It is the rigorous interdisciplinary intellectual practice of critically, skillfully, and consistently (a) investigating, (b) problematizing, (c) conceptualizing, (d) analyzing, (e) synthesizing, (f) theorizing, (g) evaluating, and (h) applying information against the backdrop of cognition-related behavior characterized by, among other things:

1. the scrupulous application of moral reasoning to ethical questions;
2. professionalism (defined here as a web of interlinked behavioral habits, that include dedication, dependability, diligence, compassion, dignity, competence, civility, impartiality, honesty, and so on);
3. a fiery passion for truth;
4. a relentless commitment to fairness and justice (in one’s own personal life, and in social terms);
5. a profound belief in the value of honest research;
6. intellectual humility;
7. patience and open-mindedness to take seriously the views of others;
8. a deep commitment to the acquisition of knowledge and information on a variety of issues, both, personal as well as public;
9. uncompromising honesty in confronting personal biases, prejudices, stereotypes, etc.;
10. possession of limitless curiosity regarding all kinds of intellectual subject matter; and
11. a refusal to make judgments that are not based on reasoned reflection.

Academic Freedom

People, because of the kinds of topics we will be covering in this course (relating to race, gender, class, democracy, the rule of law, etc., etc.) which may sometimes provoke controversy among some of you, it is really important that you understand the university’s policy on academic freedom as it relates to faculty. This policy reads in part: The University supports the principle of academic freedom as a concept intrinsic to the achievement of its institutional goals. This principle implies a trust in the integrity and responsibility of the members of the academic community. Samuel P. Capen, former Chancellor of the University of Buffalo, who is remembered for the tradition of academic freedom he implemented during his leadership of the University, said in 1935:

“Acceptance by an institution of the principles of academic freedom implies that teachers in that institution are free to investigate any subject, no matter how much it may be hedged about by taboos; that they are free to make known the results of their investigation and their reflection by word of mouth or in writing, before their classes or elsewhere; that they are free as citizens to take part in any public controversy outside the institution; that no repressive measures, direct or indirect, will be applied to them no matter how unpopular they may become through opposing powerful interests or jostling established prejudices, and no matter how mistaken they may appear to be in the eyes of members and friends of the institution; that their continuance in office will be in all instances governed by the prevailing rules of tenure and that their academic advancement will be dependent on their scientific competence and will be in no way affected by the popularity or unpopularity of their opinions or utterances….”