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Spring 2026 Course Syllabus
Course: HIST-1302 (Section: 2D, CRN: 10833) United States History II |
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| Instructor | Marshall Godwin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| godwinmt@lamarpa.edu | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Phone | (409) 984-6320 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Office | Madison Monroe Educational - Room: 147 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Office Hours | Monday: 9:00 - 11:30 and 3:15 - 4:45 Tuesday: 11:00 - 12:30 Wednesday: 9:00 - 11:30 Thursday: Virtual 9:00 - 10:00 Friday: 9:00 - 10:00 My office is located at Student Center 414, not in Madison Monroe 147. |
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| Additional Contact Information | The best way to contact me is via the email address listed above using your LSCPA student email account. If you send me an email during the week, expect a response within 24 business hours (three standard workdays) of my receipt of said email. If you email me on a Friday afternoon or over the weekend, expect a reply no earlier than the first class day of the following week. Owing to my current schedule, you should not expect a response to a weekend email until late Monday at the earliest. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course Information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description | A survey of the social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of the United States from the Civil War/Reconstruction era to the present. United States History II examines industrialization, immigration, world wars, the Great Depression, Cold War and post-Cold War eras. Themes that may be addressed in United States History II include: American culture, religion, civil and human rights, technological change, economic change, immigration and migration, urbanization and suburbaniza | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Required Textbooks |
Textbook Purchasing Statement: A student attending Lamar State College Port Arthur is not under any obligation to purchase a textbook from the college-affiliated bookstore. The same textbook may also be available from an independent retailer, including an online retailer.
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| Additional Materials/Resources |
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| Corequisites/Prerequisites | None | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Learning Outcomes |
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| Core Objectives |
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| Lecture Topics Outline |
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| Major Assignments Schedule |
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| Final Exam Date | May 11, 2026 - 1:40 PM Through May 11, 2026 - 2:55 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grading Scale |
Assignments are all graded on a percentage basis, and your grade in the course likewise will consist of a percentage score. Letter grades correspond to the following percentages:
I do not round grades. If you score an 89.5% on an assignment, your letter grade is a B and your numerical grade remains an 89.5%: it will not be rounded up to a 90%/A. You scored what you scored, and that is that. This also goes for course grades: if your final |
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| Determination of Final Grade |
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| Course Policies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Instructor Policies |
Syllabus Policy The instructor reserves the right to adjust this syllabus and all of its contents – including but not limited to assignment instructions, due dates, and course materials – as needed. Should the instructor decide to make any changes to the syllabus, these changes would not be made “quietly:” rather, I would announce via Blackboard announcements and LSCPA email that the syllabus has been altered and what about the syllabus has been altered. The primary purpose of this policy is to account for the unfortunate reality that tropical cyclones are not only a likelihood, but an inevitability in our corner of the world. As the world warms, tropical cyclones are becoming more common in the Atlantic Basin and are spawning during a wider section of the year. Combined with the presence of heavy industry in Jefferson County and the increased prevalence of wildfires in southeast Texas, it is crucial that we are always prepared for both natural and human-caused disasters. Student Email Policy It is incumbent upon you as a college student to routinely check your LSCPA email. I would recommend signing in to check it no less than once every twenty-four hours. You will receive communiques from me (and other professors and personnel) through the LSCPA email account. I will not – in fact, I cannot – respond to emails sent to me from a third party account: this includes, but is of course not limited to, gmail, Yahoo mail, personal Outlook accounts, or any account other than your LSCPA account. If the sender’s address does not end in @lamarpa.edu, I cannot respond to it. You will not receive responses to any emails save those sent from your LSCPA account. Blackboard Message Policy I do not respond to Blackboard messages, as they are a less reliable form of communication (and in frank honesty, I do not always receive them). Do not send me questions via Blackboard: log in to your LSCPA email account and email me directly. Restroom Use Policy Only one student may utilize the restroom at a time. A clipboard will be present with the instructor at the front of the room, and when a student requests to use the restroom, they must sign out. The instructor will provide a timestamp for when they left the room. When the student returns, the instructor will mark the time they returned. Suspiciously long visits to the restroom will be reported. Seating Chart Policy A seating chart will be implemented at the beginning of the semester based on last name. If you do not sit in your assigned seat, you will be counted absent for that class day. Refusal to revert to your assigned seat might result in further disciplinary action as the situation requires. Class Recording Policy Unless explicit written permission is provided by the instructor, you DO NOT have the right to record class sessions through any means whatsoever. This includes, but is not limited to, video recording, audio recording, and photography. Exceptions might be made upon request at the discretion of the instructor or in the event that recordings are necessitated by an Accommodations Memorandum. If you record without explicit written permission from the instructor, you will be counted absent for the day and disciplinary actions might be taken. Phone Use During Class Policy Unless you are explicitly authorized by the instructor to take out your phone OR unless you have an Accommodations Memorandum necessitating your use of your phone as a recording device for notetaking purposes, you ARE NOT allowed to ever have your phone out during class. If you do use your phone for any reason during class time without express authorization of the instructor, you will be counted absent for that class period and further disciplinary action might be taken as the case warrants. As well, since you are not allowed to have your phones in class anyways, I will report you to the high school, district, to dual credit and to LSCPA student services. Classroom Etiquette Policy I take the issue of civility seriously and expect everyone in the classroom to behave civilly toward one another. This means, firstly, that I will not tolerate any form of discriminatory remarks or actions by any student(s) against any other person(s) on the basis of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, immigration status, ethnicity, descent, religion, or any other factor whatsoever. I don’t care who you are or what your identity is nor do I care what individual or identity you discriminated against, it won’t be tolerated. Secondly, you will be kind and respectful toward your peers during class discussions and lectures: listen when someone else is talking and show others the courtesy that ought to be shown to you. Unless someone is behaving in a discriminatory manner, you have no reason to interrupt your fellow students – regardless of how much you might disagree with their perspectives. Civil disagreement is crucial to a healthy, functioning republic, so my advice when someone says something you disagree with? Deal with it. The world does not consist of clones of you. Furthermore, in any debate, it is often beneficial to allow your opponent to keep talking. To recite a famous, but garbled, paraphrase of something Napoleon Bonaparte once (sort of) said, “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Thirdly, you will be respectful of the learning environment. Disruptive students – e.g., students who talk on their phones during class or who talk while other students are presenting – will be reprimanded. If circumstances require it, the instructor will request the offending student leave the room, and will mark the offending student absent for that class session. Fourthly, you will be quiet during roll call unless the instructor has called your name. Students talking loudly during roll call to the point that the instructor cannot hear if another student has responded to their name being called will be found in violation of this etiquette policy and might be counted absent themselves. Finally, if there are any acts of violence or threats of violence by any student(s) against any other student(s), the instructor, or any other person whatsoever, the offending student(s) will be removed both from the classroom and from the course entirely. If a student violates any portion of this etiquette policy, they can be counted absent for the day, regardless of whether they remain in the classroom or not. If a student’s presence is so disruptive that other students cannot complete their tasks, the offending student will be asked to leave the room, or security will escort them out if necessary. If such an incident were to occur on a test day, the offending student would receive an automatic zero for the test without any possibility of retaking it. Pregnant and Parenting Student Policy In accordance with state law, pregnant and students caring for a child of minority age are afforded certain considerations that other students are not. Pregnant or parenting students are allowed up to five excused absences per course per semester, and while they do not have to present college instructors with the same kinds of documentation required of other students, they do need to inform the instructor that they will be absent as a result of an issue related to pregnancy or childcare. Pregnant and students who are parenting a child of minority age do not need to acquire Accommodations Memoranda from the Office for Disability Services in order to receive these excused absences, although the instructor must be alerted. Additionally, pregnant and parenting students can meet with the instructor to determine the wheres, whens and hows of making up assignments missed due to pregnancy or parenting issues or crises. A Note on Accommodations Memoranda Students who provide the instructor with an Accommodations Memorandum are entitled to work with the instructor so that they can best implement the necessary accommodations within the confines of the course. That said, the instructor is unable to implement any accommodations if an Accommodations Memorandum is not presented to the instructor. Federal law requires that students be afforded the same opportunities as all other students unless certain other legally-defined criteria are met. What this means is that I cannot implement accommodations for you unless/until I receive an Accommodations Memorandum. In accordance with other legislation meant to protect students and ensure fairness in the classroom, accommodations are not retroactive, so they cannot be instituted until after I receive the Memorandum from you. You must furthermore submit your Accommodations Memorandum to me in PDF form via LSCPA email. An additional note: if you are slated to take an exam or another assignment at the Testing Center so that your accommodations can be met, then you must provide the Testing Center with a copy of your Accommodations Memorandum and confirm your scheduled time to take said assignment with the Testing Center. It is your responsibility as a college student to provide the Testing Center staff with a copy of your Accommodations Memorandum and to confirm when you will be taking an assignment there. A Note on Documentation of Medical and Other Crises If you are absent due to a routine doctor’s appointment, this does not constitute a medical crisis in this course and your absence will not be excused. Schedule your dentist’s appointment, your doctor’s appointment or your optometrist’s appointment on a day that isn’t a college class day. If there is any danger to life or limb, this does constitute a medical crisis and the instructor is willing to work with the student to schedule making up any missed work and to excuse the absence, provided documentation of said crisis is provided to the instructor and the instructor authenticates that said crisis really did occur or is occurring. Documentation here means that a third party (no, your parents and family members do not count, nor does the high school: it must be a third-party that can, to some degree, be relied upon to tell the truth) has written to me that you were in the Emergency Room, that you had to undergo this or that operation, etc., and that you were medically incapacitated and thus unable to fulfill your obligations as a college student. I will be researching the individual who wrote (or “wrote”) your letter and contacting them and their hospital, clinic or practice directly. If you give me a fake doctor’s note, you will not only be counted absent for the relevant class days but will be reported to your high school, to the dual credit department here, and I will write up a student behavior report for the Student Services department here on campus. If another crisis befalls you – e.g., you are involved in an automobile collision on the way to campus – I will similarly need documentation of that incident in order to excuse your absence or allow you to make up missed assignments. For instance, police reports, an officer to contact, and so on will be required, and I will be getting in touch with the relevant authorities before excusing your absence and allowing make up work, should I be able to authenticate the crisis. If you cannot provide me with documentation of a crisis, then I cannot excuse your absence and cannot allow you to make up any missed assignments. Late Work Policy Excepting students with an Accommodations Memorandum that necessitates different assignment timelines, students faced with a documented and authenticated medical or other crisis, and students who are pregnant or parenting a child of minority age, assignments are due when they are due, and that is that. If the aforementioned conditions do not apply to you and you have not finished and submitted the research assignment component for Module One by 11:59 PM on 02/13/26, then you earned a zero for that assignment. Beg and plead all you want, but you have weeks to get your work in on time: if you waited until the eleventh hour to do your work and thus did not get your work in before the due date, you have only yourself to blame. Note that this also applies to tests: as a college student, you are expected to keep track of your schedule and to be in class during test days. If you miss a test and the aforementioned conditions do not apply to you, then you’ve earned a zero for that test. This applies to both the midterm exam and the final exam. Note that if you do not turn in the syllabus quiz on time, you will still have to complete it in order to access the rest of the course Blackboard. You will not receive any credit for the completed syllabus quiz – after you have completed it, your grade will be reduced to zero – but you must still complete it in order to access the rest of the course. Making Up Missed Assignments For the majority of you, this is a nonissue: you do not get to make up missed assignments. If you missed the deadline for the assignment, then you earned a zero for said assignment, and that is that. If, however, you have a relevant accommodations memorandum clause, documented and authenticated crisis, or are pregnant or parenting, you might be able to make up missed work. The specifics will be handled on a case-by-case basis, as no two of any of the aforementioned sorts of conditions are ever quite the same, but provided you meet one of the above criteria, the instructor might allow you to make up missed work as befits your particular situation. Extra Credit Policy and Bonus Assignment Policy I will not create bespoke extra credit work for individual students because they did badly earlier in the semester or failed a test. Please do not insult me by asking me to do so. If you send me an email asking me to create extra credit work for you because “you really need to get a higher grade in the course,” you will not receive a response. The answer is no. I have, from time to time, offered bonus assignments to the entire class. I do this on a discretionary basis, and typically, should these assignments be offered at all, they take the form of offering x bonus points on an upcoming test if such-and-such bonus assignment is done well. I reserve the right to create class-wide bonus assignments that are equally available to everyone. Plagiarism Policy Academic integrity is essential to truly learning any subject or discipline. You are to submit your own work, not the work of peers, friends, or anyone – or anything – else. By cheating, you not only jeopardize your own academic future, you are cheating your future self out of your own education. All research papers will be screened for plagiarism. For a more thorough definition of plagiarism, please refer to the “Academic Policies” section of the Student Handbook. Below are the consequences for acts of plagiarism in this course:
Exam Policy The following rules apply at any time an exam is be administered:
Assignment Submission Policy All assignments, sans the exams, are to be turned in via Blackboard. If you email me an assignment, it will not be accepted. Additionally, the research components will typically require you to turn in Microsoft Word documents. If you turn in a PDF instead of a Word Document, you will receive a zero. You will also receive a zero if you submit any sort of SharePoint link. A Note on Assignment Instructions As a college student, it is your responsibility to read through assignment instructions. Make sure you do so before you turn your work in, so that you do not violate any failure conditions or clauses in the assignment instructions. As per this syllabus, any instructions given in conjunction with an assignment are binding and final. |
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| Attendance Policy |
Attendance will be taken at the beginning of the class period. When the instructor calls your name, you will state it clearly and audibly. You will also remain silent while the instructor is calling roll. If you are not present when attendance is called, you will be counted tardy. Additionally:
Absences will ONLY be excused in the event of a documented and authenticatable crisis or school-authorized academic event (e.g., taking the SAT or another standardized test). Non-academic events, regardless of whether they have been authorized or not, will not be eligible for an excused absence. Students who are pregnant or parenting a child of minority age are also entitled to five excused absences in accordance with Texas law. Aside from these such instances, though, there are no excused absences. This is college, not high school: even if the high school excuses your absence for a particular day, that does not mean your absence is excused for this course. Unlike the other grading criteria, your attendance points are yours to lose: everyone will begin the semester with a score of “100%” for their Attendance grade. If you are repeatedly absent, leave early, are often late by more than ten minutes or routinely behave in an uncivilized manner, you will lose points. Your Attendance score will be graded according to the table below:
You read that correctly: if you are absent or counted absent seven times, you will fail the entire course, period, no questions asked. Make sure you attend class. |
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| Additional Information |
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| Institutional Policies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MyLSCPA | Be sure to check your campus email and Course Homepage using MyLSCPA campus web portal. You can also access your grades, transcripts, academic advisors, degree progress, and other services through MyLSCPA. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Academic Honesty | Academic honesty is expected from all students, and dishonesty in any form will not be tolerated. Please consult the LSCPA policies (Academic Dishonesty section in the Student Handbook) for consequences of academic dishonesty. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ADA Considerations | The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Disability Services Coordinator, Room 117, in the Student Sucess Center. The phone number is (409) 984-6241. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| COVID 19 Information | The Lamar State College Port Arthur (LSCPA) Student Code of Conduct COVID 19 Policy requires students who have been diagnosed with COVID 19 to report their condition directly to their local health department. Students should also contact their course faculty to report their quarantine status. In addition, this policy requires all students to wear face coverings when directly exposed to COVID 19 in compliance with the criteria included in the policy. For more information please refer to the COVID 19 link on the LSCPA website. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Facility Policies | No food or tobacco products are allowed in the classroom. Only students enrolled in the course are allowed in the classroom, except by special instructor permission. Use of electronic devices is prohibited. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HB 2504 | This syllabus is part of LSCPA's efforts to comply with Texas House Bill 2504. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect | As per Texas law and LSCPA policy, all LSCPA employees, including faculty, are required to report allegations or disclosures of child abuse or neglect to the designated authorities, which may include a local or state law enforcement agency or the Texas Department of Family Protective Services. For more information about mandatory reporting requirements, see LSCPA's Policy and Procedure Manual. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title IX and Sexual Misconduct | LSCPA is committed to establishing and maintaining an environment that is free from all forms of sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, sexual violence, and other forms of sexual misconduct. All LSCPA employees, including faculty, have the responsibility to report disclosures of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment, sexual assault (including rape and acquaintance rape), domestic violence, dating violence, relationship violence, or stalking, to LSCPA's Title IX Coordinator, whose role is to coordinate the college's response to sexual misconduct. For more information about Title IX protections, faculty reporting responsibilities, options for confidential reporting, and the resources available for support visit LSCPA's Title IX website. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Clery Act Crime Reporting |
For more information about the Clery Act and crime reporting, see the Annual Security & Fire Safety Report and the Campus Security website. |
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| Grievance / Complaint / Concern | If you have a grievance, complaint, or concern about this course that has not been resolved through discussion with the Instructor, please consult the Department Chair. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Department Information |
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