STA/OPR 9750 - Course Policies & Additional Resources
Course Resources
R for Data Science (R4DS) is an excellent free textbook covering much of the material of this course.
The tidyverse packages used throughout this course have excellent documentation:
The quarto guide is particularly useful.
Students may also benefit from the Unofficial Solutions for R4DS, the Posit R Cheatsheets, Statistical Infernece via Data Science, and the book Elegrant Graphics for Data Analysis.
The book Happy Git with R is particularly useful for git usage. General git usage is also covered by the Git Book.
The book Veridical Data Science by Yu and Barter has lots of useful advice on applied data analytics that may help with the course project.
Students are encouraged to ask the instructor for additional resources as needed.
Course Discussion Board
STA/OPR 9750 will use Piazza as the course discussion board. Students are encouraged to direct all questions about course topics or logistics to Piazza; use of a public anonymous discussion board allows students to benefit from the insights of their classmates and allows instructors to answer questions publicly to the benefit of all students.
Students are encouraged to use Piazza’s private question feature if they need to contact the instructor directly. Please only use private questions for personal inquiries: questions about the technical substance of the course can and should be asked (pseudonymously) in the public section of Piazza.
Piazza login information will be distributed through CUNY Brightspace.
Communication Resources
Written and oral communication is an important element of this course.
The Baruch Writing Center offers free support to all Baruch students; students can meet with a professional writing consultant one-to-one (in person, in NVC 8-185, or online, by video, audio, and text-based chat) and in group workshops. Writing Center consultants will work collaboratively with you to deepen your writing and English language skills. At any step in the process, they’ll help you become a more independent, confident, and versatile writer.1
Baruch’s Tools for Clear Speech program improves the pronunciation, fluency, and pragmatic abilities of English language learners and non-native English speakers at Baruch College. TfCS participants achieve more effective and intelligible communication, developing skills that empower them to succeed in their classrooms, careers, and beyond. TfCS offers a range of free face-to-face and online services with our professional Speech Consultants, including One-to-One Sessions, small-group Focused Skills Series sessions, large-group Overview Workshops, interview and career preparation, and weekly Conversation Hours.
Computing Resources
All software used in this course is Free and Open-Source Software that can be installed on your personal machine without cost. Students will need to install, at a minimum,
Thanks to the Binder project, we are also able to provide free virtual machines equipped with all course software pre-installed:
CUNY also provides a Windows-based RStudio virtual machine through Apporto.
Please note that these are transient instances and any work saved on these machines may be lost without warning.
Course Policies
Academic Integrity Policy
I fully support CUNY’s Policy on Academic Integrity, which states, in part:
Academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York. Penalties for academic dishonesty include academic sanctions, such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion.
Academic integrity is at the core of a college or university education. Faculty assign essays, exams, quizzes, projects, and so on both to extend the learning done in the classroom and as a means of assessing that learning. When students violate the academic integrity policy (i.e., “cheat”), they are committing an act of theft that can cause real harm to themselves and others including, but not limited to, their classmates, their faculty, and the caregivers who may be funding their education. Academic dishonesty confers an unfair advantage over others, which undermines educational equity and fairness. Students who cheat place their college’s accreditation and their own future prospects in jeopardy.
Academic sanctions in this class will range from an F on the Assignment to an F in this Course. A report of suspected academic dishonesty will be sent to the Office of the Dean of Students.
Students are encouraged to contact the instructor with any questions or concerns related to matters of academic integrity.
External Resources Use Policy
For the coding elements of this course, students are encouraged to use freely available online resources, including question-and-answer fora such as StackOverflow. You may also use AI-driven developer tools such as GitHub Co-Pilot. Paid services are not allowed. On each assignment, you will be asked to list external resources used on each assignment. You are ultimately responsible for the correctness of any submitted materials - ``the AI told me so’’ is not a valid defense.
Note on ChatGPT and Related Large-Language Models: You may not use large-language models to complete any assignment in this course. Specifically, you may not use tools where you describe the course assignment in natural language and receive (pseudo-)code output. While these tools are powerful, and often surprisingly accurate, for this task, using them in this manner will undermine the learning objectives of this course.
For the written elements of this course (e.g. Project Final Report), standard academic expectations of attribution and citation are in place. This will be covered in more detail in the course project documents.
Students are highly encouraged to collaborate on homework assignments, but each student is required to individually and complete each assignment. If substantially identical assignments are submitted, the instructor may require each student to individually demonstrate their understanding of the material. Collaborators should be listed at the end of each submitted assignment along with a statement of contributions.
Unexcused Abscence Policy
Attendance is not required, but lecture recordings will not be provided. Students are responsible for the content of all sessions missed.
Late Work Policy
Late work will not be accepted except in extraordinary and unforeseeable circumstances. Students submitting late work should provide supporting documentation to the Office of the Dean of Students; ODS will provide the instructor with a letter authorizing late work submission as appropriate.
All assignment submission technology used in this course allows multiple submissions, so students are encouraged to submit early and often to avoid any technology troubles associated with late submission.
Note that late work is allowed consistent with specific pre-arranged course accomodations as noted below.
Course Accomodations
Disability Services
It is CUNY policy to provide Accommodations and Academic Adjustments to students with disabilities.
Any student who has a disability who may need accommodations in this class should register as early as possible with Student Disability Services. Your registration with Student Disability Services is confidential, and is not recorded on your Baruch Academic Record. SDS can be reached by email at disability.services@baruch.cuny.edu, by phone at 646-312-4590, or in person at NVC 2-272.
Please note that the instructor cannot provide accommodations unless requested by SDS.
Religious Accomodations
It is CUNY policy to provide accommodations for students’ sincerely held religious beliefs. If a religious accommodation is requested, please contact the instructor at least two weeks in advance.
Care Resources for Students2
Take care of yourself. Do your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle this semester by eating well, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting enough sleep and taking some time to relax. This will help you achieve your goals and cope with stress.
All of us benefit from support during times of struggle. You are not alone. Asking for support sooner rather than later is often helpful.
This course is intended to be demanding, but not difficult. If you feel like you are struggling, please reach out sooner rather than later. Swimming long-distances in choppy waters builds strength: drowning doesn’t.
Mental Health Resources
If you or anyone you know experiences significant academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, I strongly encourage you to seek support.
The Baruch Counselling Center is here to help. You can visit them in person at 137 E 25th St, 9th floor or call them at 646-312-2155 during normal business hours; you can make an appointment online here. For more immediate support, please call NYC WELL (1-888-NYC-WELL or 1-888-692-9355).
Asking for help is often difficult: consider reaching out to a friend, family, or a member of the faculty you trust for help getting connected to support that can help.
If you are worried about a friend or classmate, consider reaching out to the Baruch Campus Intervention Team.
Physical Health
Healthy CUNY promotes well-being and a culture of health in order to foster the academic and life success of all CUNY students. They can connect you with a variety of campus- and community-based healthcare providers.
Baruch Health Services provides students with a full range of clinical health services. Call 646-312-2040 or email StudentHealthCareCenter@baruch.cuny.edu to make an appointment.
Food Security
All CUNY students have access to CUNY Food Pantries located throughout the five boroughs, thanks to the CUNY CARES program. CUNY CARES is also able to help qualifying students with SNAP (“Food Stamps”) enrollment.
Immigration Status
CUNY Citizenship Now! provides confidential, high-quality immigration law services to all CUNY students.
Note that Citizenship Now!’s primary Manhattan office is located in the Heights, not on the Baruch campus and that an appointment is strongly recommended. Call 646-664-9350 during standard business hours for more information or to make an appointment