Of all the courses in our curriculum, PSL480 gives the greatest flexibility for content and enrollment. The course provides opportunities for a student to work directly with faculty of his/her choice, often in their laboratories. Typically, enrollment in PSL480 does not involve lecture presentations and formal examinations, as much as it does hands-on experience and the requirement to produce a term paper on a topic negotiated with the faculty person presenting the course. Such experience is excellent as a bridge to graduate training and for examining in detail a scientific topic of special interest.
Unique among all courses, PSL480 requires an application form to be completed by the student and the faculty person offering the course. The completed form is submitted to the Director of Undergraduate Education for review and approval. Also unique, a student can enroll in PSL480 semester-after-semester until a total of five academic credits is accumulated. This gives a chance to spend considerable time in the laboratories of one or more researchers. The course need not be repeated in just one person's laboratory. One semester's enrollment typically is for no more than one academic credit. Enrollment for two or more credits in a single term requires specific justification to be stated on the PSL480 enrollment application.
The best way to take full advantage of the opportunities in a PSL480 enrollment is for the student first to identify faculty who represent professionally an area of special interest. The academic advisor is an excellent source of such information. Next, the student needs to make an appointment with faculty of choice to determine if there are openings in the laboratory and to explore mutually interesting topics for study. The student then works with the selected faculty member to complete the application form.
Most commonly, it is only faculty in the Department of Physiology who supervise study under a PSL480 enrollment. Such faculty, however, do not have to have a full-time appointment in the department, but may hold a position of being "jointly appointed" with some other department, or be an "adjunct appointment". Each student's academic advisor is a good source of finding a match between the student's interest and available faculty.
The academic spirit behind the PSL480 enrollment is to provide a flexible mechanism by which a student can explore a topic of his/her own choosing. In keeping with this intent, it is sometimes possible for a student to pursue such study with basic science or clinical faculty who do not have a formal association or appointment in the Department of Physiology. These arrangements require special consideration, negotiation and agreement.