These topics will, however, appear in various places throughout your education and this introduction is intended to give you the foundation you will need to better integrate the topics when they resurface. Instead we hope that the nature of the material will be interesting enough to you so that you won't be able to resist the desire to go home and further study the topics. This is after all how you will learn about new topics for the rest of your careers not because there is an exam waiting at the end of the week, but because you feel that the material is important.
Attendance is required.
If you are not able to attend you will be required to write a 5-page paper with references for each session missed. The paper will demonstrate mastery of the topic area that was missed. Hopefully most of you will fulfill expectations by attending, and thus not have to spend extra time writing a paper. Some of the other Special Topic Days may also include short preparatory readings. They will be distributed shortly in advance to catch your attention.