Seminars are given by invited external speakers, departmental faculty members, and graduate students. Although students are not expected to attend every seminar, a minimum attendance level of 50 seminars is required, to receive course credit, and students will be penalized for a poor attendance record. The penalty will be essay assignment(s) on seminar topics that the student has missed. Additional requirements for this course are the presentation of three departmental seminars during the course of the PhD program.