Spring Break
The Daily OrangeAcademic integrity | Ignoring the issue: SU community gives less attention to faculty, staff academic integrity than to student cheating despite campus concern
By Melanie Hicken
Posted: 4/30/07, 11:21 PM EST Section: News
"There has to be a commitment at the top to not only speak to values, but to act on values," he said. "That means decision-making and dialogue at the top needs to be open, transparent, honest and devoid of conflicts of interest."
If professors don't follow the rules, students will not see little incentive, said Patrick Drinan, former president of the Center for Academic Integrity.
"When we press on student integrity issues harder, sometimes the students will say, 'Well, you have these clear expectations for us, but what about professors who don't update their lectures or miss a lot of classes, or cut their classes short or engage in gender discrimination?'" said Drinan, former dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego.
During the fall 2004 semester, then-Vice Chancellor Deborah Freund commissioned a group of professors and students to study academic integrity violations and policies at SU and to make recommendations of how they could be better executed. In spring 2006, the Vice Chancellor and Provost Committee on Academic Integrity (VPCAI) completed its recommendations on students and moved on to faculty and staff.
Its December 2006 recommendations were recently approved by a Sense of the Senate vote at the University Senate meeting March 21. But while the VPCAI was able to discuss its findings on students at several USen meetings, its findings on faculty and staff was only discussed at one, at the very end of a long meeting when a voting quorum was no longer present, Callahan said.
"We are very concerned about the relative lack of prioritization being given by the university community as a whole and by the leadership of the university to the academic integrity recommendations about faculty and staff," she said.
The VPCAI published a preliminary report on faculty staff integrity issues in October 2006. The report identified various policies and procedures that were related to academic integrity of faculty, administrators, instructors and staff, and identified several issues that it felt should be investigated further.
If professors don't follow the rules, students will not see little incentive, said Patrick Drinan, former president of the Center for Academic Integrity.
"When we press on student integrity issues harder, sometimes the students will say, 'Well, you have these clear expectations for us, but what about professors who don't update their lectures or miss a lot of classes, or cut their classes short or engage in gender discrimination?'" said Drinan, former dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Diego.
During the fall 2004 semester, then-Vice Chancellor Deborah Freund commissioned a group of professors and students to study academic integrity violations and policies at SU and to make recommendations of how they could be better executed. In spring 2006, the Vice Chancellor and Provost Committee on Academic Integrity (VPCAI) completed its recommendations on students and moved on to faculty and staff.
Its December 2006 recommendations were recently approved by a Sense of the Senate vote at the University Senate meeting March 21. But while the VPCAI was able to discuss its findings on students at several USen meetings, its findings on faculty and staff was only discussed at one, at the very end of a long meeting when a voting quorum was no longer present, Callahan said.
"We are very concerned about the relative lack of prioritization being given by the university community as a whole and by the leadership of the university to the academic integrity recommendations about faculty and staff," she said.
The VPCAI published a preliminary report on faculty staff integrity issues in October 2006. The report identified various policies and procedures that were related to academic integrity of faculty, administrators, instructors and staff, and identified several issues that it felt should be investigated further.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Uptight Annie
posted 5/04/07 @ 2:44 PM EST
Hold faculty and staff to the same standards as students?!? That's crazy talk.
Post a Comment