The
Regular session – March 10, 2008 – 3:30 p.m. – Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail:
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor Steve Bradford, Chair.
PRESENT: Albert,
Apanasov, Basic, Bass, D. Bemben, M. Bemben, Benson, Bradford, Brown, Brule, Callard,
Conlon, Croft, Edy, Eodice, Forman, Franklin, Ge, Grasse, Greene, Halterman,
Horn, Kershen, Knapp, Livesey, Magnusson, McDonald, C. Miller, Milton, Miranda,
Morrissey, Moses, Rambo, Reeder, Riggs, Roche, Rogers, Russell, Schmidt, Skeeters,
Striz, Trafalis, Trytten, Veil, Verma, Warnken
Provost's office representative: Mergler, Heiser
ISA representatives: Cook
ABSENT: Clark,
Marcus-Mendoza, Radhakrishnan, Sadler, Tan, Vitt, Weaver
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Faculty Tribute
Faculty Handbook section 3.5.6 – faculty resignation
Recreational Services Advisory Committee charge
UOSA Honor Council
Senate Chair’s Report:
Student retention
Diversity on campus
Research issues
4+4 login
Meeting with OSU and HSC, health insurance plan
Committee A workshop
Textbook reserve program
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The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of February 11, 2008 was approved.
The Faculty Tribute will be
held on Wednesday, April 30, at 4:00 p.m. in the Sandy Bell Gallery of the Fred
Jones Jr. Museum of Art.
President Boren supported the
following actions taken by the Faculty Senate:
revision in the deadline for faculty resignations approved at the January
14 meeting and revision in the charge of the Recreational Services Advisory
Committee approved at the February 11 meeting.
Dr. Greg Heiser, Assistant
Provost, distributed a handout of data compiled last fall that summarized the academic
misconduct cases on the Norman campus (excluding Law) from 1995 to 2007. The summary included the number of cases each
year, student responses, distribution of cases by class, and the penalties (see
http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/AMCstats.pdf). We had had a gradual rise in cases since the
mid 1990s, but the numbers are coming down a little now. Dr. Heiser said he hoped the academic misconduct
system was user friendly and fair. The number
of students who admit to misconduct has gone up. We have a lot more cases of Internet
plagiarism, but it is easier to catch those cases and that has reduced the
number of contested cases. Penalties have
changed in a couple of directions. The
admonition, which has been in place the last few years, represents about half
of the cases. The number of suspensions
has increased. In the past, we may have
been imposing community service on cases that may have merited suspension. He introduced three members of the student
Honor Council -- Matthew Maupin, Joe Hunt, and Eric Hansen – who discussed
their organization.
Mr. Hansen said the Honor
Council is a student-run organization that serves on academic misconduct boards
and promotes academic integrity. The
members try to find ways to strengthen the sense of academic integrity. In the past few years, the council has held
an integrity week right before finals to remind students that people at OU care
about academic integrity and also to create an atmosphere where students do
their own work. In April, the council
will run an ad campaign to promote academic integrity. Through their work on academic misconduct
cases, members are noticing an increase in the use of turnitin.com among
professors. Mr. Hansen urged professors
not to make turnitin.com the Inquisition, but instead explain why students
should do their own work.
Dr. Heiser explained that
some students did not learn in high school the difference between writing a
paper and copying. The University has
acquired turnitin.com, plagiarism detection software that faculty members can
use in classes. In addition to catching
plagiarism, the software can be a useful tool for showing the appropriate
approach to writing. He encourage
faculty, though, to review the results. Mr.
Hansen noted that a list of best practices for using turnitin.com is available on
the Honor Council web site, http://www.ou.edu/honorcouncil/. Honor Council members will talk with UOSA
about educating students and will work with the
Mr. Maupin, the Honor Council
webmaster, said the web page gets about eight hits a day. He expects to get more with the ad
campaign. The page includes frequently
asked questions, such as what is the Honor Council and what does it do. The members plan to initiate a blog on the
web page to start a dialog. One example
might be at what point are tutors helping students with their homework or doing
it for them. Dr. Heiser said many
students would benefit from a venue that discusses professional integrity. Mr. Maupin added that students might not
realize why academic integrity is important.
Mr. Hunt said he had noticed
that since the Honor Council had started assisting the provost’s office with
misconduct cases, the punishments were tougher when they come from
students. The council is considering the
idea of having freshmen and transfer students view a program on plagiarism and
cheating to educate them on integrity and the consequences of cheating. Dr. Heiser announced that the Honor Council would
be looking for new members later this semester.
He asked the senators to encourage students who might be interested.
Mr. Bradford asked if there
were any signs of success or what success would be. Mr. Hunt answered that the summary numbers seem
large but are a small percentage of the overall student population. Punishments should be a time to reflect on
the importance of integrity. Mr. Hansen said
there had been a spike in plagiarism with the Internet. However, it is hard to tell if there is more misconduct
or if more is being caught. There are
signs of success. Misconduct cases are
declining. Raising awareness helps. Dr. Heiser added that it depends on the
community to remember and celebrate the positive ideal of integrity.
Prof. Livesey asked if there
were similar data for faculty who make charges or admonish students. Dr. Heiser replied that the web site had
results from a 2004 survey that included interesting numbers on faculty
attitudes. Students here report at a
higher degree than the national average.
Prof. Miller asked whether the
council offered any best practices concerning innocent plagiarism. Dr. Heiser said the provost web page has information
on plagiarism, including a tutorial. Prof.
Eodice pointed out that the
“The Executive Committee heard a report from Kent Johnson, academic director
of the Program for Instructional Innovation. The web page is pii.ou.edu. We talked about student retention and the
different expectations of faculty. In
general, students who engage in class, engage in University activities outside
of class, and learn to budget their time do well, and we will retain them.
“We are in the process of discussing diversity on campus and what role we
should play and what action we should take.
“We will be talking with Vice President for Research Lee Williams in the
near future, and one of the subjects for discussion will be the new rules
proposed for the Sponsored Research Incentive Program.
“I was asked about the
Faculty Senate request to change the 4+4 login (see 5/07 Senate Journal). President Boren signed off on the request
except for the deadline. An announcement
was made in Staff Senate that the last four digits of the 4+4 would be changed from
the employee’s Social Security number to the employee’s Sooner ID.
“We had a joint meeting with representatives from OSU
and HSC and discussed many different issues of mutual concern. OSU has had their health care plan with Blue
Cross Blue Shield for about two months. Nick Kelly and Julius Hilburn from Human Resources will speak to us on the
14th of April about the health insurance plan bids.
“The provost is going to have a Committee A workshop on disruptive
individuals in April.
“Chair-elect Brown and I met with the textbook task force. Prof. Janet Croft is going to give a short
report on what we know on the textbook initiative at this time.” Prof.
Croft (University Libraries), a member of the task force, said the textbook on reserve program was initiated
last fall when President Boren provided $200,000. The program allows students to borrow
textbooks. One textbook was purchased
for every 50 students for classes having an enrollment of 100 or more students or
for textbooks costing $90 or more. The
program has been very successful. During
the fall semester, there were nearly 6000 total circulations. The highest number of circulations was 89
times per copy for a Spanish textbook; the highest number of circulations for a
single title was 952 for a Chemistry textbook.
The highest use was in the first three weeks and during finals. Thirteen departments had more than 100 uses, 15
departments had no circulation, and six departments had fewer than 10 uses of
their materials. The task force is trying
to determine why textbooks were not borrowed in some areas. The highest use was at the 1000 level,
followed by the 3000 level. The task
force wants to get more data before changing any criteria. The availability of the textbooks was announced
earlier this semester, so that might have changed the buying habits of
students. The textbook reserve can be
accessed on the library’s web page and may be searched in various ways. Students can check out the book for two hours,
with a two-hour renewal. The task force would
like to find out what the students think of the program and suggested that a
question be added to the student evaluation.
Prof. Bradford said the provost was not in favor of that idea. Prof. Croft mentioned the library’s other
reserve options. Faculty can add books
and other physical items through the reserve request form. The electronic reserve option allows up to 50
pages or 20 percent of books and one article per journal issue for one
semester. Requests in excess of the
guidelines require copyright permission.
The e-reserve portal is good for posting items such as lecture
notes. For additional information, contact
Prof. Croft or Prof. Karen Rupp-Serrano.
Prof. Halterman asked if there had been any shrinkage in books. Prof. Croft said nothing had gone
missing. It is possible that too many
copies were ordered for some titles. Prof.
Bradford noted that faculty members could lend a book to the library and get it
back later, but they probably should not use desk copies for that purpose. Prof. Croft emailed the slides she used in
her presentation to the Faculty Senate members; a copy is available from the
Senate office.
The meeting adjourned at 4:15
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, April 14, 2008, in
Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.
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Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
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Roberta Magnusson, Secretary