The
Regular session – December 11, 2006 – 3:30 p.m. – Jacobson Faculty Hall 102
office: Jacobson Faculty Hall 206
phone: 325-6789
e-mail: facsen@ou.edu web site:
http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/
The Faculty Senate was called
to order by Professor Roger Frech, Chair.
PRESENT: Albert,
Badhwar, Basic, M. Bemben, Benson, Blank, Bradford, Brown, Brule, Civan, Croft,
Draheim, Fincke, Franklin, Frech, Gade, Ge, Greene, Gutierrez, Houser, James, Kolar,
Lai, Lester, Magnusson, Miranda, Rambo, Riggs, Roche, Scamehorn, Schwarzkopf, Skeeters,
Strawn, Trytten, Vitt, Warnken, Wei, Wyckoff
Provost's office representative: Mergler, Heiser
ISA representatives: Cook
ABSENT: D.
Bemben, Biggerstaff, Cramer, Elisens, Forman, Hamerla, Keppel, Knapp, Kutner,
Livesey, Marcus-Mendoza, Raadschelders, Tan, Thulasiraman, Weaver
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Announcements:
Schedule of spring 2007 Faculty Senate meetings
Information Technology services/policies
Faculty development award recipients
Clicker technology
Presentation by UOSA Honor Council
Senate Chair's Report:
Faculty Senate reapportionment
Library serials review
Health benefits
Faculty retiree death
Election, Athletics Council and Faculty Welfare Committee
Statement on evolution
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The Faculty Senate Journal
for the regular session of November 13, 2006 was approved.
The
regular meetings of the Faculty Senate for the spring 2007 semester will be
held at 3:30 p.m. in Jacobson Faculty Hall 102 on the following Mondays: January 22, February 12, March 12, April 9,
and May 7.
The Information Technology Council welcomes
comment from all members of the university community about services or policies
that would enhance their use of OU's technological resources. If there are matters to be brought to the
attention of the ITC, please contact Prof. Don Maletz (Political Science),
chair of the ITC, at djmaletz@ou.edu.
The
Faculty Senate is pleased to present the faculty development awards for the
fall 2006 semester to Abimbola Asojo (Architecture), Roland Barrett (Music),
Teresa Bell (Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics), I-Kwang Chang
(Architecture), Jack Jordan (Art), Chad Kerksick (Health & Exercise
Science), Douglas Mock and P.L. Schwagmeyer (Zoology), Sarah Reichardt (Music),
and Caryn Vaughn (Biological Survey/Zoology).
Prof. Blank announced at the
meeting that he, Prof. Bruce Mason (Physics & Astronomy) and a number of
other people were going to be reviewing what is available in classroom response
technology, which is associated primarily with H-ITT (Hyper-interactive
Teaching Technology, e.g., clickers), and what they would like to use. Anyone who is interested in being included in
the process should email Blank, lblank@ou.edu,
or Mason, bmason@ou.edu. The major reason for the study is if
professors use the same units, students will not have to buy different clickers
for each class. Prof. Fincke asked for
more information about clickers. Prof. Blank
replied that professors can give in-class quizzes and get instant responses
from the students. Professors receive
immediately a histogram that indicates what fraction of students got the correct
answer. Newer devices are capable of
entering answers in numerical value. Both
professors and students receive feedback about how the students are doing. Prof. Greene added that they are hugely
popular among students. Prof. Blank explained
that a professor needs to have a laptop in the room with some software for
analyzing the data. Several classrooms
are equipped with receivers. Some of the
newer equipment may have a single receiver, be much more affordable, and solve
some of the hardware problems.
Assistant Provost Greg Heiser
said it was an opportune time to give the Faculty Senate an update on the UOSA
Honor Council. Past Senate Chair Roy
Knapp is this year’s faculty liaison to the Honor Council. Dr. Heiser noted that the council was a
different body than the Honors Council of the
Mr. Shakir thanked the Faculty
Senate for letting them give a presentation.
He said he joined the Honor Council as a freshman. The council has grown from about seven members
to 20. He distributed table tents that
were handed out around campus last week for the first annual integrity week. The council showed a movie, "The Perfect
Score," on Thursday and had good attendance. Overall, the council was pleased with the
results of integrity week. Council
members have been speaking to departments to raise awareness and talk about how
to promote integrity. Promoting
integrity is a top down issue. Students
look to faculty for leadership and guidance and will care about integrity if
they see that professors care. Mr. Hansen
added that the council designed a brochure that is given to incoming freshmen
and to Gateway classes. The council also
is developing a plagiarism quiz. Dr. Heiser
said the quiz would be online. He hopes
all students involved in plagiarism cases will be required to take it. This year, the council has emphasized the
creation of an environment of integrity where we share responsibility and the
students are challenged to think about what kind of university they want to be
in. Mr. Shakir mentioned that the academic
integrity pledge was created for and by the students. He encouraged professors to use it on tests
and essays. The goal is to have an
atmosphere that students should not cheat.
The council co-sponsored an ethics discussion with the pre-med club and
an ethics group. The council welcomes
input from faculty.
Prof. Benson said the Honor
Council was doing a good job and going at the issue in the right way. Prof. Kolar asked if there had been an
increase in the number of students turning in other students who cheat. Dr. Heiser said that was not widespread. The system is not really set up for students
to bring charges or to find out what was done after they complained. A related problem is when a member of a
student work group submits a plagiarized assignment. Dr. Heiser said he hoped to provide some
guidance on the website. It is possible
to file a charge. Prof. Rambo asked when
the online quiz would be available. Dr.
Heiser said it would be accessible the week after Spring Break and would be an
adaptation of the “nine things you should already know about plagiarism,” which
is on the provost’s web site.
Prof. Schwarzkopf asked
whether the table tent was online so that he could include it in his
syllabus. Mr. Shakir replied that there were
about three versions, and they could be e-mailed to anyone who requested them. Prof. Schwarzkopf noted that professors generally
do not hear about cheating and think very little goes on. Mr. Hansen said there is less cheating when
professors take a lot of precautions. The
main focus of the council is on educating students about plagiarism. Prof. Schwarzkopf said it would be helpful
for the council to summarize the ways students cheat so that professors could
work out solutions. Mr. Hansen gave some
examples and said plagiarism on outside class work was a big problem. Some students think if they paraphrase an
Internet site or book, it is their own work.
In large classes, professors should have different versions of the
test. Prof. Vitt said he requires
students to study for their term paper, turn in a set of references, and write the
paper in class. It has totally
eliminated plagiarism and produced the best term papers he has seen. Mr. Hansen said students would spend more
time knowing the material if they had to write a term paper in class. He said he has been surprised at the poor
quality of writing in college. Mr. Shakir
pointed out that the biggest cheating problems occur in the large classes. It helps to have different versions of the
test and have TAs monitor the process. In
one class, a professor pointed out that he did not want a physician who had
cheated in school to operate on him.
That is the kind of message students need to hear. It is not just about going through the
motions to get through a particular class; it is the big picture in life.
Prof. Benson said the best
way to change things was to encourage a culture among students that cheating is
not acceptable. Mr. Shakir said it was
the job of faculty and various organizations on campus to define plagiarism and
explain the need to cite references. Prof.
Badhwar asked what the attitude of students was about cheating. Mr. Hansen answered that some students are
bothered when they see people cheat; others are apathetic. Students are reluctant, though, to turn in
anyone. Some students who cheat boast
that they got away with it, while others would not want anyone to know. Prof. Badhwar commented that most students do
not report cheating because they think it is being disloyal to a peer. Mr. Shakir agreed that students do not want
to tattle on a buddy. Prof. Badhwar noted
that some schools have honor codes that require students to report cheating. Mr. Shakir said the Honor Council could
approach that option later. Mr. Hansen said
the goal was to change the culture so that students realize that cheating hurts
other students. Prof. Badhwar said students
who are cheating are being disloyal to their fellow students. Dr. Heiser said we seem to have the best
success when we portray cheating as something unattractive. Mr. Shakir said he uses the line, “Would you
date a cheater?” in meetings with students.
Mr. Hansen said one or two of his professors had discussed ethics cases in
which cheating had ruined a person’s whole career. Mr. Shakir urged the faculty to use the integrity
pledge on syllabi and to mention the misconduct code on syllabi and in
class. Some of the work the Honor
Council has done this year is on the website, ou.edu/honorcouncil. Dr. Heiser announced that Justin McFeeters would
be responsible for classroom conduct issues and academic misconduct issues starting
in January.
“The first meeting of the ad hoc committee to
reapportion the Senate will be this Friday, using final FTE data from
Institutional Research. A recommendation
is expected to be presented to the Senate in January, to be acted on in
February.
“The
charge to the library serials review task force has been written and
accepted. Members of the task force are
now being appointed.
“Part
of the Senate Executive Committee went to the HSC to discuss the HSC
participation in the health benefits study panel. The draft charge to the study panel has been
written, and membership on both the steering committee and study panel is being
established.”
[Although not reported at the
meeting, Prof. Frech wishes to acknowledge the death of D. Lawrence Wieder,
Professor Emeritus of Communication, on November 30.
The Faculty Senate approved
the following Committee on Committees’ nominations to fill vacancies on
university and campus councils, committees and boards.
Athletics Council – 2005-08 term of Margaret Kelley:
Aimee Franklin (Political Science)
Faculty Senate Faculty Welfare Committee – 2005-08 term of Lee Willinger: Rick Tepker (Law)
Prof. Frech explained that
the Faculty Senate Executive Committee statement on evolution (http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/refevol.htm),
which was modified from the Department of Zoology statement, had been tabled. Prof. Frech said before the Senate took any
action, he wanted Prof. Vitt to share some relevant suggestions that he had
sent to Prof. Frech.
Prof. Vitt (Zoology and
SNOMNH) said the Faculty Senate had already voted in October to support the
evolution statement of the Zoology department (http://www.ou.edu/admin/facsen/Zooevol2.htm). The real issue for the Faculty Senate should
be the support of science and in particular, the scientific method, as opposed
to alternative explanations as to how the world works. In other words, the issue should not just be evolution. The advantages would be to mitigate most of
the political issues associated with the evolution issue, represent all of the
sciences in the University, connect natural sciences, and promote science in
general throughout the state. He said he
thought it was in the best interest of the Senate and University to be
proactive, considering the state of science in
Prof. Frech said the proper parliamentary
procedure would be to see if Prof. Schwarzkopf, who made the original motion,
would be willing to withdraw his motion so that the statement could be modified
to reflect Prof. Vitt’s suggestions. Prof.
Schwarzkopf said he had no objection. The
Senate voted to accept the withdrawal of the motion on a voice vote. The Senate Executive Committee will work with
Prof. Vitt to create a statement that will reflect a more general view of
science and the scientific process.
The meeting adjourned at 4:20
p.m. The next regular session of the
Faculty Senate will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, January 22, 2007, in
Jacobson Faculty Hall 102.
____________________________________
Sonya Fallgatter, Administrative Coordinator
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Cecelia Brown, Secretary