Teaching Committee to Maintain Academic Integrity

Qixin “Kevin” Wang

The IUSB Academic Integrity Survey was the major topic of discussion at the IUSB Academic Senate on January 18. At the meeting, Dr. Eugene Shrader, a senate member of the Teaching Committee, said that our Teaching Committee, as well as all the faculty members, should focus on maintaining the academic integrity of our campus. Also, it was pointed out that the faculty members should be confident enough to deal with the students’ academic integrity issues.

Presenting on behalf of Senate Committee on teaching, University Center for Excellence in Teaching (UCET), Dr. Shrader claimed that the purpose of the presentation was to present the results of faculty survey conducted on academic integrity issues related to students and classroom management. Shrader pointed out that the reason why the senate should focus on this issue was that it was necessary for the faculty members to be aware of improving our academic quality of recommendation. According to the Academic Integrity Survey, during 2005-2006, there were 17 incidents involved in cheating and plagiarizing on our campus. Reports showed that among 1800 students from nine state universities, 70% of them admitted cheating on at least one exam, 84% admitted cheating on at least one assignment, and 52% admitted plagiarizing outside recourses at least once. Thus, the Senate should consider if it was worth pursuing the standardization of student education.

Shrader stated that the goals of the Teaching Committee is “to find a best way to make teachers aware of both the nature and prevalence of the issues involved in academic integrity,” and the Teaching Committee wanted to “take the pulse” on these issues. Our committee still sees some general patterns worth reporting and basing recommendations on. He gave his recommendations that our faculty members uses every  available resource, and make a video of UCET presentation online, leaving
no opportunities for students to ask others for help. He suggested that faculty members
should make use of the UCET training program. Further discussion continued to get involved
in questions such as “how to make a balance between using outside resources while avoiding
violation of academic integrity” and “how to address the policy on academic integrity in the
syllabus.”

In addition to academic integrity issues based on Committee reports, in the new
business section, Mary Basolo Kunzer was nominated from the floor to fill Executive
Committee position. Finally, Chancellor Reck announced that the Legacy Award winner
went to Alumni Association member Cyndy Searfoss.

The next monthly Academic Senate Meeting will be held on February 15, and  then March 28.