Special Committee On Academic Policy 2006-07

Committee Members

Background to Charge

The 2006-07 Special Senate Committee for Academic Policy (APC) is charged with addressing two particular areas of concern that deal with faculty interactions with students in the classroom. The first charge deals with academic honesty. The second charge addresses policies and procedures in the Colleges for dealing consistently with students who struggle in the classroom.

1. Academic Honesty Maintaining and encouraging academic honesty in our students is a constantly evolving task affected by new technologies, changing faculty and student expectations, societal mores, and faculty attitudes toward enforcement, among many other factors. The APC is therefore charged with studying the issues concerning academic honesty at Northeastern University, specifically addressing the following tasks and others the APC itself may identify as relevant:

a) Address the perceptions of both students and faculty concerning the importance of academic honesty, both philosophically and procedurally. Identify any existing studies, particularly those involving NU students, which try to quantify the level of cheating, plagiarism, etc. Try to gauge, perhaps through a questionnaire, how faculty members feel about pursuing cases through the process.

b) Identify and, if possible, evaluate the technological advances used to prevent plagiarism and other forms of cheating. This includes determining what programs faculty at Northeastern are presently using, and making recommendations as to whether there should be any standardized way for faculty to learn about or use these or other programs.

c) Evaluate the existing procedures for pursuing academic dishonesty cases through the Dean of Students Office. This evaluation should include looking at quantitative measures of how cases have been resolved in recent years. The APC should also try where possible to gauge student and faculty perceptions of the efficacy of the existing process and whether or not there should be changes in the procedures.

d) Prepare a list of recommendations of ways to prevent or discourage cheating and academic dishonesty that could be used as a baseline guide to both new and existing faculty.

2. Best Practices for Students with Academic Difficulties Background: Most faculty members have dealt with the student who fails to finish an exam in the time allotted and asks for extra time. Faculty are also familiar with the student who asks if there is some way that they can do extra work to get extra credit. The SAC has no desire to encroach on individual faculty members' freedom to deal with each student in an optimal way. However, it would be useful to know if there are standardized ways that different units of the university deal with these issues, or if some recommended guidelines would be useful.

Students with academic issues or difficulties may fall into numerous categories:

*Those with documented learning disabilities registered with the Disability Resource Center. Because the guidelines for these students are clear, SAC does not see this category as an issue.

*There is a particularly concern about ESOL students needing extra time to comprehend questions and formulate answers. These students may increase in number in the coming years, and there are concerns about how to deal with their special issues.

*Students whose first language is English, but who may have learning issues associated with poor preparation for college work or socio-economic factors that slow them down on tests

*Students without any learning disabilities or learning issues who would like to do extra work to improve their grade.

Committee Charge

To study the last three categories, the APC is asked to:

a) Determine if there are any units that have developed guidelines about time issues for ESOL students, and analyze how they have worked or if other issues have arisen. The APC should contact the units responsible for determining if ESOL students have the skills to compete in English and evaluate any concerns or inputs that they have for this issue.

b) Study through a survey (or other means) how units or individual faculty deal with students with academic difficulties in terms of time or extra work policies.

c) Produce a handout which could be use as a guide or suggestion to new faculty as to how to determine policies for extra time/extra work, etc.

3. Other priorities as they may arise, to be determined by SAC.

The Senate Agenda Committee respectfully requests that the Committee submit its report on these charges, both in electronic and hard copy, no later than 31 March 2007.

Committee Reports