ACADEMIC STANDARDS AND POLICIES - Diane Montgomery
Diane Montgomery presented two recommendations to Council for a vote. The first recommended that the administration support the appointment of an ad hoc task force to study the current evaluation of instruction at OSU and make recommendations. The task force was to have membership from the Faculty Committee, Academic Standards and Policies Committee and students. Discussion focused on the need to "fix" the 1979 Student Survey of Instruction, the notion that one survey model may not fit all instructional situations/courses, information about how the current survey data was collected and used was needed as well. After lively discussion, the recommendation passed unanimously. The second recommendation was to change "urged" to "required" in Policy 1.04 of University Academic Format 2-0207 of the Oklahoma State University Policy and Procedures. This change would require faculty members to provide students with a semester course plan showing the schedule of examinations and other course requirements, as well as details of the grading system, which will be used in the determination of final grades. Discussion was even livelier than for the first recommendation. Councilors were adamant that this change be made on the one hand because it was the appropriate ethic of teaching and message to send to students. Councilors were equally adamant that this change not be made because requiring syllabi was not the business of administration, academic freedom might be infringed upon and students needed to be responsible to seek this information on their own. Some Councilors noted that Academic Grade Appeals would be reduced if "urged" were replaced with "required" while others rationalized that this act would tie the hands of faculty trying to do their jobs. After some confusion about voting, President Halligan decided that the recommendation had not passed and therefore failed.
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