The Bloomington Faculty Council heard a proposal Tuesday that could have drastically affected intercollegiate athletics in the coming years if approved.\nThe proposal, "Academic Integrity in Intercollegiate Athletics: Principles, Proposed Rules, and Guidelines," outlines recommended changes to NCAA bylaws in five areas: admission of athletes, awarding of scholarships, curricular integrity, time commitments of athletes and academic advising for players. It was drafted by The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, an alliance of faculty representatives, which is co-chaired by IU professor Bob Eno. \nThe BFC did not vote on the proposal Tuesday, but it won't be the last time the committee hears of it, said Council President David Daleke. BFC members will have until Feb. 15 to review the proposal and formulate questions before an official vote.\n"I anticipate the faculty will have plenty of questions," said Daleke, an associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. "But I also anticipate the council will be ready to vote by the next meeting. IU (athletics) follows a lot of the guidelines that are presented in the proposal, so we have a large benefit already."\nCouncil members who have reviewed the proposal praised it for what it could do for intercollegiate athletics.\n"I enthusiastically and unanimously urge the BFC to vote on this," said Bruce Jaffee, professor of business economics and the IU faculty athletic representative, after Daleke presented the proposal to the group. \nOthers had questions ranging from academic advising at IU to curricular integrity, much of which will be expanded in the next meeting.\nDespite the questions Jaffee said he couldn't imagine the BFC not agreeing with the proposal in two weeks. \n"I'll be shocked if it's not endorsed for three reasons," Jaffee said. "One, it's a positive document; two, it talks a lot about the best practices in athletics, it sets a standard, and three, it's a document of pride of authorship. It's authored mainly by people at IU, not by people in the SEC or other schools, but by people right here at IU."\nIf the proposal is approved at the next BFC meeting, it will continue on to The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics. The coalition plans to vote via e-mail on the same proposal at the end of the month and upon approval, bring these ideas in front of the NCAA.
Turnitin.com to be discussed at next meeting \nOn the agenda for the meeting was an update on the University's Turnitin Software License. David Goodrum, Instructional Support Services, presented information about the use of the software and Web site www.turnitin.com, which professors use to crack down on student plagiarizing when writing papers. \nTurnitin.com is a Web site professors use to check students' work against the Web, other student work and Web-based journals to cut down on cheating. BFC members questioned and argued the need of the software, while others questioned whether students understood when they were plagiarizing and when they were citing sources correctly. The BFC voted in favor of discussing the subject again at its next meeting.\n-- Contact Senior Writer Katie Schoenbaechler at kmschoen@indiana.edu.
