BFC seeks student input on revised code of rights

As IU adopts a consolidated student code of rights for next fall, the message to students seeking input is clear: speak now or hold your peace.\nThe Bloomington Faculty Council began discussion Tuesday on a streamlined IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct, and one council member reiterated the importance of student input into the code's revision process as the council's vote draws nigh.\nCouncilman Herb Terry, a professor of telecommunications, said a number of concerns floating around the current campaign in the upcoming IU Student Association election -- including campus alcohol policies -- are concerns that can only be addressed and defined now in the code's revision process, not later when new student body executives take office this fall. \n"It could be a decade before the code is changed again," Terry said. "Much of what is going on and what is going to be accomplished will happen now. This thing is going to the (IU board of) trustees this summer. Students have to act now, or have no meaningful impact on the code."\nThe BFC will consider the revised code at its March 1 meeting. Terry said the council will have to vote on the code so it can be sent to the University Faculty Council for its March 8 meeting. From there it will go to the IU board of trustees, with the hope of having a finalized code for fall 2005. \n"The important thing is to make the code understandable," said Mary Popp, co-chair of the counsil's Student Affairs Committee. "It's not worth anything if it's not understandable."\nPopp said students are invited to submit concerns and ideas by e-mailing the student affairs committee co-chairs from the council's Web site, www.indiana.edu/~ufc.\n"We've had lots of participation so far," she said. "And more is better."\nThe first draft of the revised code was distributed to the council Tuesday. It will be subjected to edits and amendments as it moves through the finalization process. But at 14 printed pages, it's a far cry from current 66-page code, which Terry described as unreadable and an "impossible monster."\nBoth the current code and the first draft of the revised code are available, as well as a forum to comment publicly, at the IUSA Student Body Supreme Court's Web site, www.indiana.edu/~court.\nAdditionally, the BFC postponed a vote on continuing the web service TurnItIn.com on the Bloomington campus after a request by IUSA President Tyson Chastain.\nTurnItIn, an online service that has collected millions of student papers and scans the Internet daily for essays, articles, academic papers and documents to cross-reference, had been used by the University as a plagiarism deterrent in a pilot program. The BFC was being asked to evaluate whether, in principle, IU should continue using the service, said BFC Educational Policies Committee Chairman William Wheeler.\nIU has been using the service, which allows students to submit electronic copies of their papers and red-flags passages suspected of plagiarism, for 18 months. A subcommittee is being appointed to work with the College of Arts and Sciences and other interested schools to expand the program's use.\nBut Chastain and IUSA Vice President for Congress Scott Norman requested the BFC hold off on a final vote to support the continued service of Turnitin in order for the IUSA Congress to convene Thursday and adopt an official stance.\n"The Student Congress hasn't had adequate time to discuss the issue," Chastain said. \nStudents worry about a lack of central authority between the University's schools when it comes to plagiarism, Norman told the council.\nThere was also a concern on the language of the resolution, Norman said following the meeting. The resolution's original language supported the use of TurnItIn as an educational too, which Norman said was left out of the final version proposed to the council.\n"It said the educational component would be explored," he added. "And that's not good enough." \nStudent input to IUSA has also shown concern on whether professors articulate to students the proper way to paraphrase, which Chastain said could be inadvertently confused for plagiarism.\nIf approved, a three-year lease to TurnItIn, paid in yearly installments with discounts, would total roughly $74,300.\nThe council did not have the actual data on the number of students caught by TurnItIn, nor are approval ratings on the service from the faculty regarded as entirely accurate, because more faculty use the program than replied to a survey that asking about the service.\nSome council members were concerned the annual price for the TurnItIn lease was excessive if only a few students get caught for plagiarizing. Others contended having the service might be enough of a deterrent if a student feels he or she could get caught and be failed.\nThe BFC will consider suggesting a renewal of the service at their March 1 meeting, as well as consider amendments to an IU-authored academic integrity plan outlining recommended changes to NCAA bylaws. \n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.