"F" for academic dishonesty
Faculty Senate takes away students' option of taking "R" grade

By DONNA LONGENECKER
Reporter Assistant Editor

The Faculty Senate voted at its March 12 meeting to approve an amendment to UB's rules and procedures governing informal proceedings in cases of academic dishonesty that replaces the "R" grade, or resignation from a course, with an "F," or failure in the course.

In other words, if a student has resigned from a course and has engaged in academic dishonesty, that resignation now will be registered as an "F" on his or her transcript. In proposing the amendment, members of the senate's Grading Committee argued that resignation without any other penalty was an abuse of the "R" option and allowed students to escape responsibility and punitive measures. Once a student had resigned from a course, the only recourse for a faculty member would be to file formal charges against the student, a lengthy, time-consuming process that many faculty members might be unwilling to pursue.

While the vote approving the amendment wasn't unanimous, senators at the meeting overwhelmingly favored the change.

Some of those who opposed the amendment said they wanted to preserve the faculty member's option to impose a lesser or intermediate level of sanction against a student by using mandatory resignation as a penalty. But several others defended the proposed change, saying the informal proceedings still allow for faculty to employ several options other than a mandatory "F" to address misconduct. Some senators clearly felt that failing a student in the event of academic dishonesty was too harsh.

Kerry Grant, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of graduate school, reported that all the deans were asked last week to nominate a faculty member, as well as a graduate and undergraduate student, to serve as members of a pool from which the administration would draw to form a panel for hearings related to academic dishonesty. As soon as its members are chosen, the panel will hear at least six cases related to academic dishonesty that are pending, Grant said.

Charles Fourtner, professor of biological sciences, noted that the "R" grade is a student-designated grade that has to be taken care of within a particular time frame. "It's not a grade that faculty can impose on a student," Fourtner reminded his colleagues. And, if the student uses the "R" with no other action from the professor, Fourtner said, "it allows the faculty to opt out of their responsibility."

One of the problems with the "R" as it stands now is that students who are caught cheating can resign the course and avoid any penalty, senators noted.

William Baumer, professor of philosophy and chair of the Grading Committee, told senators "that the minimum a student deserves for academic dishonesty is an 'F' in the course and the penalty ought to be worse than the alternative. If a student is not going to take that kind of a penalty, it seems to me that there is a great deal of temptation for a student to say 'I'm going to flunk this course if I don't cheat, and if I do, the most I'm going to get is an 'R.'"

Added Erwin Segal, associate professor of psychology: "If someone has been in your class and has caused so many problems that you can't stand him to be in the course anymore, and yet you want to say 'go away' as if nothing has happened, it strikes me as being much, much too lenient for those kinds of cases. If there are mitigating circumstances, you can do a lot of other kinds of things—you can give another tests, review it, you can lower his grade."

In other business at the meeting, Joanne Plunkett, assistant vice provost and director of the Student Response Center, reported that the Web site devoted to Web-grading—which faculty can use to submit grades online—has been improved and its hours of operation increased from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., seven days a week. She noted that about 62-63 percent of all grades now are submitted online, and assured senators that the site is secure.

"Already, we've received many comments from faculty that have inspired updates and changes to the site," she said. "We also are enhancing Web and touch-tone services for students—in the past we've had very inconsistent hours of service for the students," she said, pointing out that the quality of service for students is going to be much improved.