Ethics Week set for Nov. 6-12; University of North Georgia, November 3, 2023

 Denise Ray, University of North Georgia; Ethics Week set for Nov. 6-12

"The University System of Georgia (USG) will promote Ethics Week from Nov. 6-12 with the University of North Georgia (UNG) offering various events focused on ethical awareness. It serves as a reminder to employees of the importance of an ethical culture and UNG's year-round commitment to compliance with USG policies, as well as state and federal laws.

UNG promotes a culture of excellence by bringing awareness to its core values of integrity, student-focus, excellence, engagement, and service.

"Leading ethically means an individual does the right thing, even when no one is looking. At UNG, we strive to make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing," Jill Holman, director of internal audit, said. "We exist to enroll and educate students. Teaching ethical leadership in the classroom and through our actions is vitally important in promoting a culture of excellence. Join us this week in celebrating our ethical culture here at UNG."

With War Raging, Colleges Confront a Crisis of Their Own Making; The New York Times, October 26, 2023

 Frank Bruni, The New York Times; With War Raging, Colleges Confront a Crisis of Their Own Making

"Remember the student complaints about and the subsequent dismissal of an art history lecturer at Hamline University in Minnesota who — after giving students a trigger warning, so they could opt out of class — showed a historically important painting of the Prophet Muhammad? Hamline’s president, Fayneese Miller, defended that sequence of events by saying that to not weigh academic freedom against a “debt to the traditions, beliefs and views of students” is a “privileged reaction.” 

That’s a troubling assertion, as Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic: “If you don’t want your traditions, beliefs or views challenged, then don’t come to a university, at least not to study anything in the humanities or the social sciences.”"

At Harvard, a Battle Over What Should Be Said About the Hamas Attacks; The New York Times, October 10, 2023

 Anemona Hartocollis, Stephanie Saul and Vimal Patel, The New York Times; At Harvard, a Battle Over What Should Be Said About the Hamas Attacks

"The debate over Israel and the fate of Palestinians has been one of the most divisive on campus for decades, and has scorched university officials who have tried to moderate or mollify different groups.

But Dr. Summers’s pointed criticism raised questions about the obligation of universities to weigh in on difficult political matters.

A famous 1967 declaration by the University of Chicago called for institutions to remain neutral on political and social matters, saying a university “is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic.” But students over the years have frequently and successfully pressed their administrations to take positions on matters like police brutality, global warming and war."

Here’s my AI policy for students: I don’t have one; The Washington Post, August 29, 2023

Jonathan Zimmerman , The Washington Post; Here’s my AI policy for students: I don’t have one

"Most of all, I want you to decide what is real."

OpenAI funds new journalism ethics initiative; Axios, August 8, 2023

• Sara Fischer
, Axios; OpenAI funds new journalism ethics initiative

"OpenAI, the parent company to ChatGPT, will fund a new journalism ethics initiative at New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute with a $395,000 grant, executives told Axios."

How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians – they now need to learn how to plan for safety and legally protect themselves; The Conversation, July 20, 2023

Nicole A. Cooke Baker Endowed Chair and Professor of Library and Information Science, University of South Carolina, The Conversation ; ; How book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians – they now need to learn how to plan for safety and legally protect themselves

"Library professionals maintain that books are what education scholar Rudine Sims Bishop called the “mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors” that allow readers to learn about themselves and others and gain empathy for those who are different from them. 

The drive to challenge, ban or censor books has not only changed the lives of librarians across the nation. It’s also changing the way librarians are now educated to enter the profession. As a library school educator, I hear the anecdotes, questions and concerns from library workers who are on the front lines of the current fight and are not sure how to react or respond. 

What once, and still is, a curriculum that includes book selection, program planning and serving diverse communities in the classroom, my faculty colleagues and I are now expanding to include discussions and resources on how students, once they become professional librarians, can physically, legally and financially protect themselves and their organizations."

The professor is canceled. Now what?; The Washington Post, June 21, 2023

 Jack Stripling, The Washington Post; The professor is canceled. Now what?

"Experts who spoke with The Post generally agreed that social media posts about matters of public concern are typically considered protected speech. A university that tries to fire a professor for tweets alone is likely to face strong head winds, including lawsuits or reputational damage, said Risa L. Lieberwitz, a professor of labor and employment law at Cornell University and general counsel of the American Association of University Professors. That’s one reason investigations often focus on a professor’s classroom conduct, such as whether a professor targeted a student based on race, sex or religion."

Certificates… From a Philosophy Department; Inside Higher Ed, May 17, 2023

 Ryan Quinn, Inside Higher Ed; Certificates… From a Philosophy Department

Pennsylvania’s Millersville University has begun offering ethics certificates. It’s among multiple philosophy departments that have shaken things up.

"He said the department wanted to help people understand philosophy’s relevancy “to whatever else they were doing.”

“What we ultimately decided was that the ethics angle was a clear way in which that was the case,” he said. “Our society today is kind of encountering a challenge in terms of the limits of our ability to think through the ethical issues in all of these various kinds of advancements that are taking place.”

Amy E. Ferrer, executive director of the American Philosophical Association, said in an email that her organization “is aware of philosophy programs naming and structuring their degrees, courses and concentrations in ways meant to draw the interest of students that might not have a clear understanding of what philosophy is.” She even provided her association’s own Department Advocacy Toolkit.

“Consider whether some of the traditional names of courses might be failing to attract students,” the guide says. “The appeal of a course on ‘epistemology,’ for instance, might be limited to students who are already ‘in the know’ about philosophy. It is worth considering whether a name change might attract a wider audience. Words like ‘information,’ ‘knowledge,’ ‘truth’ and ‘belief’—common topics in an epistemology course—might draw a student to read the course description more so than ‘epistemology.’”"

Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’; The New York Times, April 12, 2023

 Katherine Rosman, The New York Times ; Should College Come With Trigger Warnings? At Cornell, It’s a ‘Hard No.’

"Ms. Morey called it the “Stanford Effect,” referring to a 10-page open letter written in March by Jenny Martinez, dean of Stanford University Law School, in which she affirmed her decision to apologize to Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Donald J. Trump-appointed federal appeals judge, after hecklers interrupted his speech."

Register for ‘Ethics, Institutional Review Boards and Scholarly Activities: Pitfalls and Parapets’; WV Mountaineer ENews, March 7, 2023

WV Mountaineer ENews; Register for ‘Ethics, Institutional Review Boards and Scholarly Activities: Pitfalls and Parapets’

"All faculty are invited to attend the WVU Health Sciences Center Faculty Development Program presentation “Ethics, Institutional Review Boards and Scholarly Activities: Pitfalls and Parapets” from noon to 1 p.m. on March 14.

The presenter is Steve Davis, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Leadership.

To register by noon on March 13, contact HSCfacultydevelopment@hsc.wvu.edu. Make sure to include the date and title of this presentation in your email. 

Registration is required to receive the Zoom access code. Access information will be sent to participants the day prior to the session. Please do not share the Zoom code."

Opinion: Free speech doesn’t mean hecklers get to shut down campus debate; The Washington Post, March 24, 2022

  

Erwin Chemerinsky

 and 

Howard Gillman

 , The Washington Post

; Opinion: Free speech doesn’t mean hecklers get to shut down campus debate

"Freedom of speech does not include a right to shout down others so they cannot be heard...

It is profoundly disturbing that some students assert a right to determine what messages are acceptable on a campus and try to deprive others within the community of their right to invite or listen to speakers of their choice...

College campuses should be a place where all ideas and views can be expressed. A primary goal of higher education is to empower students to critically analyze ideas across a broad spectrum of disciplines. The strengths and weaknesses of ideas are determined not by conformity to any preexisting orthodoxy, but through the process of rational argument and evidence-based reasoning. This is how better ideas gain more legitimacy and worse ideas are exposed and rebutted.

It is especially problematic when the students attempting to silence other viewpoints are lawyers in training. How are legal professionals to argue cases if they are unwilling to hear from, and learn to respond to, the opposing side of current debates?

Although the goal of inclusivity is noble and imperative, silencing speech cannot be the way to achieve it."

Free Webinar: Students and Freedom of Expression on Campus: Tuesday, January 25, 2022 2 PM EST

Free Webinar: Students and Freedom of Expression on Campus

"Today’s students are challenging free-speech norms and are more likely than older generations to support restrictions that limit offensive speech. What’s more, the rise of social media, new sexual-harassment policies, and demands for more racial diversity and inclusiveness have sometimes complicated free expression on campus. In this environment, how can colleges promote open inquiry and discussion while balancing changing attitudes?

Join us for a virtual forum that brings together Michael S. Roth, the president of Wesleyan University, and other experts to share their perspectives on these topics:

• How is free expression evolving on college campuses?
• How do college leaders respond to claims that their institutions have become unwelcoming places for certain views?
• How can colleges mitigate potential conflicts when they do arise?

With Support From the Knight Foundation"

Register here.

Artificial intelligence is getting better at writing, and universities should worry about plagiarism; The Conversation, November 4, 2021

Michael Mindzak and Sarah Elaine Eaton , The Conversation; Artificial intelligence is getting better at writing, and universities should worry about plagiarism

"The dramatic rise of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has spotlit concerns about the role of technology in exam surveillance — and also in student cheating. 

Some universities have reported more cheating during the pandemic, and such concerns are unfolding in a climate where technologies that allow for the automation of writing continue to improve.

Over the past two years, the ability of artificial intelligence to generate writing has leapt forward significantly, particularly with the development of what’s known as the language generator GPT-3. With this, companies such as Google, Microsoft and NVIDIA can now produce “human-like” text.

AI-generated writing has raised the stakes of how universities and schools will gauge what constitutes academic misconduct, such as plagiarism. As scholars with an interest in academic integrity and the intersections of work, society and educators’ labour, we believe that educators and parents should be, at the very least, paying close attention to these significant developments."

Software that monitors students during tests perpetuates inequality and violates their privacy; MIT Technology Review, August 7, 2020

• Shea Swaugerarchive page

, The New York Times; 

Software that monitors students during tests perpetuates inequality and violates their privacy

"The coronavirus pandemic has been a boon for the test proctoring industry. About half a dozen companies in the US claim their software can accurately detect and prevent cheating in online tests. Examity, HonorLock, Proctorio,ProctorU, Respondus and others have rapidly grown since colleges and universities switched to remote classes.

While there’s no official tally, it’s reasonable to say that millions of algorithmically proctored tests are happening every month around the world. Proctorio told the New York Times in May that business had increased by 900% during the first few months of the pandemic, to the point where the company proctored 2.5 million tests worldwide in April alone.

I'm a university librarian and I've seen the impacts of these systems up close. My own employer, the University of Colorado Denver, has a contract with Proctorio.

It’s become clear to me that algorithmic proctoring is a modern surveillance technology that reinforces white supremacy, sexism, ableism, and transphobia. The use of these tools is an invasion of students’ privacy and, often, a civil rights violation."

Harvard’s Epstein corruption deserves a full airing — even amid a pandemic; The Washington Post, May 4, 2020

Charles Lane, The Washington Post; Harvard’s Epstein corruption deserves a full airing — even amid a pandemic

[Kip Currier: Fortuitous to see this story -- and the call for this "cautionary" real world case study to be investigated  -- as I’ve included this as a case study in the syllabus for my new graduate course, The Information Professional in the Community, launching next week.

In one of the course’s weekly units, we'll be exploring Harvard's deeply concerning ties to the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and, in columnist Charles Lane's parlance, "the cutting of ethical corners", within the broader context of critically examining Fiscal Considerations, Legal/Ethical/Policy Issues, and Risk Management in Collaborations and Partnerships.] 

"Such grotesque money-grubbing at the pinnacle of U.S. academia — a school, to be sure, that has positioned itself an ethical leader, especially in the movement against sexual assault and gender bias on campus — deserves a full airing, even amid the novel coronavirus pandemic...

It joins a lengthening list of cautionary tales of fundraising excess, such as the admissions-for-cash episode involving athletic teams at Yale, Stanford, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Southern California and Georgetown, among others...

The need for cash is probably at or near an all-time high, and so is the risk, reputational and otherwise, of cutting ethical corners to raise it.

Professors and administrators can ill afford the moral arrogance that characterized the dealings of some at Harvard with Epstein, or their sloppiness, or their cluelessness...

Not everyone at Harvard — much less everyone in higher ed — is to blame for this sorry episode. Every college and university can learn from it."

Textbooks are pricey. So students are getting creative.; The Washington Post, January 17, 2020

Lauren Lumpkin , The Washington Post; Textbooks are pricey. So students are getting creative.

"The exact toll taken by college textbook costs is in dispute. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that even as tuition has risen, no cost of college life has increased faster than textbooks. The bureau found that book prices rose 88 percent between 2006 and 2016, and the College Board — which administers the SAT exam — reported that students budget more than $1,200 each year for textbooks and other class supplies, including technology. 

 

Student Monitor, a New Jersey research firm, has published a much lower estimate for student textbook costs — about $500 annually — and said student spending has been on the decline...

 

George Mason and hundreds of campuses throughout the country — including American University and the University of Maryland — are slowly adopting open educational resources, materials that are written by academics for the public domain and available at no cost to students and professors."

Free Textbooks for Law Students; Inside Higher Ed, January 3, 2020

Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed; Free Textbooks for Law Students

"Law school is notoriously expensive, but a growing number of professors are pushing back on the idea that law textbooks must be expensive, too. Faculty members at the New York University School of Law have taken matters into their own hands by publishing their own textbooks at no cost to students."

How is an academic CV different from a résumé?; The Washington Post, October 22, 2019

Daniel W. Drezner, The Washington Post; How is an academic CV different from a résumé?

"During the weekend, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Megan Zahneis wrote up Phillips’s study, noting some possible concerns: “While it has popped up in a few high-profile cases, CV falsification is an instance of academic misconduct that might not make as many headlines as fudging data or plagiarism. But the difficulty of detecting it could make it all the more insidious.” Indeed, the grad students who did the coding for Phillips et al. got more and more upset as they proceeded. As Phillips explained to Zahneis, “That’s because most of these were applicants for entry-level positions, which is what they hoped to be applying for someday.""

What Sci-Fi Can Teach Computer Science About Ethics; Wired, 8/28/19

Gregory Barber, Wired; What Sci-Fi Can Teach Computer Science About Ethics
Schools are adding ethics classes to their computer-science curricula. The reading assignments: science fiction.

"By the time class is up, Burton, a scholar of religion by training, hopes to have made progress toward something intangible: defining the emotional stakes of technology.

That’s crucial, Burton says, because most of her students are programmers. At the University of Illinois-Chicago, where Burton teaches, every student in the computer science major is required to take her course, whose syllabus is packed with science fiction. The idea is to let students take a step back from their 24-hour hackathons and start to think, through narrative and character, about the products they’ll someday build and sell. “Stories are a good way to slow people down,” Burton says. Perhaps they can even help produce a more ethical engineer."

Colleges Build Network for Ethical Tech; Inside Higher Ed, March 12, 2019

Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed;

Colleges Build Network for Ethical Tech

"Twenty-one U.S. colleges and universities are working together to train a new generation of civic-minded technologists and tech-savvy policy makers.

The Public Interest Technology University Network, announced yesterday, is supported by the Ford Foundation, New America and the Hewlett Foundation. (Read an opinion piece by the leaders of these organizations about the new network today.)

The network will support curriculum development and faculty hiring in the nascent field of public interest technology. It will also explore how to support graduates who pursue careers in this field and create new internships and fellowships."