EMIS Faculty Site
Dear Chair

Below are questions from EMIS faculty to the department chair on various topics:

Dear Chair,

I just received the following e-mail from a colleague: “A past student of yours, that is now in the class I'm teaching, gave me some info today I feel you need to know. The student said that the midterm you gave, that's to be turned in tomorrow, was compromised in that a previous student gave the answers to some maybe all of your current class. The stress this induced in your former student convinces me of its likely truthfulness. Thought you would want to know.” What should I do?

Troubled

Dear Troubled,

A couple of thoughts:

  1. I am not aware of a university policy against sharing one's old exams with other students, unless the faculty member strictly forbids it (usually enforced by letting students read but not keep a copy of their exams).
  2. Your policy on the current exam is that the students are to work alone. If a friend gave me a copy of a graded exam to study, I could still read it and be able to say that I worked alone on the current exam, right? After all, I did not ask anyone else about the current exam, I just researched out the type of exams that this instructor gives.
  3. Given this, I do not see that the students have broken any rules, unfortunately.
  4. Possible lessons learned: create new exam questions each semester, dramatically increase the recycle period for questions, use questions that require student-specific solutions (i.e., "apply this process to an aspect of your current job"), share some old exams with all current students so that everyone has the same knowledge base, and CHANGE YOUR FINAL EXAM IMMEDIATELY.

The burden is really on the professor to minimize the possibility of this happening.

Good luck,
Your chair

Dear Chair,

What's the policy for incompletes (grades of “I”) for graduate classes? I want to be consistent with the other teachers.

Seeking guidance

Dear Seeking,

Incompletes are given at the instructor's discretion. They become Fs if not changed within a year. It is strictly your call as to what arrangement you make with the student to complete the class (within the bounds of reasonableness and propriety, of course).

Your chair

Dear Chair,

In my executive class there is a student with a documented learning disability that is given extra time on exams. The student’s classmates ask me why that student gets more time on my challenging tests. I know that I am not allowed to discuss the disability, nor the fact that an accommodation is taking place. What should I say?

Between a rock and, you know

Dear Between,

This is a tough situation, especially in this intimate classroom setting. After much discussion and conversations with Legal and the disability officer, some thoughts and a some possible responses to your question have been documented on the Student Disability Accommodations page.

Good luck,
Your chair

Dear Chair,

I need some advice on how to handle graduating distance students.  They may not have seen all the class material by the time they need to take the final, if the final grade has to be in 48 hours a fter the final exam date.

Puzzled

Dear Puzzled,

Our Associate Dean for Academic Affairs responds: “The 48 hour rule applies to on-campus students.  For off-campus students we have until the start of the next term to assign grades if they are not graduating. The time line is tighter for graduating students. The key time constraint is when the final graduation list is due in the Registrar's Office.  For summer that date is August 10 (2004), so we would need to have grades assigned by August 9.  Summer has the tightest time limit and sometime off-campus students are not able to make this deadline and graduate in the fall term instead.”

Your chair

Dear Chair,

I just received my student course evaluations and departmental summary, but am not sure I understand how the process works. I use the comments I get back to make improvements, but how does SMU use them?

Confused

Dear Confused,

As you can tell, we do this evaluation for all classes to get feedback from the students. This is done for everyone's benefit and may be a requirement from the university's accreditation authority.

I use these to get a sense of how well faculty are being received by the students and to identify high-performing and under-performing instructors. Full-time faculty use the results in their annual performance reports to the dean. I usually submit the summary reports each year to the dean as well. If and when we undergo a program accreditation review, we will be asked to provide all of these individual evaluations.

I think that the real value is to the individual instructor to see how he/she is doing, from the student's perspective. All of the faculty I know are eager to see this feedback and how their metrics compare with other instructors.

Your chair

Dear Chair,

I have an undergraduate student that is not attending class or turning in the required homework assignments, even though class participation and the assignments are required and documented in the syllabus. I have spoken to him about the matter and have tried to bring him along, but it is not working. Can I drop this student from my class?

Exasperated

Dear Exasperated,

Here is what Enrollment Services says,

  "CLASS ATTENDANCE
   Regular class attendance is required. At the beginning of each course,
   the instructor announces policies regarding how class attendance
   affects a student's standing in the course. These policies may include
   dropping a student from the course for non-attendance after a certain
   number of absences (with a $25 administrative drop fee). Reasons for
   an absence should be submitted to the instructor immediately."

So yes you can.  You need to fill out an Add/Drop from and note that it is an administrative drop. The student is charged the fee for the drop.

Your chair.

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