Jay's warning - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: May 4, 2005

Jay's warning

Date: May 4, 2005

I know my ears are clogged and my eyes are bad, but are you missing something in your post, or didn't he have anything to say?

Date: May 4, 2005

A vacuous memo?

Date: May 4, 2005

From: "Dr. Jay Grimes"

Date: May 4, 2005

I like mystery as much as the next person, but can you give us another clue or two?

Date: May 4, 2005

Please work with your chairs to determine if any final exams in your
collegeare being administered prior to final exam week. If you discover that any
are in fact being administered early, please provide me with the faculty
member's name, course name and number and justification for early
administration. I need this information by this Friday, May 6.

Thank you.

Jay

D. Jay Grimes, Ph.D.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
The University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg Office: (601) 266-5002
Gulf Coast Office: (228) 867-8795
Cell: (228) 806-7700
jay.grimes@usm.edu

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Green Hornet
" Please work with your chairs to determine if any final exams in your collegeare being administered prior to final exam week. If you discover that any are in fact being administered early, please provide me with the faculty member's name, course name and number and justification for early administration. I need this information by this Friday, May 6. Thank you. Jay D. Jay Grimes, Ph.D. Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs The University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg Office: (601) 266-5002 Gulf Coast Office: (228) 867-8795 Cell: (228) 806-7700 jay.grimes@usm.edu "

Is there now a 5th evaluation category at USM? Are we now evaluated on the quality of our teaching, research, service, econ development and narc reporting?

Date: May 4, 2005

From what I've been able to learn is:

SGA voiced a concern (to SFT) that students were reporting final exams were being scheduled during the "dead days" contrary to established policy. Students were concerned that they would not have enough time to study, too little time to take the exam, etc.
SFT got fired up and the Provost was charged with the task of informing the chairs to report on faculty who are not following the scheduled final exam times.

Date: May 4, 2005

From: The Executive Committee, USM Faculty Senate

Date: May 4, 2005

Dear Dr. Bateman,
Please distribute the following message from the USM Faculty Senate to each
of the university's chairs. Thank you.

Dear Chairs,

I recently became aware of an email from Dr. Grimes to the deans asking for
the names of the faculty who are giving their final exams prior to exam
week. The email requested that the chairs/deans ferret (my term) out the
offenders and report them to Dr. Grimes.

It would be useful for you to know the origin of this action. In Monday's
President's Cabinet meeting the Student Government Association President,
Jonathan Krebs, stated that the faculty (of USM) were giving their exams
early (i.e. not during exam week). At this meeting, Dr. Thames asked for
my view on this matter. I stated that: 1) It is important that faculty
give their exams at the proper time; 2) The overwhelming majority of the
faculty do observe this rule; 3) if individual faculty members are unaware
of this rule or have ignored it that their department chair should inform
them of the rule and tell them to follow it. Dr. Thames and I then had a
lively discussion of consequences associated with giving exams early.

The executive committee of the Faculty Senate met with Dr. Thames yesterday
afternoon (a regularly scheduled meeting) and I suggested at that time that
since we had so many new faculty, perhaps some of them were unaware that it
is important to give final exams only during exam week. I also suggested
that a notice should be sent on the university listserv approximately two
weeks prior to final exams reminding faculty of this. Dr. Thames responded
that these were all worthwhile suggestions.

It is important, however, that I advise you at this time that the Faculty
Senate respectfully disagrees with the contention that this matter be
extended beyond the departmental level. It is our view that faculty who
are not giving exams at the proper time should be notified by their
department chairs to rigorously observe the exam schedule.

Thank you for taking our view under consideration.

Sincerely, on behalf of the Faculty Senate,

Dr. David Beckett, President
USM Faculty Senate

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Green Hornet
"From what I've been able to learn is: SGA voiced a concern (to SFT) that students were reporting final exams were being scheduled during the "dead days" contrary to established policy. Students were concerned that they would not have enough time to study, too little time to take the exam, etc. SFT got fired up and the Provost was charged with the task of informing the chairs to report on faculty who are not following the scheduled final exam times. "

Thanks Green Hornet. It is very important that faculty provide a good example of following the rules, and policies. You can't point fingers if you also break rules of conduct. To maintain the moral high ground in this struggle, faculty must pay attention to these important matters and police their own. SFT and the Provost are doing the correct thing in this case. The few faculty who do this are not friends of the faculty. They undermine our efforts.

Date: May 4, 2005

I like Dave Beckett's pointed reference to all of the new faculty at USM...

But of course no one should underestimate Thames' eagerness to find any basis for punishing or firing professors.

Robert Campbell

Date: May 4, 2005

Are portfolios turned in during finals week not considered finals? What if some classes aren't multiple guess/t-f/etc. What if the "final" is a huge body of work? Define a final.

Date: May 4, 2005

What do "dead days" mean??? No class, pretend class, class but it's review -- ?

Date: May 4, 2005

No classes, no final exams... intended to provide extra time for study.

RC

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Dead Days
"What do "dead days" mean??? No class, pretend class, class but it's review -- ?"

At many universities they are called "reading days".

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Dead Days
"What do "dead days" mean??? No class, pretend class, class but it's review -- ?"

I believe there are so call "dead days". I believe at USM there are 3 dead days in the last week of classes. These are days when no test are suppose to be given, however they are regular class days. I lecture and cover the material as scheduled on my syllabus.

I have not been able to find the official policy on "dead days".

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Robert Campbell
"I like Dave Beckett's pointed reference to all of the new faculty at USM... But of course no one should underestimate Thames' eagerness to find any basis for punishing or firing professors. Robert Campbell"

Robert,

That reference struck me as well.

Here's a suggestion for everyone: don't even give a final, just give the customers the grade they want (paid for).

waltersboy, out.....

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Faculty
" I believe there are so call "dead days". I believe at USM there are 3 dead days in the last week of classes. These are days when no test are suppose to be given, however they are regular class days. I lecture and cover the material as scheduled on my syllabus. I have not been able to find the official policy on "dead days"."

I

forgot to add that according to the USM "Advisors Manual" organizations can’t hold official functions on these last days of the semester without very special permission.

Date: May 4, 2005

Another good example of the Failed Thames Administration's inability to understand chain of command. Just skip chair and dean (yoo-hoo?? Deans??) and go straight to the top, in the Glamser/Stringer model. Looking for a reason to zap a prof, here you go.

Absolutely no reason for the Provost, much less the prez, to be involved. Maybe they don't have enough to do.

Date: May 4, 2005

The funny thing about this is that most of the time several kids in the class will beg to have the final given early. They want to go home after their first exam and not come back on the last day for yours--or----they have a job that they've promised to start on "x" day. Do you want them to turn it down? etc. etc.

Date: May 4, 2005

This is not Thames showing any deep-seated respect for the "reading days" that are time-honored, academically grounded traditions at most universities. Rather, this is an opportunity to publicly win favors with SGA on a topic that can be framed as anti-faculty. If this were brought by SGA to the top of Thames' short attention span list from the other perspective (i.e. be more customer-friendly and accomodate the needs of students who have extracurricular conflicts during dead days) then you can bet he would have had the same knee jerk reaction to identifiying those professors who refused to make exceptions. It's still all about Shelby Thames campaigning for another term. What a man of action...heard about the "problem" just yesterday and took care of it pronto.

Date: May 4, 2005

Deciding to enforce this rule after years of neglect one week before finals is awfully poor timing. It sure makes it hard to plan.

Date: May 4, 2005

curious, before SFT was annointed prez, i.e. prof. when was the last time HE administered a final exam?

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Tattle Tale
"Deciding to enforce this rule after years of neglect one week before finals is awfully poor timing. It sure makes it hard to plan.

"

ANYTHING to swat at the profs. ANYTHING.

Date: May 4, 2005

At Academic Council on Monday, we brought this up briefly. Dr. Exline was in attendance and she said only two cases were reported to the president (I suppose either through Tuesdays with Thames or through the SGA). The reaction fromthe administration seems a bit over the top for two cases. I agree with Dr.Beckett that this is simply a matterto be handled by the department.

However, we must remember that Dr.Thames is perhaps stinging from a potentially bad review by faculty. Therefore he would like to be able to justify himself with the IHL by pointing out how "faculty" need to be kept in line by the administration and that explains any negative review. It's spin.

If there are a couple of faculty who may be out of line (perhaps they followed proceduce and can justify the moving of exams), Thames wants to use this to try to convince many people that ALL faculty bad.

Amy Young

Date: May 4, 2005

What is the final exam schedule for all online courses? ED exams, even if online, would have to be given during a scheduled time according to the university schedule. Can anyone point me to the final exam schedule for these sections of classes?

Date: May 4, 2005

Final Exams are major, comprehensive exams given at the end of the term. They are not portfolios, etc. or a "last test" over limited information. While Dr. Exline reported two complaints on Monday, several have been reported by students at other times. Although most faculty observe the rules, they are those who do not.

This is not just about Dr. Thames. I recall that it also was a big priority for Dr. Henry and Dr. Griffin when they were Provost. I remember that Dr. Henry used to send out notices about this every semester that he was Provost. It is simply very hard to monitor because chairs are busy at the end of the semester. Thus, students' complaints tend to trigger the reaction.

This is a dead horse.

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: Interested Onliner
"What is the final exam schedule for all online courses? ED exams, even if online, would have to be given during a scheduled time according to the university schedule. Can anyone point me to the final exam schedule for these sections of classes? "

Online courses need some flexibility for scheduling final examinations due to the use of off-campus proctors. Scheduling depends on the availability of proctors and the need to have the exams returned in time to grade them by the registrar's deadline. For example, I had an online student during the fall semester who was serving in Iraq - she took the exam the week before final exam week (yes, the exam arrived on Friday of exam week and it was graded by the deadline

)

Date: May 4, 2005

Can someone show me where the policy is that states that test cannot be given during the last week, last 3 days, etc.? Also, does this only count for comprehensive finials? What if you just give a test on material covered since your last test?

Date: May 4, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: The thrill of paper grading
"The funny thing about this is that most of the time several kids in the class will beg to have the final given early."

That's my experience as well. I suppose I'm one of the bad professors mentioned earlier, because I give them a choice of taking the final the last day of classes or at the scheduled final time. Given a choice, the overwhelming majority opt to take it the last day of classes.

Exactly what would I do if I were a good professor? Do I refuse to let anyone take it early? Do I make 25 separate appointments during finals week?