Union says new Electronic Writing Portfolio rules harm academic freedom

By: Emily Zulz/Administration editor

Posted: 9/9/08

Charles Delman finds the new Electronic Writing Portfolio program to be deeply offensive.

Delman, president of Eastern's chapter of the University Professionals of Illinois, said the union has two major issues with the new EWP that takes effect today.

The first complaint is the new procedure violates academic freedom, Delman said.

He said faculty contracts state that the Board of Trustees, the university and its administration must adhere to the principles of academic freedom.

"To tell faculty members how they should judge writing, what process they should use, what they should consider to be important - simply presuming to tell faculty members how to do that - is a gross infringement of our academic freedom," he said.

Delman said faculty members are hired based on stringent qualifications, including an advance degree from a quality graduate program.

"We're chosen to be qualified, and academic freedom assumes that faculty members are qualified to know how to best teach their subjects, including the writing that's involved in their subjects," he said.

Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said the new EWP procedures do not infringe academic freedom in any way.

"It doesn't tell them how to teach the course, it doesn't tell them what to put in there, what assignments to make or how to grade them," Lord said.

The other issue Delman said the union has deals with faculty members' workload.

The new rubric involved with the new system requires faculty to go through a more complicated process instead of coming up with one answer as to whether the paper is acceptable or not, Delman said.

The new rubric requires them to answer four questions.

"To have to follow some externally mandated procedure is not only a violation of my academic freedom, it also means that I have to do extra work by grading it again according to someone else's criteria," Delman said.

Lord said the mechanisms for grading EWP submissions have changed, but the faculty's workload has not.

"Regarding workload, we've had the EWP for nine or 10 years with really no change in expectations," Lord said.

John Allison, English professor and vice president of UPI's Eastern chapter, said he believes the EWP operation violates labor laws.

"The administration is increasing faculty workloads without negotiating the increase," he said.

Allison said that on average faculty currently work about 50 hours a week.

With more work required with the EWP, Allison said, "faculty members will gradually end up with no time for social and family life."

Allison said faculty members did not receive descriptions of the changes until just before the start of the fall semester.

"But for me, and most faculty members, it (the new changes) seemed to come out of the blue," he said. He said Faculty Senate has had concerns about the EWP for years.

"My opinion is that it was bad before, but it's far worse now," Allison said.

Allison said that on behalf of Eastern's faculty UPI resists the EWP.

Delman said the union intends to do something about the issues they have with the changes to the EWP.

"As a union, we are examining our legal organizational options with respect to the contractual and labor issues involved," he said.

English professor Tim Shonk said the new procedure could also create a double jeopardy for students.

"The student paper is going to be judged twice by different standards," he said. "In some cases, a student could pass the class, pass the paper and not pass the writing portfolio submission."

Allison also has concerns regarding students. He said he does not think the new EWP procedure is fair to students.

"However well-intentioned this may be, I believe the EWP plan is really a disservice to students," he said.

Even if you receive a passing grade in an English course, the submitted paper could be deemed "needs improvement" under the changes to the EWP.

After two submissions deemed unsatisfactory, students then are required to take a remedial course, which the student has to pay for.

"As a professor, I'm sure all the rest of the faculty agrees with me, we do want students to learn how to write well. This isn't because we don't care about good writing," Delman said. "We care a lot about good writing."

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.