Category Archives: Policy

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Copyright, fair use, and copies for your classes

Please be mindful when considering material to copy and distribute in your courses. The office will not honor requests that seem to be in violation of copyright law. I hope you agree this sets the wrong example for the student workers who are often tasked with such work. Furthermore, I hope you are not knowingly in violation yourself. From Carla Myers, University Libraries:

In higher education, the fair use exemption found in 17 U.S.C Section 107 is one we can often look to when wishing to make and distribute copies of works to students. When making a fair use determination we must consider:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Working through these four factors…
(1) If the course readings are used as part of course instruction and learning then the purpose of the use can be considered educational, which is good.
(2) If the resource being copied is a textbook then it’s scholarly in nature, which is also favored under the law.
(3) For the third factor, the course instructor needs to carefully consider how much of a work needs to be copied/reused to accomplish their purpose and only use that amount.
(4) For the fourth factor, the instructor needs to consider if the amount of the work they are copying is so much that students should instead be buying the work.

There are no specific rules for the amount that may be copied, although you may have heard rules-of-thumb such as 10% or one chapter. The main determination is whether the amount copied could reasonably substitute for the student purchasing the book/source.

Signs, posters, and banners

A memo from Robin Parker; this is a reminder, not a direct response to any new events of which I’m aware:

As you may recall, last year, unknown persons entered academic buildings on multiple occasions to post racist, neo-Nazi, white supremacist signs in violation of University policy. Although no signs have been posted recently, we do want to remind you that unaffiliated third parties have no right to post signs in University academic buildings or elsewhere on our campuses. Signs, posters and banners may only be posted in accordance with University policy and divisional rules.

Physical Facilities staff will work diligently to promptly remove any signs posted in violation of University policy as part of regular building maintenance. If you find a sign posted in violation of University policy, please remove it and send it to me along with the date and a notation of the location where it was posted. My office will be working with the Miami University Police Department to continue to try to identify the person or persons responsible for posting these signs and to coordinate any University response. If you have ANY concerns about removing the fliers/signs, please contact my office.

As far as I am aware no buildings permit the open unregulated positing of fliers and signs. However, if your division does have a designated “open forum” space for faculty, staff, students/or student organizations to post signs (e.g., notices, fliers), you may not remove them based on the content or message conveyed. Divisions may, have polices that limit the amount of time that signs, posters and banners may be displayed (e.g., 2 days, one week). If your division does permit open posting, we encourage the division to review and uniformly enforce the divisional rules governing the length of time a sign, poster or banner may be displayed.

Divisions are, of course, not required to designate any area for the open posting of signs, posters and banners. As far as I am aware most divisions limit use of space to matters directly related to the educational mission of the University (e.g., departmental events, tutoring, sponsored lectures and student activities) and require permission from the dean’s or chair’s office to post a sign, poster or banners on divisionally and departmentally controlled spaces (e.g., bulletin boards).

If you have questions or need assistance in following University policy, please contact the Office of General Counsel at 529-6734. Thanks!

Important info concerning your undergrad RAs

As you sign up your RAs for this year, please be aware that ALL undergraduates working in your lab or with you on other special projects should be signed up for *77 independent study credit. This should match their standing (e.g. 377 for a junior) and be in appropriate number according to the nature of the experience; generally 1 cr. = 3 or 4 hrs/wk averaged over the semester. You must use the .R modifier if it is a research assistant. This is critical for the student to earn their experiential learning MP designation and for us to be able to properly track students for reporting, etc. Students who are not registered for credit will not be included during evaluations of faculty research mentoring. If you have questions about this or situations where you think students should not be credit-bearing, please let me know.

 

Important policy reminders, updates

As we get into the new academic year, I wanted to provide some important policy updates and reminders:

  • A simple cheat sheet with important reminders about purchasing policies and procedures can be found here.
  • Please make sure to send Quentin your syllabus by September 1. In preparing your syllabus, you should consider these important points:
    • If you are teaching 111, 221, 231, 241, 242, or 332, you should review the TAG guidelines for the course. These specify learning outcomes to provide state-mandated alignment of these courses across all institutions in Ohio.
    • You should include a statement in your syllabi regarding academic integrity (departmental statement here) and I strongly encourage you to consider promoting the departmental diversity statement as well.
    • Please think about statements in your syllabus regarding accommodations and accessibility. An interesting read on this topic recently appeared in the Chronicle (thanks Amy S.!)
  • Everyone should have received an email about the new reporting requirements for harassment, discrimination, sexual misconduct, and interpersonal violence. Please be on the lookout for email from OEEO regarding mandatory training for all faculty and GAs. I will provide more information on the blog as it is made available, or you can find additional information on the OEEO website.

 

New IT support procedure

From this point on, all IT requests should go through IT Help, rather than contacting Todd directly. From the dean:

Starting August 1, the College of Arts and Science IT staff (CASIT; your primary rep is Todd Henson) will provide their support services in a new partnership with University IT Services. They have worked together on developing a shared support model that integrates their activities in a collaborative fashion, streamlining your support experience through a single interface, shared practices, and defined response times. The new support model was piloted by several departments last spring and is now being expanded to all departments in the College. Here are some key benefits of the new model:

  1. Single point of contact for all technology support
  2. Faster response to phone calls with immediate efforts to resolve the issue
  3. Emergency calls may be passed directly to CASIT
  4. Allowing you to track and interact with the status of your ticket
  5. Eliminate confusion as to whom you should contact for a particular problem.

From now on, please do not phone, text or email your CASIT rep directly to initiate service. Beginning August 1st, we are asking that you direct your IT-related issues through the IT Services Support Desk by:
Phone:   513-529-7900
Email:  ithelp@miamioh.edu
Online:   miamioh.edu/it

If the Support Desk is unable to resolve the problem while you are on the phone, they will either transfer your call directly to a CASIT Team member or create a ticket and assign it to CASIT.

Is my “basic” research really a clinical trial?

Many of you may be following this through your professional societies, but if not this is an important change in federal policy that could potentially impact even “basic” research. The policy went into effect January 1 and is currently active. The following summary is from FABBS:

The new NIH policy on clinical trials potentially includes a good bit of basic science research. According to the policy, a clinical trial is “a research study in which one or more human subjects are prospectively assigned to one or more interventions (which may include placebo or other control) to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioral outcomes.” The policy requires registration of the research and results as well as good clinical practice training for investigators. It also affects funding opportunities and review of grant applications. There are criminal and civil penalties for noncompliance. Additional information can be found on the NIH blog here.

FABBS and other scientific societies are expressing their concerns over this broad definition/policy, but their objections do not seem to have gained much traction. They have created this site to compile information and resources. I will provide updates as I hear of them through FABBS; Robin Thomas is also her society’s FABBS contact and may have more information. Josh Magee also points out that the NIH provides examples to help one determine whether their research is included.

ALL reimbursements due within 60 days

Last year we were informed that travel reimbursements that are not filed within 60 days of the trip become taxable income, and hopefully everyone has been good about attending to this.

What we did not know at the time, and what was not clear from the information in the Purchases and Payment Handbook, is that ALL reimbursements past 60 days are taxable income to the recipient. This is not a Miami University policy, but rather a State of Ohio law. A revised Purchases and Payments Handbook will be coming out soon and it will clarify this fact. In other words, please make sure that all reimbursements are submitted as soon as possible, and definitely within 60 days.

This is also a good time to bring to your attention Section 1.02 of the Purchasing Policy which states, “it is specifically discouraged for employees to process requisitions for personal reimbursement of university supplies and/or services unless under the most extreme circumstances”

This means that faculty and staff should be using Purchase orders or a p-card for purchases and not making purchases themselves and seeking reimbursement afterwards, unless there are “extreme circumstances” that prevent them from doing so.

Please let Amy W. or me know if you have any questions.