News, Views and Careers for All of Higher Education
Jan. 23, 2007
Who would have thought that doing too well on a test could get you in trouble?
Certainly not Tony Williams. After passing a new online test on ethics required of all state employees, the tenured professor in the English department at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale received a notice from his university ethics officer and from the state inspector general that he was not in compliance with state ethics regulations, a failure that state officials said could result in punishment that included dismissal. The reason? He had completed the test too quickly.
“It’s a very simple test designed for thousands of state employees, and it’s more relevant for people in purchasing or positions of power,” he said. “Anybody with a fair degree of intelligence can get through it quickly.”
However, state officials have asked him to complete another ethics training course for “noncompliant employees,” which they sent him in the mail. The letter sent to the professors states how long it took them to complete the test, and reads: “Contrary to instructions, you appear to have failed to carefully read and review the subject matter contained in the program’s introduction and the lessons.” After completing the course, Williams and others were told to sign a letter acknowledging their participation in the “ethics orientation for noncompliant employees.”
But Williams said that signing the form places him in a bind. First, he does not believe that he violated any of the rules for taking the test, which does not have a minimal time for completion. Second, his union’s collective bargaining rules allow for harsher penalties from the university if a person has prior marks on his record. Signing the form for “noncompliant employees” may jeopardize his ability to defend himself should he come under any future disciplinary action, he said.
Drawing a line, he and at least three other professors at Southern Illinois refused to sign the form by last week’s deadline. “We’re going to sue the state for the illegality of this training,” said Marvin Zeman, a professor of math and president of the faculty union, which is affilated with the National Education Association.
Zeman has also refused the sign the form. His letter from the state inspector general charged that he had completed the test in only 6.18 minutes. Zeman said that he is not certain how much time he spent on the test, which he took from his office, but he said that it was quite easy. “They are just stating something and I have no way to challenge it,” he said. “I didn’t time myself because I was never told about a time limit.”
“Each question had four choices and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out,” he said. Zeman said that he has not been presented with evidence that he violated anything in the state’s ethics laws by completing the test too quickly. He also said that signing the form may subject him to harsher penalties if he becomes the focus of disciplinary action in the future. “I’m opening myself up to future trouble,” he said.
Morteza Daneshdoost, professor of electrical and computer engineering, agreed. He recently sent out an e-mail to faculty members advising them that if they signed the form, they should add the line, “I am signing this document under duress and my signature does not mean my agreement with its contents or its allegations.” Morteza said that they advised faculty members to add the line after consulting with a lawyer.
“Legal counsel told us to do that to protect ourselves,” he said.
One of the letters that noncompliant faculty members received came from Corey Bradford, assistant vice president for finance of Southern Illinois and ethics officer. Bradford said that 255 employees across the Southern Illinois system were sent letters for not being in compliance with the state ethics act for completing the test too soon — 65 were professors on the Carbondale campus. Bradford defined the noncompliance test as “retraining” and said that signing the form does not imply any failure of ethics
“This is simply retraining,” he said.
But Williams dismissed this claim. “He’s just playing with words,” he said. “If you sign a document admitting your guilt, the administration can use that against you.”
Part of the fear by professors comes from statements made in the press by Gilbert Jimenez, deputy inspector general in the state inspector general’s office. Last December, Jimenez told the Daily Egyptian that it was unreasonable for anyone to spend less than 10 minutes on the exam.
“This person is holding onto a cheat sheet,” he told the student newspaper. “That’s what it tells me.” He raised similar concerns in an article that ran in the Chicago Sun-Times in early January.
However, Jimenez told Inside Higher Ed that he had been misquoted and that he has not made allegations to reporters that professors may have cheated. He further stated that he had no proof that anyone had cheated, but for any professor to finish the test in under 10 minutes “raises questions as to whether they had assistance.”
“I wonder about cheat sheets,” he said.
Jimenez added that any state employees who have not finished the required retraining and signed the form of noncompliance are in violation of state law. “We will direct their agencies and departments to begin discipline, up to and including discharge.”
Michael Ruiz, director of communications for the office of the president of the Southern Illinois system, seemed stunned by Jimenez’s comments and said that Southern Illinois would defend itself against any allegations that professors have cheated. “This kind of language, ‘cheat sheet’ and ‘discharge,’ gets people upset,” he said. “I think that if we can avoid that type of language, we can get this resolved.”
Ruiz said that the administration is working to bring the matter to a close and that officials do not see signing the “noncompliance” form as any admission of guilt. He said that no employees should be concerned at this point about being fired, whether they had signed the form or not.
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So let’s get this straight..."thousands of employees” took this test, and 65 doctorally prepared professors (fewer than 3% of the populatin complete a doctorate)completed the exam in less than 10 minutes. So, assuming the “thousands of employees” who took the exam is around 3000, then 65 professors are about 2% of that population who took the exam. In a bell curve that would be about right...it is incredible to me that this has been allowed to occur. It is to be hoped the university stands behind their professors and demands an end to this harrassment as well as a formal apology to all professors slandered.
June, PhD, at 8:05 am EST on January 23, 2007
This shows how evil standardized tests are and how vile those whose who design them are. The people who make these tests are idiots and acts like No Child Left Behind put them in charge of us all. These are the same halfwits that want to apply outcome based evaluations to everything we do in the classroom.
Biff, at 8:45 am EST on January 23, 2007
Although I am not at SIU, I am an adjunct on two other campuses of the Illinois State system and as usual, had to pass the annual ethics exam. After completing it, I received a certificate that I had passed the training and was a qualified state employee for another year. Incidentially, the accompanying instructions stated that the mandatory training was programed for about one hour. As an adjunct, I had to take the training, but would not receive any payment for my time, so I was uninterested in taking the entire hour expected.
A few weeks later I received the condemnation letter, retracting my certificate and advising me that I was out of compliance for not taking enough time for the test, the same treatment described in the article. A few details follow.
All Illinois State Employees were required to take this computer-aided test, which came with several test questions after each of a series of readings. The problem is that the test (and the readings) are identicial, for all practical purposes, year after year. The assumption of the test givers was the each person taking the ethics exam was equal, and any deviation was an indicator of cheating. This assumption needs to be examined more closely.
For one thing, an employee who started the test, ran into the usual type of computer glitch, signed on again, and then went on to complete the test more quickly than expected, became targeted as out of compliance.
It was apparently assumed that no one of the state employees retained any of the ethics training from the previous year. If people did, then their test taking time would be shortened to the degree of their previous training. It is therefore evident that the bureaucrats running this program have no confidence in their own training program, or otherwise no confidence in their trainees.
The attitude expressed in the bureaucratic response to the problems resulting from this mess is clearly that their lack of confidence is focused on the employees, not their training program. We are expected to read and reread, year after year, the same materials, presumably hanging on to every golden word of the state bureaucrats. If we don’t then they feel disrespected, and turn that disrespect to the employees that pass their test too quickly.
There is no easy way out of this mess, given the rigidity of computer-aided testing and the obvious attitude problem of the state bureaucrats running this program.
Keith Johnson, at 8:55 am EST on January 23, 2007
It’s not just Southern, but employees all over the Illinois system who’ve been sent these nastygrams by Wright and his lackeys. My understanding is we have 400+ “noncompliant” folks here at Western.
Dumb and dumber: at least here, only those who took the test early are being penalized. Word about the time limit got out a week or so after the test was distributed. I know some who avoided being trapped by the time limit by starting the test, doing something else for half an hour, then finishing.
It’s soooo nice to be called a “cheat” because I did something quickly and efficiently.
Bradley Dilger, Asst Prof at Western Illinois U, at 9:01 am EST on January 23, 2007
I am shocked by what I just read. In the USA, a country that prides itself on its concepts of justice and due process, professors are being penalized without any actual proof of wrongdoing. Illinois needs to find an “ethical” set of people to set up an ethics watchdog service.
Canadian reader, at 9:01 am EST on January 23, 2007
This is more ridiculous behavior from a stupid state system. The only reason the test exists is that several state leaders needed to review their ethics.
I took the test. It is an insult to every thinking person that must take it.
Steve Dick, at 9:25 am EST on January 23, 2007
And faculty should not have to comply with parking rules either. Just like foreign diplomats, they should have immunity.
They shouldn’t have to follow rules that the common folks have to. I saw “Up The Down Staircase” — Miss Finch covered for Mr. Barringer. Same thing here.
Clayton Bigsby, at 9:41 am EST on January 23, 2007
Clayton Bigsby,
This is a waste of all state employee’s time. It just that Prof’s have tenure and can fight back.
—— Here is my letter to our Gov. No reply yet.
December 8 2006
Office of the Governor 207 State HouseSpringfield, IL 62706
Dear Governor Blagojevich,
Every state employee, including university faculty and staff, has to take an on-line ethics test every year. Could you please answer the following questions?
How much money is being spent on ethics testing?
Have any outside companies been contracted to run ethics tests; if so which ones?
Is there any empirical evidence that ethics testing has an impact on employees’ ethics?
It is my view that the ethics testing program is a waste of money, a waste of time, and is demeaning. Every day I make life and death decisions when I drive my car. Yet, I do not have to take a driving test every year. I worked in the defense industry for awhile. We were briefed on security matters but did not have to take a test. (They did put up posters of convicted spies with how long they would be in jail. Maybe we should make posters with Gov. Ryan’s image and sentence.)
Of course the most Kafkaesque part of this is that we are now timed when we take the ethics test and are reprimanded if we finish too quickly! Is the ability to read and process information quickly inherently unethical? Is the fact that a person already knows how to make ethical decisions somehow unethical? This push for slow ethics is just proof of how absurd the ethics testing program is. I recommend it be discontinued.
Sincerely, XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PS: This letter was printed by my home computer and mailed at my expense.
——
Math Prof, SIU, at 10:10 am EST on January 23, 2007
I must have received more thorough instructions about the training than others did; everyone in my unit was cautioned that the online training (it’s not just a test—there are many short pages of text that you are supposed to read before answering what are, admittedly, no-brainer questions) should take at least 30 minutes to complete and that if we clicked through it too rapidly we could face disciplinary action.
TLB, University of Illinois, at 10:10 am EST on January 23, 2007
This comment is to support the requirement that all IHE comments be from people who include their full name and email address.
This topic has nothing to do with parking tickets or failure to comply.
It has to do with an unpublished time rule and the use of the same test every year. And, in my opinion, a test that need only be taken once. Additional testing should be only after additional training.
Because all of us are busy, the comments should all be on topic and fully identified so we can consider the source.
William Sumner Scott, J.D.
William Sumner Scott, J. D., at 10:25 am EST on January 23, 2007
The ethics training affects all state employees, from part-time student workers to professors. What’s most alarming is that the ethics training is sometimes wrong (it claims that sending an email informing people of a political event is illegal, which would be unconstitutional) as well as just stupid and unconnected to higher education. The complete content of the ethics training (in 2004), preceded by my commentary, can be found on my website, http://collegefreedom.org/ilethics.htm(the Illinois ethics office threatened me for posting this information in the past, claiming that it was copyright protected and should be concealed from the public).
John K. Wilson, at 10:25 am EST on January 23, 2007
Clayton, you’re clueless here. This “test” is as helpful in assuring ethical behavior as the code of ethics for our Congress. Altho it took me more than 6 minutes to complete it, it wasn’t much longer. Can anyone say that the time spent chasing after these fast readers the highest and best use of state employees’s time? I suggest that the ethics police look within your own house in Springfield. Clean up your messes, and then worry about some of our state’s real problems.
Catherine, Academic Porfessional at U of IL, at 10:50 am EST on January 23, 2007
My university also uses these stupid online tests. Although it’s easy to read the pages quickly and the answers are glaringly obvious, they ensure it takes the requisite 30 minutes by putting a timer on each page: the NEXT button is inactive for a long time, long enough for a semi-illiterate to read the pages aloud.
needless to say this useless waste of time results in multitasking efforts; grading papers simultaneously etc.
ProfF, at 10:50 am EST on January 23, 2007
This is all a joke, right?
Dean Underwood, at 11:11 am EST on January 23, 2007
So Mr. Jimenez now claims that he has been misquoted? But he made the identical type of allegation to the SIUC student newspaper and the Chicago Sun Times which readers may access on Google. Instead, he now “wonder"(s)about “cheat sheets.” Despite his change from making an explicit nasty allegation about employees, he has now decided to move into the realm of the imaginary. “Jimenez in Wonderland"? However, this is not a nightmare that people are going to wake up from since he has stated his further intention to engage in punitive action against the guilty parties. How reminiscent all this is of the McCarthy era as any reader of David Caute’s THE GREAT FEAR (1978) knows! Thanks to the Governor of the state of Illinois, who introduced this test, the Democratic Party is no longer that of the New Deal (or Harry Truman’s “Fair Deal") but now the Party of that infamous Senator of Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy.
Tony Williams, Professor at SIU at Carbondale, at 11:20 am EST on January 23, 2007
I, too, have taken the online ethics training at a public university in Illinois. I disagree that being told not to do political activity while AT WORK, on taxpayer dollars, or while using taxpayer-supported resources (desk, phone, email, computer) is illegal. The taxpayers of the State of Illinois should not have to pay to have any state employee promote their personal political agendas. I believe state employees SHOULD do their emailing about political activity from their own computers, at their own homes, and with their own personal email accounts.
Personally, I also hope more university employees come to fully understand the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act and don’t run ANY “extra” for-profit activity (including teaching at other universities) from their state offices.
Lynn, ISU, at 1:14 pm EST on January 23, 2007
The ethics test should be given once in a lifetime. Annual testing is simplistically a reminder to be ethical. An annual reminder from the state to be ethical is an insult, and it assumes that the unethical will be swayed. Is this realistic?
John Omerod, Program Coordinator at Northern Illinois University, at 3:21 pm EST on January 23, 2007
What is interesting about this Illinois ethics test is that not all state employess are required to take it. The Governor and legistators are exempt!!
R. Bill, U. of Illinois, at 3:50 pm EST on January 23, 2007
” .. This comment is to support the requirement that all IHE comments be from people who include their full name ..”
Dang. That include shameless self-promoters of legal topics so arcane, an L.L.M. is required to understand the topics? Who post daily, on topics not related to the law?
Not to be humorous, satirical, sarcastic or anything like that. That wouldn’t be ethical. Unless one is from a state where “crime” and “politics” appear welded together.
Anyone who thinks an online ethics exam is going to prevent political corruption stories from appearing in the Chicago Tribune in the future is frackin’ delusional.
That would take monthly “perp-walks” televised on WLS-TV for five years. And that’s never going to happen — too much work.
C. Bigsby, at 7:05 pm EST on January 23, 2007
Dear State of Illinois, I am typing very slowly because I know you do not read very fast.
Faculty
slowtype, at 7:10 pm EST on January 23, 2007
Jimenez must think we’re morons if he thinks we’d need a cheat sheet to pass that test. Leaving aside the fact that I don’t have a budget, or the ability to order equipment, or a brother-in-law, let alone one who lives in the state, I think I know that I’m not supposed to order my copiers from my brother-in-law’s firm.
I’m an English professor, I think I can read pretty quickly. And I took the test quickly because I wasn’t reminded about it until the day it was due, and needed to finish it so I could get to the actual work they pay me for.
Young Prof, at 5:30 am EST on January 24, 2007
It appears that I stand alone in my sentiments regarding the Ethics Training Exam required by the state. Granted, it was more geared toward not misusing state funds (such as the ever-so-extravagant occasional personal phone call on company time) rather than true “ethics.” However, I find it very interesting that sixty-five of our professors allegedly “failed” the exam- considering that the instructions were extremely clear and specific with regard to taking time to read through all of the questions (and the possible outcome of finishing too quickly).
For once, a timed test actually worked in the favour of those of us who LOATHE timed exams. Correct me if I’m wrong here- but is it not more important to pay attention to detail than to finish something so rapidly that accuracy has a higher rate of being compromised? We are people, after all- not computers. On that note, I sincerely hope that the state will examine the possibility of a computer glich before passing judgment.
Brett, Graduate Assistant at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, at 5:31 am EST on January 24, 2007
failed the exam. There was no time requirement given, only a statement that the test “should” take 30 minutes.
Young Prof, at 12:35 pm EST on January 24, 2007
Something needs to be added to this discussion, something that goes to the heart of the matter, from which the tests are a distraction (and means of intimidation): no politician has any business requiring us to take an ethics test as long as it remains legal to accept campaign contributions from parties over whose interests you will have some jurisdiction or influence if elected. (You can learn from the very ethics training under discussion that taking such contributions is perfectly legal, as everyone already knows. Two tickets to a Bulls game from a contractor — no go — but $100,000 towards the next election — no problem.)
Charles Delman, Easter Illinois University, at 7:30 pm EST on January 29, 2007
This is in response to those people who feel that those people declared non-compliant for completing the training “too fast” should have failed because they failed to read the material carefully enough to notice the minimum time limit reqquirement. A careful review of the on-line material (received from the state after a FOIA request) clearly shows that no such minimum time limit requirement is found in the on-line material. Consequently, all those people who believe that such a “minimum time limit” does exist should turn themselves in to the Inspector General because this is proof that they did not read the material carefully, as required.
Marvin Zeman, Professor at Southern Illininois University-Carbondale, at 10:45 am EST on February 1, 2007
I teach Ethics at an Illinois Community College. I teach it both in the classroom and also online. Therefore I give Ethics tests online. Along with thousands of others I took the State Ethics exam. I thought it was very elementary and really a waste of time. How many hours were spent developing this exam by State employees? Did we really pay people that did this? And now punishing people for taking the test “too fast". What makes the government incapable of designing something that would be effective? And then we pay people for going after those who “know” the answers without having to read all the material? I think the Ethics exam is an ethical problem now. The State would be wise to back off and not condemn those who were doing what they were asked to do — take an ineffective ethics exam.
Ron, at 10:35 pm EDT on April 10, 2007
it would appear the ethics of the people responsable for the test are in question,in that its irrelivent , to pass the test one must be slow minded to do it the entire prenise is faul and makes one wonder if they are trying to fill a statistical need in theyre funding humm
stefan hutchinson, taxpayer at uc citisen, at 8:50 pm EDT on April 15, 2007
Franz Kafka would have been inspired by this absurdity, I think, to write a new work — a sequel in the tradition of The Trial and The Castle.
Douglas Bellizzi, at 8:50 pm EDT on April 15, 2007
So if you’re going to cheat, make sure to log on to the test, waste 30 minutes doing something else, then pull out your cheat sheet and complete the test.
Great idea, Illinois, let everyone know how long you have to wait to cheat. Kind of defeats the purpose of the time limit, doesn’t it? People that are really stupid enough to cheat now know how to do it and really get away with it.
Did anyone examine the reading level of the text of the test (e.g., using the Flesh-Kincaid formula)? Copy and paste it into MS Word, and run a spell check. Even if it’s at grade 12, someone with a doctorate should be proficient enough to read it quickly. Or how about actually measuring how long it takes the average person (or professor) to read the test questions and answers?
Chris, Researcher, at 3:50 pm EDT on April 16, 2007
My department had several e-mails flying around warning about the hidden 10 minute time limit. From what I understand this warning didn’t make it to everyone. We were told explicitly to take AT LEAST 10 minutes, no matter how easy we thought the quiz was and to “Carefully review all materials". I opened my quiz up and browsed through it and saw that it was the exact same one from last year. I kept it open while doing other things at the office until I thought enough time had passed, then I took the easy quiz and got 100%. This whole situation is a joke. They should concentrate on actual ethics training that is worth something rather than being picky if people can answer a few common sense multiple choice questions in under 10 minutes. If any state officials think that people passed around cheat sheets, they are idiots.
Anonymous, Some were warned at SIU, at 4:11 am EDT on April 18, 2007
Well the first thing that comes to my attention as stated is that elected officials don’t have to take this test... they shouldn’t have to right? We all know they are ethical
2) If you assume that an ethical test is hard and nobody should complete it in under 10 min... and people are... maybe you should re-evaluate why the questions seem hard to you...
3) is there a place I can get this test from? I suddenly want to see how I would do...
Aladek, JD Candidate at WMCL, at 7:11 pm EDT on April 18, 2007
shouldn’t these professors be rewarded for immediately being able to see the correct solution to whatever ethical dilemma is presented? Also, who might have assisted them? Someone more ethical than they are? For only that person would know the correct answers, but being so ethical, would they have helped them cheat? Hmmm....
Michael, at 4:16 am EDT on April 19, 2007
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This, of course, says far more about the test designers’ attitudes toward the “thousands of state employees” whom the test was designed for, than it does about the “ethics” of analytically-trained English, math, and electrical engineering professors. The test designers and compliance officers themselves are obviously geniuses — jeopardizing people’s careers on the basis of invisible rules is a genuine masterstroke.
marya, at 7:15 am EST on January 23, 2007