University Academic Affairs Committee – August 24, 2026
Action Items
- None
Minutes
University Academic Affairs Committee Meeting Minutes
4:00 PM, Monday, August 24, 2026
In attendance:
At Large Representatives
2028 Holly Schiffrin (Professor, PSYC, CAS), Secretary
2029 Parrish Waters (Associate Professor, BIOL, CAS)
College Representatives
2028 Varun Makhija, Associate Professor, PHYS, CAS
2027 Alex Honold, Assistant Professor, COE, Chair
2029 Stephen Davies, Professor, COB
Ex-Officio Members
Provost (or their designees): Associate Provost Debra Schleef
Dean of Admissions, Associate Vice President, Melissa Yakabouski
Registrar: Rita Dunston
Associate Provost for Academic Engagement and Student Success: Wes Hilliard
Student non-voting representatives: appointments had not been made yet
Honor Council President: Adam McAninley
• Call to Order at 4pm
• Previous meeting minutes – approved previously by e-mail.
• Old Business: Monitoring Online Testing Software and Survey
o Last year we discussed an issue brought to the committed by a faculty member to purchase software to monitor student online exam taking (e.g., HonorLock, Respondus, etc.), which led to a discussion of whether the honor code was still effective or not. The committee recommended doing a campus survey to assess the campus climate about honor. This summer, Stephen talked to Tim O’Donnell and Wes Hilyard and neither of them are as pessimistic about the state of the honor code at UMW as he was, although they acknowledged that faculty have expressed concerns. This summer, Tim said he wanted to start a task force, especially in light of Princeton’s decision to proctor all of their exams, but the BOV did not approve it. Stephen Davies did some research over the summer on surveys. He found a validated survey called the McCabe-ICAI Academy Integrity Survey that costs $650 to join and administer, which the provost’s office has said they would pay for if we want to administer it. However, there is a published article that might have a revised version that is available for free (MIAMI: development and validation of a revised measure of academic misconduct).
o Adam responded that the honor code plays a foundational role at UMW, but views it as separate from academic integrity and voiced concerns about using the ICAI and would be in favor including UMW specific questions. However, he would want to get input from the honor council as well.
o We discussed the pros and cons of asking people to respond to a third-party survey versus one sent by UMW (e.g., response rates, honesty of responses, cost, etc.). The ICAI response rate is only 30%. We might get higher response rates if it came from UMW depending on who sends it out (e.g., Dean of students, honor council president).
o We discussed that the original concern was primarily about cheating on online tests and wanting to know how many faculty would be interested in a system to reduce online cheating. Another possible topic to include is whether faculty would want to have access to Turn it In. However, the discussion has broadened to the entire honor code. A suggestion was made to move away from the honor code in favor of an “ASPIRE code,” which incorporates academic integrity as well. However, currently, this is a statement of community values without a corresponding board to hold people accountable. In addition, the Honor Council reports directly to the BOV, so our committee does not have purview over it.
o Rita raised the issue of whether the university would have the funding to purchase these systems even if faculty do want them. However, we agreed it was important to ascertain whether faculty want them or not as a starting point. There may also be free or lower cost systems available such as safe exam browser (https://safeexambrowser.org/about_overview_en.html).
o We agreed to work on a faculty survey to discuss at the next meeting and that we would hold off on a student survey for now. Alex suggested that Holly create a Google doc to share the draft survey with the committee. Adam said the honor council would like to have input on anything going out relating to honor. He also asked that we be clear about the purpose of the survey before proceeding. He suggested asking what faculty are doing to promote honor in the classroom (e.g., discussing it more in class increases academic integrity) and encouraged faculty to have in-person exams to increase accountability.
Meeting adjourned: 4:57pm
UAAC Members:
At Large Representatives
2028 Holly Schiffrin, Professor, PSYC, CAS, Secretary
2029 Parrish Waters (Associate Professor, BIOL, CAS)
College Representatives
2028 Varun Makhija, Associate Professor, PHYS, CAS
2027 Alex Honold, Assistant Professor, COE
2029 Stephen Davies, Professor, COB
Ex-Officio Members
Provost (or their designees): Associate Provost Debra Schleef
Dean of Admissions, Associate Vice President, Melissa Yakabouski
Registrar: Rita Dunston
Associate Provost for Academic Engagement and Student Success: Wes Hilliard
Student non-voting representatives: Brenna Pope and Stef Alvarado