At the campus-wide 7th annual Integrity Awards Ceremony, UC San Diego recognized 11 individual members of the campus community and one entire department: Computer Science and Engineering. The ceremony took place on April 19 to honor contributions to academic, research and professional integrity at the university.
CSE Chair Dean Tullsen led the team of department personnel who attended the award ceremony. "This award recognizes the CSE department's proactive effort at all levels to ensure that students, staff and faculty are pursuing excellence with the highest standards of integrity," said Tullsen in accepting the award on behalf of the department.
Gillespie; second row, far right Leo Porter, third from right
Margaret Ramaeker, Not pictured: Rick Ord, Susan Marx,
Nadyne Nawar, Veronica Abreu, David Bareno.
Other CSE faculty who attended the ceremony included Leo Porter (who chairs the CSE Academic Integrity Committee) Rick Ord, Susan Marx and Gary Gillespie, a past individual winner (in 2015) for his faculty work in contributing to a culture of academic integrity among CSE students. As Gillespie said at the time, stressing integrity "is not always a pleasant process, but if students can better consider their decisions, they'll be better ambassadors from UC San Diego when they eventually graduate."
The nomination pointed to CSE efforts on various fronts to champion integrity. One was the creation of the CSE Academic Integrity Committee to liaise with the campus and other departments, with Leo Porter as chair and both Gillespie and Alin Deutsch as current members.
Faculty member Rick Ord worked with the Academic Integrity Committee to draft a form for students to sign at the start of the term, and a number of CSE faculty are now using the form in their classes to reinforce the commitment to good student practices that can help prevent violations. Indeed, this year and last, roughly 40 percent of CSE faculty actively reported integrity violations in their courses -- an unparalleled engagement by faculty in any department.
CSE also collaborated with Geisel Library to produce an interactive tutorial on academic integrity in CSE. "As students new to computing are often confused about appropriate and inappropriate conduct," noted the nomination, "this tutorial teaches them proper behavior both academically and professionally." Lecturer Paul Cao led the effort with help from faculty members George Porter, Leo Porter and Alex Snoeren.
Also representing the department at the campus ceremony were Master's program manager Nadyne Nawar, undergraduate affairs manager Veronica Abreu, contracts and grants administrator David Bareno, and assistant to the chair and MSO, Margaret Ramaeker.
The annual awards have been given since 2011 by the Academic Integrity Office and, since 2015, by the Research Ethics Program as well to honor the university's commitment to uphold responsibility, honesty, fairness, respect, trustworthiness and courage -- the six criteria on which the winning nominations were selected. The campus Academic Integrity Office partners with faculty to establish integrity in the classroom, and teaches student ethical decision-making skills that can be applied to their schoolwork, future professions, and beyond. For the 2017 awards, the honors were expanded to include awards for professional integrity to honor those community members who uphold integrity in areas other than academics and research.
“UC San Diego acts to sustain a culture of integrity in which our students, staff and faculty feel empowered and supported to do the right thing—even when it is challenging,” said Interim Executive Vice Chancellor Peter F. Cowhey. “We’d like to thank the recipients for their exceptional contributions to maintaining integrity, a principle essential to the excellence of our institution.”