Illinois Professors Fail Ethics Test
Jan 8th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsCARBONDALE, Ill.
Thousand of public university employees in Illinois have flunked their ethics test.
The Chicago Tribune reports that many of the people who received failing grades were professors who failed even though they may have received perfect scores on the computer-administered test.
The problem was that they finished too quickly: The state says that they did not put enough effort into the test, which followed an 80-screen computerized training course.
“Most of it was common sense. You look at it, read it, and answer the questions,” said Marvin Zeman, a math professor in Carbondale who finished the training in just over six minutes, according to the letter he received from the state, telling him he had flunked.
“We are not talking about very challenging reading,” he told the Tribune.
Now, according to Chicago radio station WBBM, the “noncompliant” test-takers will be required to sign a document saying their could lose their jobs if they fail to complete future ethics training.
Zeman told the Chicago Sun-Times that he does not intend to sign the letter and attributes his speed to the fact that this is the third time he’s take then course and much of the material is the same.
“I did nothing wrong, and I don’t want to sign any letter that acknowledges I’ve been noncompliant,” Zeman told the Sun-Times. “That would be unethical.”
A similar incident occurred among employees of other Illinois state government sectors last summer.
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