subject line of email I just received:
"Your Responsibilities Related to Compliance with Export Control & Trade Laws & Regulations"
final line:
"It is the responsibility of all campus community members to review export control regulations and adhere to their requirements. Willful and knowing violation of these directives is a criminal offense."
Dude I am a MUSIC TEACHER
Comments
I am writing to inform you of a substantive change to the Note Taking Program at Disability Services. A student in your class is in need of notes.
For many years, Disability Services has made a practice of utilizing student volunteer note takers in courses as our means of providing students with disabilities who require notes as an accommodation the appropriate access they need. Each semester, we reach out to faculty to find out which courses have notes provided by their instructors and we are exceedingly grateful to all of you who model universal design principles by offering your notes and class materials to the entire class. For those instructors that do not provide notes, we have offered 1 academic credit or 45 hours of community service to student volunteers in an effort to cover the University's legal obligation to comply with the ADA. Over the years, despite repeated efforts on our part to implement technology and make the system more user friendly to student note takers, we have continued to struggle to meet our requirement of 100% compliance.
Many of our best students have little need for additional credits or community service hours. Students are seeking money and unfortunately, our office does not have the resources to offer monetary compensation. Our office handles thousands of requests for notes in hundreds of classes. We are unable to obtain enough volunteer note takers with such remuneration offers and this keeps us from meeting our compliance obligations; a legal risk to the university.
In an effort to best serve our students and avoid this legal risk of non-compliance, Disability Services has partnered with a company, Luvo. I encourage you to check them out online at Luvolearn.com. Luvo is a peer-to-peer learning platform that is designed to improve academic outcomes. They have partnered with many campuses and employ several faculty on their board, including the former University President of Kent State. Luvo has many products, but we have partnered with them to gain access to student generated original content notes and study guides exclusively. They have strict policies on plagiarism and utilize multiple safeguards (iThenticate, TurnItIn and content review teams) to ensure that intellectual property is protected. Furthermore, Luvo strictly adheres to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Unlike other sites, they will not upload questionable content such as old exams, answer keys, etc. Additionally, they are currently the only company that seeks a commitment to providing notes to Disability Services departments, free of charge.
Luvo staff monitor the website regularly to ensure note takers are posting original student generated study materials. If desired, faculty members can preview the material posted on Luvo and flag any concerns they have regarding content. In the event that a document is determined to be someone else's work, Luvo staff will immediately remove the material and reach out to the user who posted that content. The note taker will be given one warning, and a second occurrence of plagiarism will result in termination of their account and the Dean of Students will be notified as this is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct. For more information: http://www.luvolearn.com/using-luvo/intellectual-property/
If you have concerns about students using Luvo, the best practice would be to provide your accessible notes to the class as a whole (preferably on Moodle or a class site). If we are informed (preferably by you) that notes are available, we will not seek notes via Luvo. If a student in the class still elects to provide notes on Luvo, they will be far less successful if your notes are as comprehensive as possible as it will naturally reduce demand. We cannot keep students from marketing their own student generated content notes on Luvo. Students were purchasing notes from this company prior to us partnering with them."
IF YOU NEED ME I WILL BE IN A SPACESHIP HURTLING AS FAR AWAY FROM THIS PLANET AS POSSIBLE BEFORE I DIE
I will provide a series of links and excerpts below.
The State Department's Resource on Strategic Trade Management and Export Controls The US Department of the Treasury's Sanctions Program and Country Information The Bureau of Industry and Security's Commerce Control List I say again, take the time to educate yourself! These regulations exist for the purpose of national security, which is a shared commitment from which we all benefit.
I heard tales about job security at this govtco. Govtco employees could literally not be fired. A story was of a govtco employee who engaged in sexual harassment. They could not be fired, so they were exiled to a remote sited solo job site, full pay, full job security.