CHARGE

The charge to the committee is to develop a set of guiding principles by 1 June 2003 that will address the following areas:

• Ownership of Intellectual Property: Traditionally USI has exerted ownership of intellectual property created in the arena of educational material and done so only rarely from research. Ownership has been determined by, and has been based on, the use of University resources in the development of the intellectual property. What constitutes intellectual property in the arena of new educational technology, and how do our principles apply to deciding whether the intellectual property was developed using USI resources?
• Faculty Dissemination of Scholarly Material: A critical part of the academic enterprise is the control by the faculty of the dissemination of the products of their scholarly work. Any new principles must be consistent with this understanding. How have the Internet and other distributed learning media changed the dissemination of the faculty's work?
• Reporting of Faculty Outside Professional Activities: The University has relied on faculty reporting of outside professional activities to monitor the potential for conflict of interest. Does our present reporting process satisfy this need to monitor the conflict of commitment?
• Miscellaneous Issues: Carefully review the policies and procedures presently in place at other universities and consider best practices as possible template for USI policy.
• Policy Development: Prepare a proposed set of policies and procedures on Intellectual Property and Copyright for review by Faculty Senate and appropriate University Committees, and adoption by the University Board of Trustees.

Our goal is to craft a set of principles that will help our faculty make optimal use of the emerging technology for education, while maintaining the collegiality of our campus, the essential open dissemination of information, and our faculty commitment to the mission of the University of Southern Indiana.