NORMAL, Ill. – Students gathered outside Hovey Hall last week to protest against Proctortrack.
The software is an automated method for exams to ensure academic integrity.
Over 50 students and faculty attended the protest. One of the organizers, Julia Retter explained that the purpose of the protest was to get the attention of Illinois State University administration.
“We just want some answers and hopefully after today the administration will give us some answers or at the very least our professors will see us against this,” said Retter.
Some administrators attended the protest including recently appointed provost and vice president of Academic Affairs. Aondover Tarhule listened to the student organizers and even said a few words at the event.
He says that he hopes to find the middle ground between students and faculty’s wants. He explains that only 8% of the student body is going to be affected by Proctortrack.
“When we talked about this, there were over 100 faculty that wanted to use it. As the issues have emerged and we talked to faculty, we have gotten the number down to 25. I am very optimistic we can get that down by even lower,” said Tarhule.
President Larry Dietz also attended the protest and facilitated the start of discussion between students and administrators. He says that the administration will explore future ways to work with students and faculty on the software.
“It’s not anything that is widespread on the campus. I think some people read it and felt like well this is coming to every class with every faculty member. Well, we have over a thousand faculty members and only 25 at this point are utilizing it,” said Dietz
President Dietz hopes to have future conversations with the students in regard to Proctortrack.