Dear President Napolitano,

We are writing to urge the UCOP to adopt a system-wide policy rejecting and discontinuing all remote, external proctoring services (e.g., ProctorU, Respondus) effective immediately. Forcing students to submit to a protocol that entails personal surveillance during an exam and requires technology and Internet access unavailable to many has caused pedagogical failings and widespread anxiety and panic, especially among our economically disadvantaged and undocumented students. This requirement is untenable. We all have experienced the new and myriad challenges of administering exams during this experiment with remote instruction. However, this crisis has allowed instructors to be more creative with all aspects of pedagogy. Proctoring exams is a more urgent need for certain disciplines, particularly those in STEM who rely on specific testing methods. To support these disciplines and all instructors struggling with this issue, we ask that a larger conversation about creative solutions for assessment begin directly. We also request that UCOP take the following steps to remedy the current situation:

1) Adopt UC Berkeley’s policy against the use of any external proctoring service system-wide. The ongoing and uncoordinated adoption of these services across the rest of the UC campuses is creating systemic inequities that must cease. All of our UC students are worthy of the consideration given to those at UC Berkeley. Faculty, staff, and administrators do everything in our power to protect our students in the physical space of the university. We do not knowingly compromise their rights or their personal information. We now have the responsibility to protect them in the new digital space of our classrooms, where we will be conducting our work for the foreseeable future until there is a COVID-19 vaccine.

2) Create a UC-wide Faculty Advisory Committee on Remote Learning that draws upon the many faculty talents across disciplines, including economics, computer science, education, psychology, digital media, information science, communication, and data security to rethink testing, knowledge-building, and assessment. Our system has the world-class faculty capable of envisioning alternative modalities of protecting academic integrity during exams. We need to involve their expertise and ingenuity during this crisis.

The only fair and ethical future for the UC is one devoid of these third-party surveillance platforms. UC can lead the way, as we have so many times before, and create alternatives for remote testing that simultaneously preserve academic integrity while treating all of our students with dignity and respect.

Sincerely,
The Executive Board of the Council of UC Faculty Associations

cc: UC Academic Senate Chair Kum-Kum Bhavnani