Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Mar 1, 2012 17:00:20 GMT -6
Right now, the University has been operating on a fairly ad hoc basis, people who want to teach volunteering and teaching a course, and not having any other attachment to the University proper.
It has been suggested to me, and I think it would be at least interesting to consider, the University adopting a permanent faculty. To this end, I am tempted to steal the continental European concept of the Habilitation. Anyone wishing to become a full professor (profeßéir acreditat, in Talossan) at the University would submit a professorial thesis (the German Habilitationsschrift) for review by the University and publication by the University of Talossa Press (under a Creative Commons license). If of reasonably acceptable quality, the submitter would then be officially inducted into the permanent faculty of the University.
Thoughts?
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Post by Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on Mar 1, 2012 17:40:43 GMT -6
Would this license entail giving up of rights for future publishing?
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Mar 1, 2012 17:59:26 GMT -6
Would this license entail giving up of rights for future publishing? No. Copyright would be retained by the author, so the author could do whatever he liked with it, including publish it. The license would only provide specified redistribution rights, the purpose being to make sure that the work would be available for the use of future Talossans. There are seven different Creative Commons licenses (including CC 0), any of which would be considered acceptable. The most restrictive is the "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs" license, which allows people to copy, distribute, and and transmit the work on the condition that they must attribute the work, it can't be used for commercial purposes, and it can't be used to create derivative works. Which means that the University could pass around copies without getting dinged for copyright violation, but (for example) the only person who could actually publish and sell it as a book would be the author.
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Post by Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on Mar 1, 2012 19:07:46 GMT -6
That would be the one I would like my work published under, then, of course.
What were your thoughts on guidelines for this work? Length, peer review, etc.
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Mar 1, 2012 19:53:39 GMT -6
I'm hoping for feedback on such issues, and the intimately related one of what fields of study we would (at least initially) accept them for.
For example, I would feel reasonably confident setting standards for, say, someone looking to submit a Habilitationsschrift on Talossan history, and have a solid idea of who to ask to review it (given that we don't have any permanent faculty yet to do the reviewing). I also wouldn't be particularly worried about someone trying to use one in that field to serve as a "diploma mill degree" to defraud people. For one on the Talossan language, I would certainly have to rely on finding other reviewers who themselves would have to involve themselves in setting standards for length and such, but there are enough possible ones that I would have no serious concerns. Baron Hooligan, for example, is an obvious pick there, if he has the time. There are also a number of others with expertise in el Ghleþ.
On the other hand, if someone came at me with an engineering text, I not only wouldn't be sure where to start, I'm not sure how I would figure out who to hand the job off to. And I'd be worried that some time later, someone would get killed because an unqualified engineer scammed his way into a job based on a University of Talossa "credential".
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Post by Eiric S. Börnatfiglheu on Mar 1, 2012 22:01:31 GMT -6
Respectfully,
If the Regent of the university would like some assistance in trying to get this established, in terms of peer review and whatnot, the Fellows of St. Leibowitz College would be delighted to help out fellow scholars.
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Post by Eðo Grischun on Mar 2, 2012 21:16:48 GMT -6
Had a look at various online guides for the major universities regarding thesis format. I've thrown this together as an initial idea of a good format we could follow. We can tweak and refine as needed.
Page Size set to 'Letter' (or 8½” x 11”)
Page Margins: Top: 1.4” Left: 1.3" Right: 1.1” Bottom: 1.1” Header set to 'on' @ 1.3" Footer set to 'on' @ 1.1”
Main text to be 1.5 line spaced.
Page Numbering: First page assumed to be page i, so do not number: Title Page. Second Page assumed to be page ii, so do not number: Abstract Page. remaining pages (including Table of Contents) numbered with lower cased roman numerals, starting with iii. Page iii will also be the first Table of Contents page, only items after the Table of Contents to be listed. All numberings to be displayed in the Footer, Center Justified.
Fonts: Any legible font (but not script, italic, or ornamental ones). Arial, Times New Roman, Helvetica and Century Gothic are recommended. Same font to be used throughout the text. Standard font sizes for text are 10 and 12. Standard font color is black. Fonts used for appendices, captions, charts, illustrations and tables may differ from the text. Quotations: Quotations of 3 lines or less to be inserted directly into text, in quotation marks ("), in italic. Quotations of 4 lines or more to be in a new paragraph, single line spaced, in quotation marks ("), in italic.
Foreign Words: Including Talossan, in Italic.
Bold text may be used to express emphasis but must not be used to excess.
The header space on each page to include the candidates name, top line, left justified. Document title, second line, left justified. (optional third line: Chapter Title).
Illustrative Material: Must fit within the specified margins. Wide illustrations may be placed broadside on the page, top toward the left side. Be consistent in placing page numbers on illustrative material. All tables/ figures must be labeled with a number and caption.
Appendices/references/acknowledgments/dedications to be placed at the end of the document.
I've not followed any guideline on document length, I think there should be a minimum word count for the type of thing we are talking about using these theses for. Thoughts on that? Particularly, thoughts on maximum word counts. I don't think we should hinder creativity so should not cap upper word counts.
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Post by Eiric S. Börnatfiglheu on Mar 2, 2012 22:27:44 GMT -6
Generally speaking, the length of a thesis is simply: sufficient. I have served on thesis committees with lengths ranging from 60 pages up into 140's. Quite simply, a good thesis should make a significant contribution to the field of knowledge in which it is written. And there isn't much that can be said about that quantitatively. Instead, it is a more qualitative measure.
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Post by Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on Mar 2, 2012 22:54:58 GMT -6
I wasn't concerned with formatting, I simply think it's wise to provide guidance on the matter. Are we asking for 20k words, 40k, 60k? We have many individuals who might be new to academia, and could benefit from some general idea of what's expected.
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Mar 2, 2012 23:16:33 GMT -6
Talossa is "serious fun". How much work, as a guideline, would strike the proper balance here?
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Post by Sir Alexandreu Davinescu on Mar 2, 2012 23:38:04 GMT -6
I don't know. I guess that's up to you, S:reu Regent!
On a related note, would permanent faculty be expected to teach regularly? If not (as I assume), this seems to me more like an accreditation program than a faculty. That might be something you'd want to consider.
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Mar 3, 2012 0:09:07 GMT -6
I don't know. I guess that's up to you, S:reu Regent! On a related note, would permanent faculty be expected to teach regularly? If not (as I assume), this seems to me more like an accreditation program than a faculty. That might be something you'd want to consider. Oh, I've got all sorts of ideas as to possible rules on minimum course loads for permanent faculty*, faculty senate/governance, and the like. I'm just not spending a lot of time at the moment working out specific details while I'm neck deep in the whole Reunision thing (plus, well, "real life"). I brought up this specific topic because I was contacted about it, and figured I'd give people a chance to express their opinions (so they could yell if they thought it was awful, and so I could steal any good ideas).
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Hooligan
Squirrel King of Arms; Cunstaval to Maricopa
Posts: 7,325
Talossan Since: 7-12-2005
Motto: PRIMA CAPIAM POCULA
Baron Since: 11-20-2005
Count Since: 9-8-2012
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Post by Hooligan on Mar 5, 2012 14:01:51 GMT -6
Having published Ün Guizua Compläts àl Glheþ Talossan, and being in the middle of preparing another Talossan "literary" work (S:reux Davis and Canun, among others, are aware of this ongoing effort), I applaud the Üniversità for this initiative, that all Talossan works can be gathered under one umbrella of sorts.
Hool
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Post by Benedict Stamford on Mar 7, 2012 23:10:10 GMT -6
I will totally do this sheeeit! Ill publish the stuff. I have a big copier and can use it for a press ans stuff!
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Istefan Perþonest
Cunstaval to Fiôvâ; Regent of the University of Talossa
Posts: 1,024
Talossan Since: 2-21-1998
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Post by Istefan Perþonest on Mar 8, 2012 22:31:12 GMT -6
Okay, I've been letting my back-brain sort this sort of stuff out, and I think I've reached some tentative conclusions. Feel free to yell if you think I'm being insane or unwise.
1) Initially, the University of Talossa will only establish Profeßeirs Acreditats in fields of Talossan studies, since that is central to the University mission and a field of scholarship that is basically unduplicated in any more established institution. It's also one I feel reasonably competent to both judge and find other reviewers for.
2) Initial guideline on the minimum length of the Habilitationsschrift will be 7,500 words (30 pages at the usual guideline of 250 words/page). I think that's at least a good initial test of the "serious fun"; not as substantial as one would need at a "real" university, but still enough that, especially in an area as unexplored as Talossan studies, serious contributions can be made. This length may go up or down as experience dictates.
3) Profeßeirs Acreditats will, as faculty, have duties to the scholarship of the University in order to retain status as Profeßeirs Acreditats. They will be able to choose between either "research" or "instructional" duties each year, the former meaning publishing a certain minimum amount of material via the University of Talossa Press each year, the latter meaning a minimum courseload each year. These duties will be kept reasonably light, and sabbaticals will initially be granted generously.
4) Profeßeirs Acreditats will eventually have some sort of formal academic authority in the University through a faculty senate of some sort. This will in large part depend precisely on how much the Profeßeirs Acreditats actually want to take responsibility for actually operating the University.
5) I'd love the CÚG to give me a nice, short, euphonious Talossan word for Habilitationsschrift or "professorial thesis". However, if it doesn't, I am fully prepared to invent my own word and get it adopted into Talossan the old-fashioned way—ruthless and repetitive use until it can't be denied. THEY HAVE BEEN WARNED.
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