Dive Brief:
- Revisions to an intellectual property policy at Ohio State University have professors fighting to keep control of their work.
- eCampus News reports that the second version of this policy has greater support by faculty for its clarification that professors own their works in most cases, but draws concern in terms of OSU’s control over instructional materials.
- OSU claims some control over its employees’ output in an effort to recover money poured into research, but it still makes less than any other Big Ten school off of its research income, eCampus News reports.
Dive Insight:
All institutions hold some level of control over what faculty produce while doing research at their university. The first draft of Ohio State’s latest proposal caused such a furor that some faculty members threatened to quit if it was approved. The university seems to be making an effort to incorporate faculty input into the final version of this policy. It is already soliciting additional comments before producing a third revision. The need to earn more money off of faculty research is compelling for a major public research university looking for additional funding options. OSU faculty, however, do not seem willing to allow any significant erosion of their rights.