November 30, 2012 | The Miami Student

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The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826

FRIday, NOVEMBER 30, 2012

VOLUME 140 NO. 26

MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO

TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1942, The Miami Student reported that the Miami University Senate approved a motion allowing fraternities to initiate any pledge with a C grade-point

average and a minimum of 30 credit points. The proposal came following a request from the Council of Inter-fraternity Presidents to the Student Organizations committee of the university senate, which was against allowing fraternity rushing and pledging during the first semester.

Curtain closes on Princess Theater, for now

MIKE ZATT THE MIAMI STUDENT

CONTRIBUTED BY THE LANE PUBLIC LIBRARY ARCHIVES

Left:The Princess Theater after if abruptly closed Tuesday. Right: When The Princess was opened in 1911, it was originally called the Oxford Theater. Its named changed to the Talawanda Theater from the 1950s to the 1980s. After it was enlarged and named The Princess Theater.

By Olivia Hnat & Hannah Stein
 Community Editors

The Princess movie theater closed Nov. 25 but it will not remain a sleeping beauty for long. The City of Oxford officials expect the theater will reopen after a transition period, according to Douglas Elliott, city manager, and Alan Kyger, economic development director for the City of Oxford. According to emails sent by Elliott to the Oxford City Council, The Princess may be donated to the City of Oxford but as of Thursday afternoon other parties expressed interest in purchasing the theater from its current owner, Aliance Entertainment and Great Escape Theatres. City Council will discuss a possible resolution to accept a donation in its next meeting on Dec. 4. Aliance Entertainment and Great

Escape Theatres is based in New Albany, Ind. According to statement and online page, Aliance Entertainment focuses on providing movie theaters for rural and smaller communities and has owned The Princess since May 2000.
 “We decided to close [The Princess],” David Poland, vice president of operations for Aliance Entertainment, said. “We certainly thank everyone in Oxford, especially the students, for their support over the years.”
 Elliot said the transition plan is for Oxford to own The Princess after it is donated to the city by Aliance Entertainment and Great Escape Theatres. His goal is to then lease it to a company or individual that will run the theater. After speaking to Poland, Elliot said he is interested in accepting the donation from The Princess’ former owner. 
 “Tuesday night we have a council

meeting and council will be considering a resolution authorizing the city manager to accept this donation,” Elliot said. “I have said that if they do that and if indeed the Great Escapes Theatres donated The Princess to the city, my goal will be to work with the staff to find an individual or company or organization to lease The Princess to and continue its operation as a local movie theater showing first run pictures.”
 The Princess is in need of heating repairs and movie projector replacements in order for it to reopen and show first run movies, according to Elliot. Two theater rooms need heating repairs that are estimated to cost $25,000 according to information Elliott received from Aliance Entertainment. In addition, The Princess needs to upgrade the projectors from

PRINCESS,

ROYAL ORIGINS The Princess Theater has a long history in Oxford, Ohio. It was first opened Sept. 11, 1911 by William E. Keene and was originally called the New Oxford Theater.
 Keene and his son Ed Keene along with Wilmington Amusement Co. owned the theater. In the 1950s, Charles A. Williams owned the theater and changed its name to the Talawanda Theater.
 It was not until The Talawanda Theater closed and was leased by Film

Classics, Inc. that it was renamed The Princess.
 When The Princess opened in 1982 it was renovated and received new equipment. The theater previously sat nearly 400 but was renovated with wider aisles and a staggered seating formation to seat only 180, according to an archived story by The Oxford Press.
 The Oxford Press archived story states that when The Princess first opened admission started out as only $2.

SEE PAGE 8

Dean of Students steps Academic dishonesty incidents increase down, returns to teaching By Emily Crane Staff Writer

By Allison McGillivray Campus Editor

After serving as Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students for ten years, Susan Mosley-Howard will step down in Jan. 2013 to return to teaching. Mosley-Howard will work on several research projects in the spring semester, in addition to teaching a class in the department of educational psychology and becoming familiar with her new duties as department chair for educational psychology. Mosley-Howard will return as full-time faculty at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year. Mike Curme, associate dean and associate professor of economics in the Farmer School of Business, will serve as interim Associate Vice President for

MOSLEY-HOWARD

Student Affairs and Dean of Students beginning in January. While Mosley-Howard was not specific at about why she chose to step down as Dean of Students, she said it was not a result of poor student behavior. “Students are a joy overall,” Mosley-Howard said. “Miami students are vibrant, engaging, [and] bring such a sense of life to the campus.”

Brenda Quaye, Miami University’s new Coordinator for Academic Integrity has her work cut out for her: the 2011-12 academic year showed a 35 percent increase in reported incidents of academic dishonesty, according to the most recent incident report issued by the Academic Integrity Initiative in the Center for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching. The report indicated that the majority of incidents of dishonesty occurred in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Farmer School of Business. BUS 101 and CHM 144 were the courses with the highest numbers of reported incidents, with 32 and 23 respectively. The most commonly reported incidents have to do with unauthorized collaboration or plagiarism, according to Quaye, where students do more work together on assignments or assessments than they’re allowed, particularly in lab write-ups. “Students shouldn’t give their

work or any part of their work to another student without permission,” Quaye said. Doing so could open the door for what is called facilitated plagiarism, and while it may be unintentional, it is still punishable. “Unintentional academic dishonesty is still dishonesty,” Quaye said. However, the spike in reported incidents is not necessarily due to an increase in actual acts of dishonesty as much as it is due to increased detection and reporting, Quaye said. As more and more professors use plagiarism detection software, such as Turnitin, it has become much easier to instantly detect cheating or plagiarism, according to Quaye. In addition, the university recently outlined in the Student Handbook some new procedures by which an instructor may collaborate with their program director or department chair to report an incident of suspected dishonesty, Quaye said. Up until three years ago, when these procedures were put in place, faculty members were left to handle matters of dishonesty on their own.

“With the new procedure, we’ve implemented a support system for faculty members, [which has] provided them a mechanism for addressing issues of academic dishonesty,” Quaye said. Richard Campbell has served as the director of the journalism program for nine years and the interim chair of the communications department for three. He said he has seen a slight rise in reported incidents since the new procedures have been put in place. “I might get between three and four cases a semester,” Campbell said. “I think there are more cases now because [instructors] are more conscious of the new process.” While Quaye is not alarmed by the amount of academic dishonesty at Miami, she is actively working to combat it, primarily by educating students and faculty on policies. “Students don’t fully understand what’s allowed and not allowed,” Quaye said. “Speeding is a good

CHEATING, SEE PAGE 8


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