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George Mason University’s Student Newspaper Volume 88 Issue 16
Patriots Claim No. 3 Seed in CAA Tournament After Loss to VCU Men’s Basketball to Take Two-Game Losing Streak to Richmond
Committee: Professor Guilty of Research Misconduct Edward Wegman Asked to Apologize and Retract Study Adam Sylvain C2M Managing Editor
Photo by: Stephen Kline
Senior Ryan Pearson watchs the final minutes Saturday’s game at Virginia Commonwealth University from the end of the bench after fouling out. Get the whole story on page 10.
Review
Blake Shelton Plays Patriot Center Students Line Up for Incandescent Performance Krista Germanis Asst. Style Editor The Patriot Center was packed Saturday evening for the Blake Shelton concert. Audience members got their money’s worth too, seeing opening acts Justin Moore and “The Voice” contestant Dia Frampton. Each of the acts played several songs and got the crowd excited before Blake Shelton came out. He had quite the entrance, descending from a platform onto the stage while colored lights flashed and the bass shook the whole arena. He kicked off the night singing “Footloose” and “All About Tonight.” Once he secured the attention of the audience, Shelton began telling stories and asking them questions. Shelton is one of the most humble people in show business; he made a point to say multiple times how grateful he was for his fans and how he really is just a regular guy. He held audience members’ hands, threw guitar picks into the crowd and thanked select individuals for the posters they held up. It was evident Shelton really cared about his fans and really paid attention to them. “[Seeing so many people in the Patriot Center] made me a little bit nervous, y’all,” Shelton said. “When I get nervous I tend to drink, all right? I can already tell I like you all, by the way. I don’t wanna be like that kinda guy that says that way too early. But there’s somethin’ going on here between me and y’all. I don’t know if you noticed or not.” He then went into singing “Home,” one of his most popular
www.broadsideonline.com
February 27, 2012
A university investigative committee has concluded that George Mason University professor Edward Wegman is responsible for misconduct in a co-authored study published in the journal Computational Statistics & Data Analysis. The committee’s findings were released Wednesday in a statement issued by Provost Peter Stearns to Mason faculty. “The relevant committee did find that plagiarism occurred in contextual sections of the [Computational Statistics] article as a result of poor judgment for which Professor Wegman, as team leader, must bear responsibility,” said Stearns in the statement. According to Stearns, the statement to faculty is one of three sanctions levied by the university in response to the findings. Wegman has also been asked to apologize to the journal and to retract the study. Additionally, an official letter of reprimand will be placed in Wegman’s file. The letter of reprimand is a document which outlines the results of the committee’s investigation and states Wegman’s responsibility for the misconduct, according to Stearns. Throughout the course of the investigation and now following the committee’s findings, Wegman maintains his position with the university as a professor in the Department of Statistics. “The conduct applied to introductory elements of an article, not to the essential research findings of the article,” Stearns said. “Had it been a more serious case, the sanctions would have been more serious.” Results of the investigation, as noted in the statement, conclude that Wegman is responsible for misconduct in one of two separate reports called into question: a 2008 article appearing in Computational Statistics & Data Analysis and a 2006 congressional report critical of scientists’ reconstructions of past climate conditions. According to Stearns, the investigation involved four committees in total. Both charges were first brought to separate committees for inquiry. Once the charges of both
actions were deemed to warrant investigation, each charge was moved to two separate faculty investigative committees. The faculty committee responsible for investigating the 2006 congressional report unanimously concluded that no scientific misconduct occurred. The separate committee in charge of investigating the Computational Statistics & Data Analysis study found that misconduct did occur in “contextual elements” of that article. This was also a unanimous decision, according to Stearns. Plagiarism allegations surfaced in 2009 when retired computer scientist John Mashey published an analysis of Wegman’s reports on the Deep Climate website. Wegman responded to Mashey’s allegations in the fall of 2010, in an email to C2M. "I will say that there is a lot of speculation and conspiracy theory in John Mashey's analysis which is simply not true," Wegman said. “We are not the bad guys…We have never intended that our Congressional testimony was intended to take intellectual credit for other scholars' work.” Wegman called the charges against him “unprecedented in my 42 years as an academic and scholar." The university began its investigation into plagiarism charges in 2010 following a complaint filed by University of Massachusetts professor Raymond Bradley. The complaint accused Wegman of plagiarizing one of Bradley’s textbooks and copying information from other sources, including Wikipedia. In the faculty statement, Stearns addressed criticism from some who believe the university failed to quickly render judgment and was disinterested in the charges. “While our procedure is indeed prolonged, in part because of federal requirements and in part to assure due process,” Stearns said. “Any implication of lack of concern is entirely misplaced.” C2M has reached out to Wegman for comment.
Story taken from Connect2Mason
Student Club Promotes Bike Use, Sustainability Photo by: Jake McLernon
Blake Shelton played to a sold-out crowd Saturday at the Patriot Center. His hits include “God Gave Me You,” “Honeybee” and “Drink on It.” songs, so the audience could sing God’s sakes. It’s what you’re sup- songs.” along with him. posed to do — sing and listen to He then proceeded to sing Shelton did a great job relat- country music. Drink beer and his first hit song, “Austin,” as the ing to his audience, which was raise hell, ain’t that right?” crowd went crazy. filled with college students and The concert was fantastic. Some other songs that were country music fans. He talked a The atmosphere was energetic played throughout the concert inlot about drinking and made and fun, and the performers were cluded “Drink On It,” “Kiss My jokes about how his record com- running and dancing all over the Country Ass,” “Ol’ Red,” “Honeypany was not happy with him for stage. bee” and “Hillbilly Bone,” foltelling everyone he drinks while Towards the end of the show, lowed by an encore performance performing. Shelton decided to play some of with his newest single, “God Gave “I’ve gotta drink a drink of his earlier hit songs. Me You.” my drink,” Shelton said as he took “I actually have songs even After the show, Shelton a sip of what he implied was alco- older than that crap,” he said. “Yes tweeted, “Thank you Fairfax!!!!!!! I hol. “It’s a good time for y’all to do I do, yes I do. I actually have a love y’all so much I just pissed that too, by the way. I mean we’re song that’s really old. It was my myself to write message instead just all hangin’ out around here, first song. But I don’t want to be of a bathroom break...” listening to country music for an old bastard up here singin’ old
Free U-Locks Available for Mason Bike Riders Nathan Dorfman Staff Writer George Mason University’s cycling club is gearing up for another exciting semester on campus. “This is the club’s second semester in existence,” said student liaison officer Patrick Harvey, a senior psychology major. The cycling club has two primary goals: building a cycling community on campus and promoting cycling as a form of sustainable transportation in Northern Virginia. “Now we’re just really trying to get people who enjoy cycling to
ride together,” Harvey said. Although the cycling club has no official partnerships, it collaborates with the Mason Transportation Department and the Office of Sustainability. Together, the cycling club and Transportation Department are offering free u-locks this semester, as part of an on-campus bike registration program. “U-locks are a much more secure way of locking up bikes than a cable lock,” Harvey said. Through the registration program, students would provide
See BIKES, Page 3