The Arbiter 2-3-11

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Culture

Check out the developing tattoo culture that Boise has to offer.

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Issue no.

Opinion

Don’t neglect your health now, small changes can go a long way.

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Sports

The annual Beauty and the Beast event draws near! Read a preview.

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39

Volume 23

First Issue

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February 03, 2011

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The Independent Student Voice of Boise State Since 1933

How tough should we be on smokers? Bob Beers

Editor-in-Chief Fresh Air Advocates, volunteers who assist the university in educating smokers of the smoking policy, have received increased opposition from smokers on campus. “There was a growing sense of smokers saying, ‘come back when you’re going to do something about it,’” said Jennifer Summers, health educator for University Health Services. To make matters more difficult, a complaint was issued by the City of Boise to Boise State University last week, which focused primarily on the number of smokers and litter on the Greenbelt. People who use the Greenbelt for recreational purposes issued multiple complaints to the university about smokers who use that area of the Greenbelt to light up. “It’s not only the smokers and the smoke, it’s the amount of garbage,” Summers said. “It took a little bit of time, but there was definitely some growing aggravation out there in the public.” Each April since 2009, Summers and a crew of volunteers have sprawled over the campus to pick up as many cigarette butts as possible. The crew, to date, has filled six five-gallon jugs that hold approximately 25,000 cigarette butts each -- for a total of about 150,000 cigarette butts collected. The campus has been in an educational phase of the smoking policy where all of campus shares a responsibility of informing violators that the policy exists. The university was advised to not immediately issue citations when the policy was enacted. “Most of the time people aren’t aware the policy exists or aren’t sure of what the distinct campus property lines are. So, if you go right off the bat with tickets, there will likely be an outcry ... because people don’t know,” Summers said. “You have to have that time period to educate.” It’s been a year and a half since the policy was first introduced and complaints have filtered in to Summers from all sorts of people, including smokers themselves.

“I get people saying, ‘I’m a smoker. I choose to go off campus. I’m trying to respect this policy. I walk by another smoker and it makes me feel like this isn’t right. If I have to respect it (the policy) this person should too,’” Summers said. For now there is a simple three-strike policy that will be enforced for violators of the policy. The first time a smoker is caught he is reminded of the policy and given an education card (which includes the smoke-free campus map). The second time the smoker is caught, his personal information is taken and is given a written warning. The third time the smoker is caught, a Security Incident Report is completed and that person is directed toward the appropriate office. For students it’s the Student’s Right and Responsibilities Office. During any step in the enforcement process, if an individual does not comply with this request or a request to verify ID, the university may exclude him or her from campus for a period of time pending an appeal with the appropriate office. According to an e-mail sent last week from the Office of the Vice President, enforcement of the policy will be augmented by campus security officers. Jon Uda, executive director of Campus Security, said there are eight full time officers and five part time officers who serve the campus. Enforcing the smoking policy is a new directive for the security team. “This is a whole campus effort,” Uda said. “Now that security is engaged, we will have to evolve with enforcement as this develops.” Uda said officers will naturally concentrate on “hot spots” around campus. “This is very new. We’re just rolling with the punches right now,” Uda said. “We received some complaints from smokers so far. We’ve also received some ‘atta-boys’ from non-smokers. It’s been pretty even.” The current goal of the university is to reduce the number of repeat offenders. How effective this enforcement policy is may determine if enforcement needs to graduate to a citation system. Summers said that some universities have fines of up to $250. Let’s hope we don’t have to go that far, eh?

PHOTOS BY Daniel Patchin/THE ARBITER

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Online classes are a miracle for students juggling family obligations, hectic class schedules and parttime jobs. But taking instructor presence out of the equation has opened up something else -- opportunities for students to cheat. According to a 2009 study in the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 32.7 percent

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of the students surveyed admitted to cheating in online classes, usually on a test or a quiz. Less than three percent were caught. So how do instructors catch online cheaters? The best way is to know their students. If a student struggles with essays all semester long, then her online paper is a hit, that’s a giveaway. Sometimes, students will take information from an online source or even a friend, and copy it directly onto an online assignment.

only the test appears on the screen. No cheating allowed. Instructors who teach online are given extra training through Boise State’s eQIP program that Heaps said gives faculty methods that sidestep the opportunities for cheating. For example, they can use writing assignments that require multiple drafts instead of one final product. That would prevent a student from purchasing a term paper or taking responses directly offline. Blackboard also contains software that allows teachers to check for plagiarism. Davies said students who cheat fail to learn and waste time and money. “More importantly, for the rest of their lives, they will know they cheated. I wonder how difficult it will be someday to look your own children in the eye and try to teach them good values knowing that you failed to adhere to those values yourself.”

OUR OFFICES IN THE ALUMNI CENTER

Kimberly O’Brian

Spanish instructor Carole Seror said past students have used Spanish translation websites and the results were often funny. Either the site completely mistranslated the assignment, or the vocabulary was too advanced for the student to have written themselves. Instructor of history Blaine Davies said plagiarism is a big problem with his online classes. Students don’t study for the test, so they look up information online during a timed test. “They will paste in a section and include all the links. So all I have to do is click on the link that they’ve put into a test answer and it shows me the site they got it from,” Davies said. According to Allan Heaps, the interim director of academic technologies, many instructors just use the online testing center. The OTC runs a software called SecurExam to lock down the system so

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Faculty use technology, keen eyes to kick online cheating

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