Thursday September 30, 2010 year: 130 No. 127 the student voice of
The Ohio State University
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thelantern Misconduct panel seeing fewer cases
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JAMi JuriCh Senior Lantern reporter jurich.4@osu.edu Fewer students were accused of plagiarism or other academic violations last school year than any other year in the past half-decade. But of the 408 students referred to Ohio State’s Committee on Academic Misconduct, 348 were found to be “in violation” — equivalent to a guilty verdict from the committee. In the 2006-07 school year, the committee reviewed 535 cases, a number that has decreased every year since, according to the committee’s annual reports. Of last year’s cases, 40 percent were plagiarism
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“This isn’t high school anymore. We can’t just say, ‘Oh, it’s alright.’ It’s not all right.”
Tim Curry coordinator on academic misconduct
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cases, said Tim Curry, the coordinator on academic misconduct. “It’s become a bigger problem now that people can just cut-and-paste,” said Gerald Kosicki, an
associate professor in the School of Communication. “Often, students cut and paste large sections of text for reference purposes, but because they’re sloppy, it just ends up in their paper. It’s still blameworthy.” Curry said 97 percent of plagiarism cases resulted in an “in violation” verdict last year. The committee also reviewed accusations from professors who said students copied each other, worked together when they weren’t supposed to, used unauthorized materials, cheated or helped someone cheat on an exam, or otherwise deviated from course guidelines. But students who end up in front of the committee aren’t necessarily the bad seeds. Curry said
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Facelift thomas P odnar, an employee of Mckay Lodge Art Conservation Laboratory, inc., uses a torch to heat the statue of William Oxley thompson and apply wax after c leaning and painting it Wednesday.
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Lt. Gov. Fisher says college should be more affordable DYLAN tusseL Lantern reporter tussel.2@osu.edu Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher echoed President Barack Obama’s call for college students to become more politically active at a meeting on campus Tuesday. About 50 students and community members gathered in the U.S. Bank Conference Theater at the Ohio Union to watch Fisher speak after a screening of Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Committee rally at the University of WisconsinMadison. Fisher “came to kind of respond to the president’s message and put it into a local context,” said Matt Caffrey, president of OSU College Democrats. “He’s been crisscrossing the state in this bus tour for a little over the past month.” Following Obama’s speech, Fisher, the Ohio Democratic senatorial candidate, took the stage and emphasized the importance of voting. “This election, for me and a lot of my colleagues, could be close enough that we could be looking at our margin of victory right here,” Fisher said,
referring to the audience members. “What’s going to make the difference between whether it’s victory or defeat? You.” If elected, Fisher said he plans to take steps to make college affordable, create internship opportunities for college students and make sure jobs are waiting Lee Fisher for students when they graduate. Now that the two-year tuition freeze at public universities in Ohio has been lifted, Fisher said he plans to give universities incentives to keep tuition from increasing substantially. “One of the best ways to keep tuition down is to say to every university, ‘In exchange for the funding that you receive from the state, you must put a limit on how much you charge for tuition,’” Fisher said. “Our public universities have to keep tuition at a low enough level so each student can afford it.” Fisher said he also plans to increase the number
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Sen. Brown: Keep college grads in Ohio DYLAN tusseL Lantern reporter tussel.2@osu.edu Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown emphasized the need to keep college graduates in Ohio on a conference call with university media Wednesday. “One of the missions I have as a senator … is, you know, how we make our state more livable, more attractive, more open to people your age so when you graduate, you stay,” Brown said, noting that a large number of college graduates choose to leave Ohio. “In 2008, only about 60 percent of bachelor’s degree-holders and 55 percent of graduate degree-holders still lived in Ohio three years after graduating from an Ohio institution of higher education,” he said. “Fifty-eight percent of Ohio college students say they plan to leave the state after graduation.” Brown said it’s a widespread misconception
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Prof’s case against OSU partially dismissed
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LAureN hALLOW Lantern reporter hallow.1@osu.edu
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Nearly two years after professor Rudolph Alexander Jr. filed a lawsuit against Ohio State alleging it destroyed public records, a judge issued a motion partially dismissing the case against the university. Alexander accused the university — particularly the College of Social Work and Vice President of Human Resources Larry Lewellen — of destroying the results of a survey taken by faculty and staff in the college. The lawsuit requests $1,000 in damages for each record destroyed, which Alexander estimates would amount to more than $3 million.
However, in a motion filed by Judge Daniel T. Hogan on Sept. 13, which was made public last week, the judge ruled that Alexander has no case against Lewellen. The motion also states that the university destroyed just one record. The survey in question asked Alexander’s rudolph Ale xander colleagues about the work environment in the College of Social Work. According to Alexander’s suit, the results would have gauged what his colleagues
thought about his boss, former Dean William Meezan. Alexander accused Meezan of discriminating against him and giving him a smaller payraise because he is black. Alexander, who said the judge’s opinion “differs with (his) beliefs regarding damages,” plans to fight the ruling. “I look forward to explaining to a Franklin County jury that multiple records were destroyed by Ohio State and that Ohio State mutilated written comments by making illegal redactions,” Alexander said in an e-mail to The Lantern on Sept. 16. Alexander said he plans to meet with a lawyer
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