Christmas in Manitou page 6
the
Monday, December 12, 2011 Vol. 36, Iss. 16
FREE
cribe
Your school. Your voice.
University of Colorado Colorado Springs Weekly Campus Newspaper
‘Shawn the Baptist’ called to preach on campuses nationwide Kaitlin Nelson knelson6@uccs.edu
Shawn the Baptist shares his gospel message.
Photo by Robert Solis
Shawn Holes has had a long history of sharing his gospel message. A Christian from a young age, he ended up getting his seminary degree and preaching in jails, on the street and in various other venues. Then, “The Lord sent me to college campuses,” Holes said. His work eventually earned him his current nickname, “Shawn the Baptist,” in reference to the famous Biblical figure and preacher John the Baptist. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the calling he followed led him to UCCS. He spoke at the University Center lower plaza, next to the Mountain Lion statue. Preaching soon evolved into more individualized conversations between Holes and various students. Holes loves what he does, and encourages discussion with students who hold different world-
views. “People tend to listen. Sometimes they listen in terms of being excited, sometimes they get angry, sometimes they get convicted,” he said. “As a Christian, I love people in spite of who they are, in spite of their [views],” he added. “I just have to, that’s the call of a Christian.” Holes said it is not his intention to preach a message of condemnation. “As Christians, we can’t condemn anybody,” he said. “I didn’t mean to offend people.” He pulls his viewpoint from the Bible verse he referenced, John 3:17, which states, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” Holes tries to live up to this standard by sharing his beliefs in a respectful, considerate way. Did many students still feel judged by the nature of his message? “I hope not,” said Holes. Nonetheless, some stu-
dents said otherwise. One witness, biology sophomore Jon Witt, recounted a conversation between Holes and a student. “There was this one kid standing there, and he was like ‘You’re no better than the rest of us.’ And the preacher guy was all like ‘You’re right, I’m not.’ So [the student] was all like ‘Then get the [sic] out of here and stop preaching your [sic].” “And I was like, if you don’t want to listen,” said Witt, “just leave.” However, Witt did not believe it got out of hand. “If there’s somebody preaching out there, they’re just going to fight them,” he said. “[Holes] was pressing buttons. Religion always presses buttons.” How far does free speech go before it becomes harassment? Witt said, “As long as it doesn’t get violent, I say you’re alright.” Other students disagree, however, as evidenced by
on homework and exams. Robert Carlson, mathematics professor, said, “On homework ‘person b’ copies the work of ‘person a’ or copied big chunks of it because they don’t know what’s going on, or they make the same mistakes – a series of [identical] mistakes.” According to Jenna Vaughn, human biology major, she was falsely accused of plagiarism as a freshman when she allowed her lab partner to double-check answers from her homework, who then copied directly from the assignment. However, even after being cleared, Vaughn said that her teacher became “vindictive” and “she would give me extra assignments; she would have me stay after [class];
she would have me do procedures I’ve never heard of [and] wouldn’t properly explain how to properly do them.” Unfortunately, due to the lack of statistical data, the amount of students being accused versus found guilty of plagiarism on campus as a whole is relatively unknown. The Office of Academic Affairs does not keep official records of plagiarism statistics, which are left up to the discretion of individual college deans, according to Tina Collins, executive assistant to the vice chancellor for student success and enrollment management. According to the “Student Academic Ethics Code Policy,” students can
be turned in to their professor, another faculty member or the college dean by anyone who suspects them of misrepresenting their work. It states that the reporting process allows the professor to decide whether or not a student is guilty of committing plagiarism based on the evidence available and to decide on the punishment, such as a grade reduction or failing the assignment. The professor is then required to submit a report to the college dean detailing the offense and the punishment given. If the dean determines an offense is severe enough, the policy states that the student can be placed on “probation, suspension, expulsion, or [the] withholding or revoking [of] a degree.” S
Continued on page 2...
Plagiarism can be committed in more ways than one Rachel Bradford rbradfor@uccs.edu
Academic plagiarism is commonly defined as when a student falsely represents someone else’s work as their own. However, using information from a previous paper is also considered plagiarism and students need to properly cite such information, according to Lynda Dickson, professor of sociology. The “UCCS Bulletin,” released each semester, contains the University’s official definition of plagiarism, which includes circumstances, such as direct copying, stealing ideas and inadequate citations. Professors who hand out writing assignments
Inside this
Issue
often rely on computer programs to detect plagiarism, such as Safe Assign and TurnItIn. Dickson said that in the past couple years, she has known about “three big cases where there really was a debate about flunking [students accused of plagiarism] for the assignment or… the whole class.” According to Dickson, she has seen students turn in writing assignments where up to 30 percent of the material included came directly from another source. Students interviewed agreed that plagiarism is wrong; however, their experiences differ. Juanita Whitaker, sociology major, doesn’t believe plagiarism “is as widespread as some peo-
news Text book buyback page 2
ple would like us to think it is.” Whitaker also said that it “is a condition of not knowing what you have inside yourself and seeking it in others.” David Magoon, game design and development major, said, “In my class, apparently six people just turned in the same work; they all got F’s.” Magoon explained that plagiarism within game design is “stealing code, everyone working in a group and sharing code they’re not supposed to… go[ing] online and steal[ing] an entire game someone else has already built.” Subjects that do not require writing assignments, such as mathematics, still have to deal with students who plagiarize
culture
Nickelback resentment club page 7
opinion Speech war page 12
sports Chess boxing page 15