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THE ART OF FOOLOSOPHY, PAGE 16
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__ T h e M c G ill
T r ib u n e
Published by the Students' Society of McGill University
New CBC Radio 2 debuts M c G ill
m u s ic ia n s
e x p re s s
Volume 28 Issue 2 • September 9,2008
www.mcgilltribune.com
d is a p p o in t m e n t
AUS pays out $14,000 in suit D is p u te w ith
c e n tr e s
fro s h
o n
c o n tra c t
c o o rd in a to rs Thomas Q uail
T h e civil law suit b e tw e e n th e Arts U n d e rg ra d u a te Society and th e ir Arts Frosh coordinators was th e best k ep t secret on cam pus last year. W ra p p e d up in M ay, th e c o u rt ruled against th e AUS, a w ard in g th e plaintiffs, led by M cG ill alu m n u s G eo ffrey Hall, ap p ro x im a te ly $ 1 4 ,0 0 0 . Fo llo w in g th e proceedings, th e AUS b u d g e t w as ad ju sted to c o m p e n s a te fo r th e u n a n tic ip a te d cost o f th e suit. T h e Arts U n d e rg ra d u a te Im p ro v e m e n t Fund, th e Arts S tudents E m p lo ym en t Fund, and d e p a rtm e n ta l fu n d in g w e re u n affected by th e law suit. "Unessential exp en d itu res such as su p p le m e n ta l d e p a rtm e n ta l fu n d in g , a n d p ro m o tio n a l m aterials w e re reduced or cut,"said AUS President Nick W o lf in an em ail to th e Tribune. Last year, fo r th e first tim e , th e AUS ch an g ed th e w a y in w h ich frosh coordinators w e re paid. In stead o f o fferin g th e m a flat rate— fo r instance, $ 6 0 0 fo r th e w h o le su m m e r— th e AUS d ecid ed to pay th e m com m ission on a va ria b le scale. T h e base com m ission was valu ed at fo u r p er cent, and was increased to 12 p er c en t if th e frosh coordinators o b ta in e d m o re th a n $ 5 5 ,0 0 0 in sponsorship. T h e frosh coordinators claim ed th a t th e y garn ered $ 7 0 ,0 0 0 in sponsorship last sum m er. "It was an excellent year sponsorship-wise," Hall said. T h e p ro b lem b eg an in S ep te m b e r a fte r Frosh w h e n th e th re e coordinators received th e ir paycheques. 2007
Members of the McGill Symphony Orchestra rehearse Brahms, which is less likely to be heard on the new CBC Radio 2. See pages 5 and 8 .
See LAWSUIT on page 2
Professor sees plagiarism problem at McGill S a y s
s tu d e n t w a s
" r e w a r d e d 'T o r c h e a tin g , n o t
Matt Chesser M cG ill en g in e e rin g professor Jerem y C ooperstock is b lo w in g th e w h istle on plagiarism a t M cGill. Frustrated by w h a t he perceives to be in consistent rules on cheating , C ooperstock has lau n ch ed th e w e b s ite D-grading McGill (w w w . deg rad in g m cg ill.ca). T h e site chronicles his dealings w ith th e ad m in istratio n a fte r re p o rtin g a case o f ch e a tin g in his W in te r 2 0 0 7 A rtificial In tellig en ce class to fa c u lty superiors. T h e w e b s ite details C ooperstock's claim s th a t tw o students copied p ro g ram code on successive assignm ents. Both assignm ents req u ired students to w o rk in d e p e n d e n tly .
p u n is h e d
"To m e it w as a c lear-cu t case o f plagiarism ," C ooperstock said. "On tw o o u t o f th e th re e in d ivid u al assignm ents for th e course, these students s u b m itte d w o rk th a t th e y had clearly c o llab o rated on." A ccording to C ooperstock, th e first case o f plagiarism w e n t u n n o tic e d by te a c h in g assistants, b u t was discovered a fte r a TA observed a b la ta n t instance o f c o lla b o ra tio n on th e second a s s ig n m e n t.T h e professor claim s th a t w o rk s u b m itte d by th e rest o f th e class was c o m p le te ly d ifferent. "Fu rtherm ore, [m y TAs a n d I] n o ticed th a t o n e o f th e p lag iarized assignm ents had b e e n tw e a k e d a little bit to look
d ifferen t, an d in d o in g so th e s tu d e n t had broken th e code," he said. "So w h e n you trie d to run th e pro g ram it w o u ld fail to execu te properly. N evertheless this s tu d e n t p rovided graph o u tp u ts an d tables as if th e pro g ram w o u ld run properly. So w e have a case o f plagiarism c o m p o u n d e d by scientific m isconduct." C o o p ersto ckw asasked b yan A sso ciateD ean o fE n g in eerin g to tre a t th e w o rk as honest, y e t o n e o f th e students accused o f plagiarism su b seq u en tly failed th e course d esp ite this. A fter th e s tu d en t w ro te an em ail to C ooperstock th re a te n in g to sue See WEBSITE on page 4
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