EDITORIAL/OP-ED
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2013
A watchdog for the Temple University community since 1921.
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LAUREN HAHN TTN
Erin Edinger-Turoff, Living Editor Patricia Madej, Arts & Entertainment Editor Avery Maehrer, Sports Editor Marcus McCarthy, Asst. News Editor Evan Cross, Asst. Sports Editor Jessica Smith, Asst. Living Editor Sam Tighe, Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor Dustin Wingate, Multimedia Editor Alexandra Snell, Multimedia Editor Chris Montgomery, Web Editor
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Joey Cranney, Editor-in-Chief Jenelle Janci, Managing Editor Cheyenne Shaffer, Chief Copy Editor John Moritz, News Editor Jerry Iannelli, Opinion Editor
The Temple News is an editorially independent weekly publication serving the Temple University community. Unsigned editorial content represents the opinion of The Temple News. Adjacent commentary is reflective of their authors, not The Temple News. Visit us online at temple-news.com. Send submissions to letters@temple-news.com. The Temple News is located at: Student Center, Room 243 1755 N. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA 19122
EDITORIALS
Hiding behind the curtain Temple’s Board of Trustees tion process, using its powers – the most powerful governing as a gatekeeper to divert any body at the university – remains messages that are not expressly cloaked from “Temple-relatthe public ed” from ever The Board of Trustees view, often reaching the remains secretive, avoiding com- uncooperative and hidden desk of an acmunication tual trustee. from public view. with the very In the students and event that a families that provide it with the trustee may find him or herself funding it allocates each year. in the news for potentially unWhen faced with multiple scrupulous practices outside requests for information this se- of the boardroom – as Trustee mester, various representatives Dennis J. Alter does after the for the board have been – at best Federal Deposit Insurance Cor– uncooperative and at worst, poration filed a civil suit against downright rude. him in June – “Temple-relatTemple’s 36 trustees, the edness” becomes an easily exmen and women tasked with ploited excuse in order to keep setting Temple’s budgets, mak- the Temple community from ing its land purchases and rais- pertinent information. ing its tuition levels, rarely disThe Temple News was decuss university affairs in public. nied a request to speak to Mr. The trustees, who hold Alter directly, due to the fact public meetings periodically that the current litigation pendthroughout each year, control ing against Alter did not seem most major decisions at “Phila- relevant to the Temple commudelphia’s public university.” nity. The 36 voting members, 12 However, when a man that of which are appointed by the sits on the Budget and Finance Commonwealth of Pennsylva- committee of a state-related nia, are granted the power and university is charged with beprivilege to make sweeping, ing “grossly negligent” in his drastic changes at the university personal business practices, inlevel, be it hand-picking Tem- cluding raising Annual Percentple’s president or approving the age Interest rates on many of his construction of a 27-story dor- credit customers to more than 30 mitory on campus grounds. percent and ignoring more than As it stands, members of 35,000 customer complaints, the board are not directly avail- that is thoroughly and flagrantly able for contact through tradi- a “Temple issue.” tional university means. Unlike However, in the paper’s atevery other high-ranking offi- tempts to both track down Mr. cial at Temple, from President Alter and gather comments Theobald to Athletic Director from high-ranking university Kevin Clark, the trustees do not officials, Patrick O’Connor, the have publicly-listed email ad- chairman of the board, cursed dresses and are not searchable at, berated and insulted a stuin the Cherry and White Direc- dent reporter. tory. “You call the Chairman of Unlike many other univer- the Board asking for a f---ing sities, Temple does not provide phone number?” O’Connor said its community with a list of each in a phone interview on Nov. 15, board subcommittee’s members after a reporter asked if there or the minutes of each subcom- was any way to be put in contact mittee meeting, a glaring lack of with Mr. Alter directly. transparency at a university of “Like I’m your secretary?” its size. O’Connor said. “Would you like Interested parties are in- a sandwich, too?” stead directed to send requests O’Connor, who is tasked for comment or information to with shaking the hand of each the Board’s Office of the Sec- graduate at Temple’s comretary, which serves as a liaison mencement ceremonies each between the trustees and the year, then told the reporter to public. “reexamine his goals as a newsWhile this is common paper man,” and asked him to practice among most publicly think hard about whether refunded universities – Penn State porting on Alter’s litigation will acting as an exception, provid- “help or hurt the Temple coming students with the email ad- munity.” dresses of each voting trustee – We were just happy to get the office exercises far too much him on the phone. discretion over the communica-
CORRECTIONS The Temple News strives to be a newspaper of record by printing factually correct and balanced articles. Accuracy is our business, so when a mistake is made, we’ll correct it as soon as possible. Anyone with inquiries about content in this newspaper can contact Editor-in-Chief Joey Cranney at editor@temple-news.com or 215.204.6737.
FROM THE ARCHIVES...
Dec. 5, 1969: The Temple News looks back on the final semester of the 1960s. The Fall 1969 semester included a vigil for Vietnam War casualities and speeches from labor activist Cesar Chavez and linguist Noam Chomsky. The Fall 2013 semester ends on Dec. 14.
Amid lies, Owls still plagiarize A proposed Honor Code would quell student excuses for plagiarism.
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emple is considering implementing an honor code that would explicitly state what constitutes plagiarism and academic honesty in further detail than the Student Code of Conduct. Considering the inconsistency inherent in Temple’s handling of plagiarism, this would be a welcome improvement. Peter Jones, the senior vice provost for undergraduate studies, said faculty and administraJoe Brandt tors from the Fox School of Business requested the plagiarism detecting software SafeAssign be upgraded to something more effective. Starting next year, SafeAssign will be replaced with the alreadypurchased TurnItIn, another plagiarism detector. According to its website, high schools that have had TurnItIn for the past 8 years have seen a 33.4 percent decrease in unoriginal submissions. However, Jones said he hopes that TurnItIn won’t be necessary. When Jones discussed this at a meeting with the deans, the deans suggested that more work should be done to prevent plagiarism from happening instead of just focusing on detection. Thus, the idea of an honor code was born. Jones said Temple
Student Government and the Faculty Senate are considering it, but nothing is set in stone and there is no rush to get an honor code implemented. Jones said the university will create two educational videos that will define plagiarism – one for faculty members and one for students. Honors adviser Musu Davis said a former student in a Temple doctoral program had plagiarized part of the comprehensive exams. “People really think that they won’t get caught,” Davis said. Plagiarism can get that far if not caught early, which Temple seeks to do with the videos and possibly an honor code. The big problem with Temple and plagiarism is that it is easy for injustice to occur. An honor code that explicitly defines a procedure of student conduct can change the nature of discipline for academic dishonesty. Scott Gratson, the director of the communication studies program and a veteran of the university’s disciplinary process, quoted an undisclosed colleague in an email. “[T]he current code has about as strong a bite as a guppy needing dentures,” the colleague said. Students could theoretically claim ignorance of plagiarism when faced with disciplinary consequences, which just wastes more time. “The excuse that a student did not know that cheating or plagiarizing is bad?” Gratson asked. “I have no time for such complete and utter foolishness.” Some students, however, force him and other faculty to
spend time at disciplinary hearings. While one student might face discipline, another’s professor may not feel the need to engage in the bureaucracy of reporting a student. “One professor’s going to say, ‘It’s OK, you did this one time and you’re going to learn,’ and then the next person gets brought before the board and gets expelled from the university,” Davis said. How, then, would an honor code create fairness? Haverford College is a liberal arts college in Lower Merion, Pa., with about 1,200 students and a great example of an extensive honor code. “A culture of mutual respect helps ensure a level of comfort and security you don’t find in many other places,” the Haverford honor code’s website reads. Other universities, such as Princeton University, have honor codes, as do Temple’s professional schools. Jones said that at Haverford there is a council of students that hears cases on the honor code, but that may not work at Temple. Other schools with these councils have had cases where students abused their power to discipline falsely accused students, so that must be taken into account as well. Oberlin College, where honors program director Ruth Ost was an undergraduate student, attached an honor code form to every assignment. Before handing in an assignment, Ost said she had to sign the form, confirming that her work was her own. If she didn’t plagiarize, she had nothing to worry about, other than her duty to confront peers who broke the honor code. “Once you sign that code, if you really buy into it, it puts the onus on you,” Ost said.
At Temple, every professor is required to put the university policy on academic honesty in their syllabus, but this as far as it goes. In the meantime, reducing the temptation to cheat can curb plagiarism to an extent. Ost suggested professors create “cheatproof” assignments. Honors adviser Amanda Neuber said professors could vary their tests each year to reduce the chances of cheating. Neuber said when she was in a sorority at St. Joseph’s University, there was a drawer full of answers to past tests, which her fellow sorority members used from time to time. If she had wanted to – Neuber said she didn’t – she could “go pluck out [her] psychology test, memorize it, and then get an A.” It’s hard to say without evidence that this may happen at Temple, but there isn’t a culture built up that would decry the existence of such a drawer. An honor code could do that. The environment of fairness and accountability that an honor code could create would likely reduce the possibility of cheating and plagiarism. Becoming “Temple Made” ought to include becoming a more dedicated student who produces original work. In his speech at convocation for the Class of 2017, Provost Hai-Lung-Dai advised students: “Don’t cut corners.” It is time to take back the scissors and show where the corners really are. Joe Brandt can be reached at joseph.brandt@temple.edu.