we’re breaking the sun god lineup on monday. stay tuned.
VOLUME 45, ISSUE 31 VOLUME 45, ISSUE 44
WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG
THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012 THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2012
a closer look student privacy
ACADEMICS
THOUSANDS of you received an unsolicited email from me. Here’s how I did it.
New Drop Policy in Cases of Cheating Under proposed change, professors can no longer re-enroll students accused of plagiarism or cheating. By Nicole CHan Associate News Writer
illustration by rebekah hwang /G uardian
WHO HAS REQUESTED INFO Uc Berkeley UC Merced UC Irvine UC DAVIS UC SANTA BARBARA REVELLE COLLEGE Pi Sigma Theta PHI SIGMA PI Phi Beta Kappa UCSD GUARDIAN Golden Key Honor Society National Society of Collegiate Scholars MCINTIRE SCHOOL OF COMMERCE VCSA OFFICE UCSD Bookstore UCSD Education Department UCSD OUTBACK ADVENTURES UCSD Student Health Service UCSD Men’s Crew A.S. council UCSD Student Health VICE CHANCELLOR Relyea Jelger Kalmijn (UCSD Professor) United States Air Force MARINE CORPS
I
By angela chen • Editor in Chief have, saved on my desktop, a beautifully organized spreadsheet with the personal information of over 25,000 UCSD students.
The spreadsheet — which covers all undergraduates and graduates enrolled as of Winter Quarter 2012 — includes names, emails, phone numbers and addresses, and could have covered more if I had so requested. The only people not included are those who have specifically restricted their information; according to University Registrar Bill Haid, less than 10 percent of students have done so, meaning that my document provides access to 90 percent of our campus population. There’s a short answer to the question of how I got the spreadsheet: I paid for the information in a completely legal transaction, one that any UCSD student can go through. After that, it’s just a question of uploading the spreadsheet to the appropriate mail server and clicking “send.” But the transaction itself is part of a larger discussion about student privacy rights, access and online communication. For me, the process of obtaining the spreadsheet started with the allcampus email Utsav Gupta — former A.S. President and current Alumni Office employee — sent on Feb. 29 encouraging students to vote in favor of the Division I referendum. Since there was no anti-Division I email, members of the con campaign accused the administration of bias, assuming that they approved Gupta’s email. As I started interviewing, I heard allegations from professors suggesting that Gupta had improperly accessed an all-campus listserv without the approval of the appropriate vice chancellor. But when I spoke to Gupta, he maintained that he had sent the email without accessing any listserv or using university resources. I set out to learn more about student privacy rights and how this was possible. As evidenced by the process I went through in late March and the email I sent out to a random sampling of thousands last night, it is entirely possible
HOW TO RESTRICT INFO 1. Sign into TritonLink using Single Sign-on 2. Click the “Personal Tools” tab, then select “Addresses” 3. Click the tab labeled “Public Information Restriction” 4. Restrict RELEVANT INFORMATION
A proposed change to the academic misconduct code would allow students accused of cheating to drop a class — and receive a ‘W’ — without being forced by a professor to re-enroll. Originally, students who dropped a course after being accused of academic misconduct could be re-enrolled by the professor, who could then issue ‘F’ grades before the charges were proven, Committee on Educational Policy Chair Bill Griswold said. “The purpose of that is to permit the administration to hold the student accountable for their performance in the course,” Griswold said. “The problem with this is that the student may have dropped the course for reasons unrelated to the academic misconduct.” According to Griswold, students who dropped a class during Week 3 could be re-enrolled if the professor discovered a problem (based on the student’s original performance) a few weeks later in the quarter, at which point the student would be unable to pass. “[Under the old policy], if you had cheated in a class or been accused of it, if you tried to drop once charges were filed, you would be automatically re-enrolled,” Committee on Educational Policy undergraduate representative Mac Zilber said. Under the proposed policy, students cannot receive a grade until they have been found guilty of academic misconduct. “If a student doesn’t want to deal with academic consequences, they can drop the class and the professor wouldn’t be able to give them an ‘F’,” Zilber said. However, students can still receive administrative consequences that can be detrimental to their careers, Griswold said. “Medical schools and law schools frequently request [dean] certification [to ensure] there was no misconduct on the student’s record,” Griswold said. “The conduct code includes both academic and nonaca-
See privacy, page 3
“
FORECAST
SPOKEN
We are going to stay hungry and focused and realize that we have not accomplished our goals yet.”
Thursday H 62 L 51
friday
H 58 L 48
See INTEGRITY, page 3
NIGHT WATCH
thursday
Friday
Eric Newman UCSD Baseball Head Coach
saturday H 57 L 48
sunday
H 62 L 51
saturday
sunday
GAS PER GALLON
SURF REPORT thursday Height: 1ft. Wind: 6-8 mph Water Temp: 59 F saturday Height: 4-6 ft. Wind: 5-18 mph Water Temp: 59 F
friday Height: 1-6.5 ft. Wind: 14-27 mph Water Temp: 59 F sunday Height: 2-3 ft. Wind: 2-12 mph Water Temp: 59 F
LOw
$4.00
US Gas, Escondido 445 W 5th Avenue & S Centre City HIGH
$4.69
Mobil, Carlsbad 899 Palomar Airport Road
INSIDE Pun Time................................2 New Business.........................3 Behind the Ballot....................4 Letter to the Editor.................5 Peanut Butter and Telly..........6 Sudoku...................................9 Sports...................................12