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THURSDAY April 24, 2003 Vol.XLIX Number 23
INSIDE:
• Boone discusses diversity, page2
• Students return from Iraq, pages 8 and 9
Vandalis:m. paints C~brini RICH MAGDA STAFF WRITER
Grey and white latex paint was splattered on the Cabrini College sign at the college's entrance on Eagle and King of Prussia Roads. Although officials do not have any suspects, some students believe the vandalism could be retaliation from Eastern University students. The sign was vandalized on Wednesday, April 16. In addition to the paint, the sign's ball finials were broken. The plants around the sign were pulled out and the light that illuminates the sign was smashed. Howard Holden, director of facilities, said, "we don't have a price on how much damage was done." When facilities noticed the vandalism, they reacted by getting water on the paint. Using scrapers and a power washer, a team of personnel cleaned the sign for about three hours, according to Holden. ''Thank goodness it was latex paint and not oil," Holden said. "We were able to power wash the
paint off the sign and now we're assessing what the damage really is. The ball finials will not be inexpensive, and getting new limestone to match the old limestone won't be an easy task." This past weekend, the light that shines on the sign was damaged again. "Whatever is going on isn't over," Holden said. "Eastern has been having the same problems. Someone keeps stealing the letters from their sign. We're not sure whether there is an internal rivalry game going on or some force outside. We're not sure who the source is." Since facilities reacted immediately, many students were not aware of the incident. But commuter Matt Cornely, a junior English and communications major, witnessed the damage as he arrived at Cabrini for his 9:35 a.m. class. PAINT, page 3 SETH KLINE/GUESTPHOTOGMPHER
Facilities•groundsmen work on cleaning up sign by Eagle Road after it was painted over early Wednesday morning.April 16.
Academic honesty policy offers consistency "We are not just talking about getting someone for an academic violation," Dr. Kathleen The vote was unanimous. McKinley, sociology department Cabrini will now be implementing chair, said. "We are working at a new academic honesty policy. creating a college, which is a comThe policy, passed on Tuesday, munity, of academic integrity." "We wanted the [policy] to be April 15, creates uniform standards that will be consistently fair, and we wanted it to be based enforced by all levels of the cam- on the mutual trust between the faculty and students," McKinley pus community. The new policy states that the said. ''The long-term goal is to principal objective is "to promote increase the range of acceptance a dynamic, open and honest intel- of those values." "The main goal for the new lectual climate based on the personal and academic integrity of all policy is for the faculty to consismembers." Faculty, staff and stu- tently support the college's standents are expected to uphold the dards for academic honesty and values of academic integrity, for the students to take the policy which are honesty,trust, fairness, seriously," sophomore Amanda Brown, student representative on respect andresponsibility. LEANNE PANTONE STAFF WRITER
the Academic Council, said. ''The idea is that the policy will create a college-wide standard to be upheld by everyone." The Academic Council created an Academic Honesty Board in the policy that is responsible for not only presiding over the cases brought to it, but for educating the community about the policy and the standards that the community is expected to uphold. Also part of the policy is extended and detailed definitions of what would-be violations of academic honesty. When writing the policy, the Academic Council "discovered that other schools have examples for students to see,'' McKinley said. "We now have five different categories with
specific examples to show the students what wouJd be inappropriate behavior." With the new or extended definitions of a violation of academic honesty, students and professors now have universal examples to refer to when instances of academic dishonesty arise. When or if they do, there is also a universal set of punishments for the violator to receive. Brown said, "Everyone had a lot of different ideas and many compromises were made, especially when it came time to decide what kinds of penalties could be assigned for certain violations." According to McKinley, with the first offense, it is up to the facuJty whose class the violator is in
to decide. However, there is a list of choices for him or her to choose according to the specific violation, whether it is cheating, plagiarism, information falsification or fabrication, theft or destruction of intellectual property or facilitation of academic dishonesty. The list takes a set towards consistency among the facuJty by not allowing for a random assignment of punishment. The most dramatic consistency, however, comes with the violator's second offense, according to McKinley. Everyone or anyone who violates· the policy for a second time will fail the course. This punishment is campus-wide, and there are no exceptions.
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