MANITOBAN UMSU VP violates position duties, says judicial board lated a clause in the positions and duties section of the UMSU Governance and Operations Manual, which calls for the vice-president student life to “[serve as] the liaison between UMSU and UMSU’s community representatives, while ensuring UMSU consults with, and provides appropriate supports to marginalized communities on campus.” UMSU currently has seven community groups which represent a wide range of interests and backgrounds, according to UMSU’s website. Each community group is allotted a designated room by UMSU and $16,000 from a community initiative fund to support events and initiatives that benefit the community.
Akindele violates intent of funding approval structure Kaur stated that Akindele — who was absent from the board meeting — also breached a section relating to the approval structure of the community initiative funding. “The intention of the approval structure is to provide support for initiatives in a way that respects the autonomy and self-governance of the communities, while also meeting the oversight and transparency requirements of UMSU’s by-laws,” was the section deemed to have been violated. Cont’d p. 3 / Community
photo / Milan Lukes / staff
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niversity of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) vice-president student life Bolu Akindele has violated her position duties, according to a ruling by UMSU’s judicial board. The ruling was shared at the UMSU board of directors meeting on March 27 by Gurpahul Kaur, vice-chair of the judicial board, which noted that a complaint alleged that Akindele violated six sections of UMSU’s governing documents. “We do believe that two out of those six sections were violated,” read the judicial board ruling. Kaur stated that the board “collectively came to the conclusion” that Akindele vio-
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Milan Lukes, staff
Bolu Akindele, seen in a file photo from 2024, denies violating UMSU’s governing documents.
Academic misconduct incidents reach six-year low
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misconduct, believed to be “related to students using generative artificial intelligence.” The university administration was unable to disclose the name of that department, citing privacy legislation,
4 Editorial
according to a statement. Generative AI is “significantly more difficult to catch,” states the report signed by university discipline committee chair Robert Biscontri. Another disciplin-
13 Comment
ary authority attributed a decrease in academic misconduct incidents to “a set of practices implemented in a first-year course, where the instructors have worked collaboratively in consultation
Arts & 15 Culture
with department leadership, to develop clear, concise and comprehensive instructions for their assignments and examinations.” The report also states that a disciplinary authority noted “an explosive increase in the use of ChatGPT,” resulting in an increase in incidents categorized as “other.” “The disciplinary respondent observed that there is not [a] uniform policy on the use of artificial intelligence in their faculty, with some instructors allowing the use of tools such as Grammerly [sic], allow artificial intelligence use for outlines or prompt generation, or for more extensive use as long as it is properly cited,” read the report. “Instructors are advised to stress to their students that expectations differ by class, and that students must not assume a carry over artificial intelligence use policies [from] one course to another.” Cont’d p. 6 / Generative
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SINCE 1914
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Reported academic misconduct incidents have reached a six-year low at the U of M, according to the latest university discipline committee annual report. The report, which covers the period from Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2024, reveals that there were 683 recorded incidents of academic misconduct — the lowest since 201718, which recorded 626 incidents. The latest report indicates that 38 per cent of incidents were related to plagiarism, followed by inappropriate collaboration at 21 per cent and cheating at 16 per cent of incidents. Only three cases of duplicate submission and six cases of personation were recorded. According to information from disciplinary authorities provided in the report, an unnamed department “that was previously and consistently very active in catching cases of academic misconduct” reported a decrease in overall cases of academic
photo / Ebunoluwa Akinbo / staff
Milan Lukes, staff
VOL. 111, NO. 28