The Stetson Reporter

wed jan-03 N S I D E http://reporter.stetson.edu STETSON 'INTV EjiR S I T Y WHAT'S INSIDE. News 2A Opinions 4A Life IB Classifieds 2A Sports 5B Etcetera 6a issue 13 volume 115 Florida's First Private College Newspaper 'if-nSWinBirSH ima-nWi.'tfnSiT»--Wffl.iiri ■ >.1i iiVtiiH i ri ti 1TT1 f■VtiilB ihVn i ml nJbn*Znma _H_9 Bin SPORTS: Tampa wins the Super Bowl page 5b Duke studies at) _flH *" 1 OPINIONS: Political parties shouldn't point fingers page 4a a environment in Bermuda By Bryan Funk associate news editor The university hosted a speaker from the Nichol's School of the Environment and Earth Studies at Duke University last Thursday. Lisa Rattray, Northeast Admissions Officer for the school and a graduate of its program,, held an informal meeting for both students and professors to learn about the Nichol's School. Well-attended, the presentation included a short lecture by the speaker, followed by a question and answer section. Questions ranged from details on the numerous degree programs to financial aid. The Nichol's School specializes in the teaching of environmental management. Programs include Coastal Environmental Management, Environmental Toxicology, Chemistry, Risk Assessment, Resource Ecology, Resdurce Economics and Policy, Water and Air Resources, and Forest Resource Management. Classes are taught at a variety of facilities; with the school utilizing such diverse locations as the Duke Forest and the Duke University Wetlands Center, as well as locations in Bermuda. The school offers numerous masters programs with a wide variety of focuses. Also offered are concurrent , * degree programs, in which two two- year master's degrees are completed ■ concurrently within the space of three years. Unlike doctoral programs, the Nichol's School does not offer comprehensive scholarships. It instead relies - on-smaller merit-based"scholarships and various assistantships. Almost 90 percent of the student body enrolled at • any one time has financial aid to some degree. The degrees offered by the school are considered graduate professional degrees and provide for excellent application to the work force. Graduates from the school ,are employed at numerous nationally-known companies and federal institutions, with a mean salary of about $40,000. The requisites for application to the school are relatively low, with the focus in admissions more on the whole person than any aspect, such as GPA or courses taken. Instead, the admissions process takes into account all the various components of the successful student, including coursework, extracurricular activities, and personal interviews. The school enrolls approximately 200 students at any one time, allowing, for a greater number of accepted students each year than doctoral programs. This selections process is one of the key differences separating the graduate professional degree program from a doctoral program. "Unlike with a Ph.D., you do not have to identify a professor beforehand. This application process is like your"- undergraduate application, you apply as a class, you attend as a class, and you graduate two years later as a class. - Unlike with the Ph.D. application, you have to identify your professor beforehand to make sure he has space for you," said Rattray. Bryan Funk can be contacted at [email protected]. MUSIC THEFT Stolen instruments found on Net RECOVERY: Blake Simpson, first-year music major, found his stolen saxophone by a search on Ebay and acquiesced it from a pawn shop, photo art by bryan funk By Bryan Funk ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR A few, days prior, to fall break, thousands of dollars worth of student and university-owned instruments were stolen from students' lockers in Presser Hall. The theft was promptly noticed and reported to both Public Safety and the DeLand Police Department. Three instruments were stolen: a trumpet belonging to a first-year music student, a clarinet that was property of the university, and a saxophone belonging to Blake Simpson, another first-year music major. The former two were taken from sealed lockers, while the third had been left in an unlocked locker. The thefts were reported by the administration of the music school to Public Safety as soon as they were discovered. Being a criminal matter, the case was referred by Public Safety to the DeLand Police Department, which began an investigation into the matter. Meanwhile, the music school began an institution-wide program of swapping out the university locks, which students had rented at the beginning of the year, with locks that the students themselves .had purchased. In addition, especially in the days immediately following the thefts, Public Safety increased patrols around Presser. No further thefts were attempted. The School of Music initiated the lock switching due to initial concerns that the master list of combinations had been taken and used to gain access to the lockers. Another concern was the thief's show of knowledge in stealing more valuable instruments, even though less valuable ones were more obviously accessible. "Thefts, that's exactly all it was, an opportunity to make some cold hard cash, and they took it," said Jim Lockwood, director of Public Safety. Other security concerns around Presser Hall include the large number of visitors it hosts. With so many people entering and exiting the building, and with the wide range of hours, it must remain open for practicing students. Securing entrance for only those who belong in the building is extremely difficult. Remedies to this problem seem difficult.. "I don't think there's anything they can do about people getting in there unless they just have a Public Safety officer guarding the door all the, time," said Simpson, a musiq performance major. In the end, perhaps the best security measure is heightened vigilance __E5sssassBSB=H! on the part of the students and staff in the building. "I'm hoping that they're more careful with their instruments. Many of us have instruments —■.,.„.,.,,,»^,„...1TO around here that are like family; you know when you've had an instrument for a long time," said Kari Juusela, associate dean of the School of Music. The stolen instruments were later found and recovered. The saxophone belonging to Simpson appeared first on the Internet-based auction site Ebay, but was withdrawn soon after the seller was contacted by Simpson. The instrument was later found by the police in a local area pawn shop, where it was then recovered. The remaining two instruments were purchased by an individual and returned to the university. The seller of those two instruments claimed to have purchased them as well. The police investigation into these thefts has since resulted in the arrest of an individual, and legal action is being pursued. On the impact of the thefts, "I just .„,^,„„..„,,.,.„— don't understand how someone can take something from a student that they know is their life, what they're going to school for, what's their livelihood. Basically, I was almost going to have to drop out of school because he took my horn—that is like the worst thing you can do to a music student—to take their instrument," said Simpson. Bryan Funk can be contacted at [email protected]. Thefts, that's exacdy all it was, an opportunity to make some cold hard cash, and they took it." Honor System seeks faculty advisor, council ^Reporter Contact Us 421 N. Woodland Blvd. #8409 DeLand, FL 32723 386.822.7224 FAX 386.822.7233 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] By Amy Rigdon news editor At the finish of last semester, both the Student Government Association (SGA) and the Faculty Senate had approved the implementation of the proposed Honor System, beginning formally next fall 2003 with the incoming class. " The university's current policy, outlined in the Connections Student Handbook, contains definitions and policies regarding academic dishonesty, such as cheating, plagiarism, and falsification. According to the current policy, when a violation occurs, the faculty member assigns an aciademic penalty and is supposed to notify the Dean and the Student Judicial Officer of the violation. According to the endorsed Honor System proposal, each student will sign an Honor Pledge affirming that he or she' will uphold high standards of integrity, honesty, and the policies of the Honor System. Students who are accused of violating the Honor Code will be reported to a student-run Honor Council, which will investigate the charge and hold a hearing. The Honor Council will determine what sanctions are warranted, but the faculty member still has the ultimate right to assign academic penalties. "This is not a situation of taking something that's broken and fixing it. Rather it is an attempt to move beyond the ordinary and do something noteworthy.... The current system has been around in its essential form since I have been here, which has been for 14 years, and it has been one of those things we have never thought about. Not that the old way was bad, but we can do it better," said Associate Professor of Decision and Information Sciences, Dr. John Rasp, who also served on the Faculty Task Force for the Honor System proposal. The ratified Honor System is a hybrid of a pure honor system; whereas, under a pure honor system faculty do not normally proctor exams, students assume responsibility to report violations, and failure to report is considered a violation in itself. The Honor System "The expectation is to have all the groundwork done this semester to . inaugurate [the Honor System] in the fall." proposal for the university will neither penalize students for refusing to take action nor will it mandate that faculty do not proctor exams. "Most schools that have these honor codes have had them for decades, and so people come to that school already buying into that system," said Rasp. "The challenge for us is that folks here are not necessarily buying in—both students and faculty, and so we're looking to raise the level of academic discourse in the community, which, when you think about it, is an exciting challenge. We hope to transform campus academic culture, and there are some reservations from both the students and faculty side, probably reasonably so, because it's something we have never done before, and you want it to work. I think it can, and it will." Many prestigious universities and colleges have honor codes in place, and those in favor of the Honor System proposal believe it will raise the caliber of academic seriousness at the university. "I think it makes Stetson into a serious academic university. I think it is something to make Stetson more appealing to students whom are more interested in academic integrity," said Maya Yankelevich, chair of the Academic Affairs committee, which is the SGA committee in charge of the Honor System proposal "Too often, traditional systems are almost adversarial by nature—the students try to get away with things, and the faculty try to prevent it. We are trying to foster a more collaborative learning community," said Rasp. "We want to get away from a campus culture where people know academic dishonesty is happening and unwilling to do anything about it. We want to foster a campus culture where learning is seen as valuable. Course assignments are not hoops to be jumped through, but are indeed the purpose of why we are here." . The Honor System has been a four-year work in progress, which has been largely a student initiative to formally commit the university and its see HONOR, page 2a http://reporter.stetson.edu - taik|appj<aVd^^ "ou^uncehsprec uajAuiiumu.