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Portland State visits McArthur Page 5
Tuesday, December 2, 2003
Since 1900 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon
Volume 105, Issue 66
meaM«i
Using innovative technology and old-school tricks,
some students maximize their opportunities to cheat
The birth of the Internet has been hailed as
one of the greatest innovations of the century, cre
ating a global society rich in access to informa
tion. But it has also spawned an unwanted nui
sance in the academic community — a faster,
easier way for students to cheat. A horde of paper
mills and cheating Web sites have taken root on
the information superhighway, beckoning way
ward students to step off the path of academic in
tegrity.
Web sites such as http://www.papers4less.com
and http://www.schoolsucks.com offer to sell
term papers to students, and they make no secret
about it (the slogan of Papers4Less is "The mar
ketplace for students' papers.")
"It's so tempting" said Laurie Jones Neighbors,
a faculty consultant with the Teaching Effective
ness Program. "It's all over the Internet. It's easy
for students to cheat."
Anne Laskaya, director of the composition
program at the University, said she has seen a dra
matic increase in the number of plagiarism cases
during the past three years, which she suspects is
due in part to the Internet.
Student Judicial Affairs Director Chris Loschia
vo said Internet plagiarism is by far the most
common method students use to cheat in the
cases he sees. Loschiavo said many students ille
gally cut and paste information from the Internet
because they believe it's difficult for professors to
spot this type of plagiarism.
PART 2 OF 5
Monday: Why students cheat
Today: Ways students cheat
Wednesday: Repercussions of cheating
Thursday: Ways to stop cheating
Friday: Profile of a cheater
He added that the Internet isn't the only tech
nological innovation making it easier to cheat,
however. Many students now have a high-tech ar
senal at their disposal. For example, cell phones
and PDAs can be used to store crucial informa
tion needed during exams and are less obvious
than paper cheat sheets.
But for the technologically challenged, there is
still a smorgasbord of traditional cheating meth
ods to choose from.
Loschiavo said some of garden-variety ways
students cheat include collaboration on home
work assignments, peeking at others' answers
during an exam, sending a friend to class to take
an exam and getting access to exam questions be
fore the test.
Business Professor Bill Daley said cheating oc
curs almost exclusively on homework assign
ments in his classes, adding that he easily catches
between 12 and 20 students per term for this of
fense. He said a common tactic students use is
waiting by the printer, taking someone else's
Turn to CHEATING, page 3
STORIESBY JENNIFER MARIE BEAR/ PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADAM AMATO/ DESIGN BY SEAN HANSON
HIGH-TECH
CHEATING
Laptops
Anyone who ever
wanted to know any
thing about anything
can find it on the Web,
and students are using
this to their advantage.
Students can use the
Internet to share home
work via e-mail, cut
and paste information
off the Web or buy a
paper from a paper
mill Web site.
Rather than actually
reading a book for Eng
lish class, students can
log on to
http://www.antistudy.c
om or
http://www.pinkmon
key.com and peruse the
high-tech version of
CliffsNotes.
Turn to TECH, page 8
Class explores
three decades
of UO politics
Students in the ‘University in Peace and War'
class went through the school’s archives,
beginning with the April 1970 sit-in protest
By Jared Paben
News Reporter
Last spring, Professors David Frank and Suzanne Clark hatched
an idea — they'd create a class that would utilize the University's
huge archives, many of which hadn't been tapped in years, on a
topic that students would find especially interesting. They wanted
a class in which students could do real research rather than have
the professor deliver the material.
By tall term 2003, the first Robert D. Clark Honors College
"University in Peace and War" class was born.
The class delivered its findings to University Archivist 1 leather
Briston in a packed Robert D. Clark 1 lonors College Library on
Monday afternoon. The honor college's namesake, former Uni
versity President Robert D. Clark, sat in the front row.
The class delved into the University's role in political move
ments by examining the campus during the protests of the
1970s and comparing it to the current political atmosphere.
Students chose topics ranging from the role of the media in
covering student protests to the protesters themselves and ad
ministrative reactions.
I Turn to HISTORY, page 8
Doctor visits UO
to speak about
stopping suicide
The director of the suicide-prevention program
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Paul Joffe, will talk about student suicide
By Ali Shaughnessy
Senior News Reporter
Suicide — it's a word that touches the lives of many University
students, including Jessica, a University student who didn't want
her last name printed.
When she was 16 years old, Jessica tried to kill herself by swal
lowing approximately 200 pain-relief pills.
"1 woke up one morning and realized 1 didn't want to go on
with my life," she said. "I thought the world would be better off
without me."
Today, Dr. Paul Joffe, director ot die suicide-prevention program
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be speak
ing at noon in the EMU Gumwood Room about college students
who commit suicide. The lecture is free and ends at 1 p.m.
The University of Illinois is known for having a unique suicide
prevention program. When a student threatens or attempts sui
cide, they are required to attend four sessions with a counselor. If a
student refuses to see a counselor, they may be forced to leave the
school.
None of the 1,670 University of Illinois students who threat
ened or attempted suicide later committed suicide since the poli
cy took effect 19 years ago.
Turn to SUICIDE, page 4
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