The Daily Tar HeelThursday, June 28, 19903B
Honor Court keeps campms integrity
By MARISSA MILLS
Staff Writer
Are your teachers paranoid? Do they
patrol the aisles during tests? Check
your hands to see if answers are written
on your palms? Flunk you if you take
your eyes off the sheet of paper on your
desk?
Not at Carolina. Here, students dis
cipline cheaters themselves through the
honor system. This program distin
guishes UNC-CH from many of her
sister schools, who, although they use
honor codes, do not leave the respon
sibility of judgment in the hands of the
students.
"I think the system is very effective
because it puts the responsibility on
students to be accountable to their
peers," said Jeffrey Cannon, Judicial
Programs Officer.
The honor system was created 100
years ago to allow students to govern
themselves. Today, it contains two parts:
the honor code, which concerns aca
demic work, and the campus code, which
applies outside the classroom.
The honor code requires students to
sign a pledge that no unauthorized aid
has been given or received on assign
ments. The Student Stores offer com
puter bubble sheets, for multiple-choice
tests, and essay "blue books" with the
pledge and signature line already printed
on them.
The campus code covers such matters
as sexual assault, drug possession or
sales, vandalism, fraudulent use of a
student identification card, sexual or
racial harassment and assault.
Violations of either code are reported
by students or professors to Holly
Pearson, student attorney general, in
the Carolina Union or to Jeffrey Cannon,
judicial programs officer, in Steele
Building.
Pearson decides if there is enough
evidence to merit a hearing. Those cases
are heard by five of the 30 members of
the Undergraduate Student Court, who
listen to testimony, judge guilt or in
nocence and recommend punishment
to the chancellor.
"We know that not every violation is
reported, but the best that we can do is
to help students understand the re
sponsibility they undertake when they
sign their name and come to this Uni
versity," said Cannon.
"The enforcement of the honor code
is everyone's responsibility, having the
code contributes to the value of a degree
from the University."
During the 1989-1990 school year,
58 cases which resulted in hearings
were brought before the Undergraduate
Court. Of these 58 cases, 37 were honor
code violations and 21 were violations
of the campus code.
The court rendered guilty verdicts in
41 of these cases, 19 of which were
convictions for academic cheating.
Cannon said. Only four of those con
victed for cheating were placed on
probation, while the rest were suspended
for at least one semester.
Cases can be appealed to the Uni
versity Hearings Board, which consists
of two members from the Undergraduate
Student Court who were not present
during the initial trial, two faculty
members and a representative of the
administration. The next, and final, level
is an appeal to the chancellor.
All hearings are strictly confidential.
Applications for the attorney general
staff and the honor court are available
each spring.
Students beat pressure with positive attitude
By MARA LEE
Staff Writer
"Stop the world! I want to get off."
This is a plea of desperation, a plea of
frustration, a plea uttered by practically
every college student during drop-add,
mid-terms, finals and almost any other
time during the semester save Friday
and Saturday nights.
It's a plea caused by stress, lots of it,
in big doses, but it's also one college
students can learn to deal with and make
the best of.
Professionals and students alike de
fine stress in different ways. "Stress
would be demands that life places upon
us external events that we have to
deal with or reactions to these external
events," according to Susan Chappell,
coordinator of the Wellness Resource
Center, a health-oriented consultation
program.
Serena Wille, a rising sophomore
RussianEastern European Studies ma
jor from Greenwich, Conn., defined
stress in terms of those reactions. "It's
when you believe yourself to be unable
to cope with the situation, and you lose
Swim test required at UNC
From staff reports
The swim test has been a Carolina
"ritual since World War I, when Bowman
Gray donated the pool in Woollen Gym.
Along with his gift, however, came a
stipulation: Every student at the Uni
, yersity would be required to pass a
;swim test to graduate.
. : B ut i f a dog paddle is the best you can
do, don't panic. As long as you can
jump into a pool, swim to the end and
back using any stroke and keep afloat
for five minutes, you can pass the test.
The only no-no is touching the side or
the bottom within that period of time.
Students who don't know how to
swim are encouraged to take a begin
ning swimming course, which fulfills a
physical education requirement, before
taking the test.
Waivers are given under certain cir
cumstances, but students must petition
the Appeals Committee to obtain one.
The committee waives the requirement
only in cases of physical or medical
reasons, said Linda Prather, personnel
payroll representative for the Depart
ment of Exercise and Sports Science
"We sometimes have people come
in who are allergic to the chlorine in the
water or have a fear of water," she said.
"We discourage waivers as much as
possible," she said. "Normally we can
teach people to swim."
Swim test times are scheduled for
incoming freshmen by appointment
from Aug. 27-29 throughout the day.
Other swim tests dates are Nov. 2, March
29 and April 19.
perspective on your role and abilities
and limits."
Students said stress often comes in
three's or more. Chris Briggs, a rising
senior Englishdrama major from Lex
ington, said he stressed out periodically. -"Everything
tends to happen to me at
the same time," he said. "My classes
tend to fall in groups."
Academics are generally regarded as
the biggest contributor to stress. "One
class this semester, I'm reading a novel
every week," Briggs said. But he said
having a professor he dislikes causes
more stress than a heavy workload.
"They make papers and exams hell. I
didn't want to do the work for them."
Tom Blackburn, a clinical psy
chologist at Student Psychological
Services, pinpointed the pressure
stemming from school. "Probably the
most stressful (thing) in classes is tak
ing a heavier load than you can handle
or believing that you have to make
certain grades or your semester will be
a failure," he said.
Unrealistic reactions to events can
cause academic and social stress,
Blackburn said. "A really big (source of
stress) is perfectionism. That is, think
ing that there is a certain performance
level they (students) should be achiev
ing grade wise or in social lives, or
whatever feeling they need to work
harder to achieve this mythical level."
Achieving this mythical level means
taking time out of vital bodily needs
such as sleep. Several students said they
gave sleep low priority during the se
mester which hampered their ability to
cope with the pressures of school.
According to Wille, "Lack of sleep
usually causes a loss of perspective on
activities. It doesn't necessarily cause
stress, but it makes everything harder to
deal with."
Extracurricular activities may take
the place of time allotted for sleep or
homework. The activities themselves
don't cause stress, but the time con
sumption does, students said.
Briggs, who participates in the Lab
Theater, a student theatrical group, said
rehearsing created tension. "Things can
run really late. It's 11:00, and you've
been there since six, and tempers get a
little testy. Everybody understands that
there's going to be stress, there's going
to be arguments, people are going to get
a little edgy at times. It's part of the
territory."
According to Blackburn, time man
agement prevents obligations from be
coming overwhelming. "One of the good
things is trying to be realistic about how
many things you can do in a day."
Positive attitudes toward potential
stresses go a long way. "Attitude is the
most important aspect of stress man
agement," Chappell said. "It's not the
external events that cause stress; it's
how you respond to those events."
"When things get really bad, just
take a couple of steps back and see how
much sense you're really making. And
laugh about it."
Exams: Can you say
'stress-related
mental disorder?'
Exams in college are a lot different
from exams in high school. First of
all, most professors won't even be in
the room with you. They'll leave their
Teaching Assistant (TA) to deal with
you, and he'll probably be studying
for his exams at the same time. So
you're on your own.
Secondly, you will have to study
for them. However, if you can't cram
all of Newton's umpteen laws of zero
furshlugginer gravity into your tiny
little noggins in one night, you do
have the option of using any number
of excuses. Here are some which have
worked for me in my seven under
graduate years.
Remember, though, that we do have
something here called the Honor
System, and it does work. They don't
like us to joke about it, but I do any
way simply because they don't like it.
1. "I've got back-to-back exams."
This is always a sure-fire excuse, even
if you don't have back-to-back exams.
Face it, gang, what professor is going
to take time out of his schedule to go
and look up your schedule? Good for
buying a couple of days time. And
you get to take it alone, which is also
good for relieving the pressure of
trying to concentrate while sitting
between gorgeous blondes.
2. "I've got the flu." Not that re
liable, because most profs won't ac
cept this without a note from Student
Health. Here's the way out: simply go
to your professor's office, tell him
your predicament and vomit on his
desk. I've found the "finger-do wn-the-throat"
method is too obvious, so
either swallow a concoction of Texas
Pete and Hershey's syrup or eat at
Lenoir beforehand.
3. "My dog's got the flu." This is
a lot less painful for you, unless your
professor makes you clean it up.
4. "My dog ate my textbook." A
good post-excuse for number three.
5. "My textbook's got the flu."
Can you say "Stress-related mental
disorder?" Professors dig this one,
which means they've done their job of
scaring the bejesus out of you. If you
use it, though, be prepared to carry on
the act for awhile. Sing "John Jacob
John Bland
Jingle Heimer Schmidt" in a loud
voice while pasting pictures from.
Cosmopolitan on your professor's;
office door, and that should do the
trick.
6. "No, I've really got the flu!".
This requires an actual note from
Student Health, but you don't have to
be sick. If you go down there at the;
same time your exam is going on;
you're in like flint. At least that's
what you'll think until you see thei
other four thousand and nine panics
stricken students who haven't studied
either. Be forewarned: the doctor will
have to examine you, which means
you'll get something I like to affec
tionately call the "Roto-Rooter treat
ment," even if you've only got a small
paper cut on your pinky. -
7. "Father pregnant, sister dying,"
mother getting married..." or any'
variations thereof works fine. '
8. "Jeez, I thought I dropped this
class!" Accompanied by a slap on the
forehead. This one's fun because you
get to blame it on bureaucratic red
tape and proclaim loudly and with
much profanity how if you don't get
justice you'll throw a hissy fit. !
9. "I did it on a whim. The f rater-!
nity had nothing to do with it." Gets
blame immediately pinned on the
fraternity. Doesn't matter what you've:
done, whether stealing an exam copy
or missing it altogether, because it's
thefraternity' s fault! You were forced
to do something you wouldn't nor-!
mally have done in the name of
brotherhood! Oh, if you're not actu-;
ally in a fraternity, don't worry. Throw
some Greek letters at 'em. By the
time they figure it out you're lying on
your couch at home, sipping Kool-'
Aid and watching Geraldo.
Some people might call this lying,
but that's an awful harsh word. I pre-;
fer "creative mishandling of plain
sible situations." It's got such a nice
ring to it.
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