The Blue Banner
Features
“Dorothy, Pink Floyd
and ‘The Dark Side of
Oz”
■ see page 2
Volume 36 Issue 5
I Sports
“McKay leads ‘Dogs t(
I victories”
■ see page 3
The University Of North Carolina At Asheville
News
“Date rape: new drink
^ coaster enables students
their drinks for
date rape drugs.”
October 3, 2002
New building designed for conservation
Sara Miller
News Reporter
The construction and design plans
for a future science building at
UNCA approach the operation with
consideration for the environment,
students and faculty.
“As biologists and also as citizen's,
I believe we must act as stewards of
the environment,” said Gregg
Kormanik, a professor in the biol
ogy department. “A science build
ing, because of its elevated require
ments for energy, water and waste
handling is more difficult to design
and implement, but there are many
things we can do, without compro
mising the educational opportuni
ties we provide for our students in
the teaching and research environ
ment.”
UNCA, with the help of the Envi
ronmental Protection Agency
(EPA), is designing the new build
ing using the EPA-sponsored Labs
for the 21st Century Pilot Pro
gram. The design follows guide
lines set by the Leadership in En
ergy and Environmental Design
(LEED), according to Peter Nielsen,
director of design and construc
tion. The building will be located
between Rhodes-Robinson and the
Humanities Lecture Hall.
‘These processes will look at fa
cilities in respect to (their) environ
mental impact more than we have
in the past,” said Nielsen.
In the new building, UNCA
plans to use equipment and mate
rials that demand less energy re
sources than older lab equipment.
Labs 21 requirements for energy,
use and environmental design will
make the operation of the build
ing more sustainable, according
to Nielsen.
“I am excited about the opportu
nities and environment this con
struction project will provide for
us. In the end, it will prove to be an
COURTESY OF EEE.UMD.EDU
Plans for the new science building at UNCA are designed to adhere to EPA Labs 21 standards for
energy conservation. The building will be located between Rhodes Hall and Carmichael Hall.
COURTESY OF LBL.GOV
The new science building will
be equipped with fume hoods
similar to the fume hood
recently installed in UCSF s
histology lab, shown above.
efficient, aesthetically attractive
building that will allow all of us to
teach, learn and work to the best of
our abilities,” said Kormanik. “We
are building a building that will be
here long after most of us are gone,
since it should last 40 years or more. ”
Bert Holmes, chair and professor
of the chemistry department, said
the new building would be safer for
students as well as the environ
ment. Chemistry laboratories need
air exchanges and hoods to remove
volatile solvents from the student
work areas, according to Holmes.
“We teach freshmen chemistry
with no hoods in the lab,” said
Holmes. “That’s just unheard of
these days. Parts of this building are
35 years old and back in the 70s,
they didn’t know some of the dam
age that very common solvents
could cause. (Now) we better un
derstand what these chemicals can
do, so we know what’s important in
terms of having a safe working en
vironment.”
Each lab in the new building will
have at least one vent hood, accord
ing to Holmes.
The new building will provide a
better learning environment for stu
dents and a better teaching climate
for facult)^, according to Holmes.
“We began to understand the im
portance of integrating teaching and
research,” said Holmes. “Research
is a way for a student to learn to be
a chemist.”
Holmes believes students need to
use the scientific method to devise
their own experiments indepen-
“You’re given a lab manual, which
is your cookbook, you just follow
steps 1 -10: put the cake in the oven;
bake it; and you’ve got it,” said
Holmes. “That’s not a good teach
ing or learning environment.”
The new science building will
house the biology and chemistry
departments. The environmental
studies, computer science, atmo
spheric sciences, physics and math
departments will remain in Rhodes-
Robinson.
Kitti Reynolds, a professor in the
environmental studies department,
believes the remaining departments
will have room to expand.
“Students doing research with
See READING Page 8
Author of explosives guide Web site charged with felony
Sara Henneberger
Carnegie Melon University
“The most highly explosive and
lethal mixture is ammonium ni
trate-based fertilizer mixed with
gasoline,” reads a tip on how to
make an effective Moltov cocktail.
Written by 19-year-old Califor
nian Sherman Austin, a copy of the
guide containing this and many
other recipes for explosives can be
found on the website of Carnegie
Mellon (CMU) computer science
Professor David Touretzky.
In September 2001, Austin pub
lished a “Reclaim Guide” of in
structions for resisting arrest dur
ing riots and manufacturing a vari
ety of weapons on his self-pro
claimed anarchist website,
Raisethefist.com.
Federal agents raided Austin’s San
Fernando Valley home on Jan. 24
and confiscated computer equip
ment, political literature, and items
for making explosives.
A week and a half later, the teen
was arrested during World Eco
nomic Forum demonstrations in
New York and charged with violat
ing 1997 US Code title 18, section
842, which prohibits the demon
stration of how to make or use
explosives and weapons of mass
destruction with the intention that
the information will be used for
violent crimes.
Last Monday, Austin entered a
guilty plea to one felony count of
violating the statute. He could face
one month in jail, five months in a
halfway home, and three years of
probation. Prosecutors are also ask
ing that Austin have “reasonable
limitations on computer access”
which could prohibit him from
running Raisethefist.com. Austin
is scheduled to be sentenced today.
Raisethefist.com was off-line for
several weeks following Austin’s
arrest before reappearing courtesy
of the Seattle-based
Hypodermic.net. The site no longer
contains the Reclaim Guide and
there is a disclaimer stating that the
site does not encourage illegal ac-
One of the few nearly-complete
copies of the Reclaim Guide still
available on the Internet has been
posted on the Touretzky’s CMU-
owned website since the end of
January 2002.
Touretzky, who declined to com
ment, states on his website that he
questions the validity of title 18,
section 842, and that he wishes to
encourage public debate of the
Austin case through his own publi
cation of potentially illegal materi
als. Touretzky includes multiple
disclaimers on his site that he does
not advocate violence or agree with
the personal beliefs of Austin.
As Austin faces jail time for the
very content now found on
Touretzky’s website, some campus
members are debating the ethical
and legal implications of the Re
claim Guide.
“I feel that since there is no legiti
mate reason for distributing infor
mation pertaining to street weap
ons, such information should not
be present on the Internet,” said
Nicole Saulnier, a sophomore elec
trical and computer engineering
major and chair of the CMU Col
lege Republicans. “If someone stood
downtown in Pittsburgh and gave
lessons on building a bomb to any
one who decided to listen, that in
dividual would be representing a
clear danger to the country. It
doesn’t matter what that individual
believes—he is still teaching people
whose beliefs he does not know or
control.”
“I think Dr. Touretzky is just be
ing consistent with his philosophy,
which is admirable,” said Quinten
Steenhuis, a junior in logic and
computation. “His stance makes
sense to me, although we can cer
tainly question whether this was
the right cause to take a stand for.”
John Lerchey, computer and net
work security coordinator, ex
plained that Touretzky’s copy of
the Reclaim Guide is within the
bounds of University website con
tent policy. Lerchey said that por
nography, copyrighted materials,
and business ventures are included
on an unspecific list of prohibited
materials.
No procedure exists to monitor
student and faculty websites for
potentially illegal material. Usually,
Computing Services is alerted to
questionable material via com
plaints from individuals both on
and off campus.
Lerchey estimated that he has re
ceived six complaints about
Touretzky’s copy of the Reclaim
Guide since January.
“In general, the complaints that
come in about Professor
Touretzky’s web page are more fre
quent and more consistent [than
those for other University websites].
But even still, it’s not a large num
ber,” said Lerchey.
Lerchey said that Touretzky’s copy
of the explosives guide is not illegal,
and that Computing Services will
not ask him to remove or alter his
site at this time.
“I don’t think it in any way en
courages people to go blow up build
ings,” said Lerchey. “It was pretty
clear to me that there was not an
intent to do harm. It’s just instruc
tions on how to build a bomb.”
Lerchey recalled that several years
ago, a group of students published
pro-Nazi materials on their Uni
versity-based websites. Because the
sites did not encourage violence,
they were permitted to stay up.
“We very rarely have to take down
web pages,” said Lerchey.
Philosophy Professor Peter
See EXPLOSIVES Page 8
Internet
plagiarism a
problem at
miiversities
Wonetha Jackson
Wayne State University
With just a click of a mouse and a
credit card number, students
around the country can download
plagiarized material, ranging from
entire research papers to detailed
study guides for books.
At Wayne State University (WSU)
alone, nearly a dozen students in
the English department get caught
plagiarizing each semester, said
chairman of the WSU english de
partment Richard Grusin.
“Generally for us plagiarism oc
curs with undergraduate students
and mostly in the freshman com
position courses,” said Grusin.
Online access to various books
and magazines has made the job of
catching students who plagiarize
much easier, according to Grusin.
“What students don’t realize is
that it’s just as easy for us to get
plagiarized material,” said Grusin.
“All we have to do is conduct a
Google search on any sentence from
a student’s paper and then we will
get a list of choices of where that
sentence or work came from.”
Grusin also mentioned three other
key signs that alert professors to
students copying someone else’s
work: a students writing suddenly
becomes significantly better; words
or language used in a student’s pa
per is contrary from what they
learned in class; a student’s paper is
good, but off the topic. |
Online plagiarism sites have still
become more attractive for students
at WSU, according to Grusin
“If you are a student and have a
job, and most of the students here
have full-time jobs, and are making
$10 to $11 an hour it might be
more profitable for you to buy the
paper than waste the time to write
the paper,” said Grusin. “It might
take you two hours, perhaps longer,
to do a paper and that still does not
guarantee you will get the grade.”
But even students who aren’t as
busy may find copying and pasting
justified, and much easier, accord
ing to Grusin.
“The fact is a lot of students don’t
know it’s wrong to plagiarize mate
rial in a research paper, because of
what they learn in elementary
school,” said Grusin. “Because of
Internet research, a lot of students
are not rigorous about rephrasing
other people’s material, when writ
ing it in a research paper. So they
just paste it on their paper and say
‘it’s mine now’ and they are re
warded by teachers with a good
grade.”
Grusin believes another reason
some students plagiarize is because
they have a lack of confidence in
their own writing.
“I rarely ever copy someone’s work
now, but I used to because some
times it j ust sounds better from that
person,” said Tim Smith, a sopho
more at WSU.
See PLAGL\RISM Page 8
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