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GARDNER-WEBB UMVERSriY
Thursday, February 25,1993, No. 9
TTie OfficiaC Campus 9{ewspaper
Boiling Springs, North Carolina
A Grade at Any Cost?
by Abdul Asghar
Staff Editor
Final examinations always produce stress,
but we seem to get through them somehow.
But, at the end of last semester, reports of
several incidents such as the following, point
to an increasing problem on this campus.
Item: At least two faculty offices were
broken into and final exam copies were stolen
before the exam date.
Item: In at least four unrelated courses,
term papers were found to be plagiarized,
fabricated, or otherwise dishonestly produced.
Item: Two students charged each other
with cheating in a math examination; eventu
ally, the whole situation emerged as less than
respectable.
Item: In many classrooms, teachers or
custodians found discarded, elaborate Cheat
sheets after a final exam was held.
So some cheating exists, and the punish
ment for it does not always seem to be consis
tent with the action. It is difficult to discover
and prosecute student dishonesty. However,
the question is if this is a widespread problem
or not? According to some of the faculty
members, this not the case.
According to Dr. Benjamin F. Davis of
the Psychology Department there is “some,
not necessarily a lot” His main concern as far
as academic dishonesty goes is the use of
plagiarized papers. When confronted with
their plagiarism, students will often tell him
that they didn’t know they were not allowed to
do that However, Dr. Davis does not see a lot
...faculty members
are not as stupid as
students think they
are...
Dr. Gayle Price
of cheating.
Dr. Larry Gregg of the School of Divinity
seems to be of the same opinion. He has had
problems with students plagiarizing papers,
but he would not say that it is widespread. He
does not want to tarnish the names of the many
students who do not cheat for the few who do.
According to him “people should remem
ber who they are.” By this he meant that they
are Christians and should act it. He feels that
cheating is ultimately self destructive and will
catch up with them. He too has not seen much
cheating in the class context during tests and
finals.
Another professor who has had cases of
cheating is Dr. Gayle Price of the Learning
Assistance Center. Dr. Price teaches English
Composition and Reading. She has encoun
tered some rather remarkable forms of plagia
rism, which she considers “the most blatant
and reprehensible” form of cheating. There
have been several instances where she knew
that cheating had taken place (in the form of
“Recycled Papers” as she calls them) and she
has suspected twice as many.
She points out that faculty members are
not as stupid as students think they are and can
usually tell when a paper is not the same
persons’s work. She cites an incidence where
she found a disk in the LAC computer lab that
had the same paper with three different cover
sheets with the names of three separate stu
dents and professors. She has also cited an
instance in which two people turned in the
same paper in the same class.
The fact that so many cases of plagia
rized papers were being brought up prompted
The Pilot to ask the people who would know
about this the most, i.e. the students.
A senior at Gardner-Webb, Laura Bailey,
put the amount of cheating here at 7 on a scale
of 10. She said that she has seen the cheating
get progressively worse since her arrival here
and it has been by far the worst last semester.
In one of her social science courses she saw at
least half the class cheat. In another class one
of her psychology classes she saw at least three
people cheat in the class.
Bailey, who had a course load of only
four classes last semester, saw some cheating
in all her classes.
To get a freshman’s perspective on it The
Pilot asked Shannon Reese what she thought
She put cheating on a scale of 5 out of 10 on
campus. She saw cheating in 12 out of her 16
hours last semester. She feels that people who
see DISHONESTY, page 3...
Interns Make An Impact
by Amy Sharpe
Staff Editor
One of the most valuable aspects of a
college education is experience. The class
room can only teach you how to perform your
job in a classroom setting, which does not
quite compare to the "real world."
Those who graduate from college and
have never had the opportunity to perform in a
true professional atmosphere, may find it hard
to make the transition from college to their
career. For this reason, many majors require a
student to complete at least one internship.
Those who graduate with a degree in
communications are required to complete two
internships with a total of four hundred hours.
This many seem like a lot of time, but it is
necessary in order to compete after gradua
tion.
Communications majors at Gardner-
Webb are very fortunate to have a local televi
sion station that is willing to take interns and
show them the ropes.
Shelby Headline News has taken several
interns from Gardner-Webb and helped them
apply their classroom knowledge to the many
different facets of the news world. Noel Man
ning, Katrina Hall, Jason Owensby, and my
self have had the opportunity to intern at SHN.
Noel Manning began as an intern at SHN
when it first aired in November of '91. Noel
was such a success that they decided to hire
him. He now has his own "Movie Minute" and
edits the news part-time.
Katrina Hall began interning at SHN last
semester writing news stories and interview
ing children for the weekly edition of "Kids
Talk."
see INTERNS, page 3...
GW Gets New
Computer Lab
by E.J. Dolce
Proof Editor
The Broyhill School of Management at
Gardner-Webb University has a lot to be proud
of this year. During the fall semester, com
plete renovation was completed on the Lind
say Hall which houses the Broyhill School of
Management
One of the highlights of the renovation is
a new state-of-the-art computer lab.
The lab is located in room 308. With the
consent of the university president. Dr. Chris
White and the Board of Trustees it was named
the Wallace Carpenter Computer Lab in honor
oflong-time Gardner-Webb professor Wallace
Carpenter.
Professor Carpenter started the first data
processing department of the institution and
taught the first computer class and has served
GWU for 30 years in the field of business and
computers.
see COMPUTERS, page 3 ...