THE PENDULUM
Volume 29, Issue 4
September 11, 2003
If it matters to you, it matters to The Pendulum.
www.elon.edu/pendulum
Miscommunication leads
to bookstore inaccuracies
Rachel Abbott
Reporter
As if shelling out the money for text
books wasn’t enough, some students found
themselves unable to even purchase the
books they needed this semester.
A large number of students had trouble
getting the required texts for their classes
from the bookstore this semester. The
bookstore attributes the problem to a vari
ety of factors, including miscommunica
tion between the bookstore and book pub
lishers as well as between faculty and the
bookstore.
Kathy Scarborough, manager of the
bookstore, said that many times incorrect
books are ordered because the wrong inter
national standard book number, or IBSN,
is provided or incorrectly copied down.
Scarborough said that problems pro
jecting class enrollment also made it diffi
cult for the bookstore to keep the correct
number of books in stock this semester.
“We can only go by numbers,”
Scarborough said. She said the bookstore
relies heavily on numerical data from the
registration’s Datatel system to decide how
many books to buy. Scarborough said the
bookstore also uses historical data to project
book sales.
This year, something went wrong.
Multiple courses offered this semester had
problems with their books — or no books at
all.
Scarborough said it would be nearly
impossible to estimate the number of stu
dents who had problems with the books for
their courses this semester; however, she did
say the bookstore had 995 different titles to
keep track of for this fall’s courses. She said
that was a 91- title increase from last year.
Scarborough explained that problems
arise when students drop or add . classes,
changing the number of students in each
class. She said that the only way to prevent
the shortage of books would be to over-
order; however, over-ordering poses the
threat of leaving the bookstore with unsold
books.
See BOOKSTORE p. 10
Jeff Heyer / Photo Editor
Junior Ryan Turner browses the campus shop looking for the correct textbook for his dass.
This year, the bookstore faced problems projecting class enrollment when ordering books.
Downtown Elon may grow
‘Cut-and-paste’ plagiarism,
honor code violations on rise
Matt Belanger
Assistant News Editor
A recent study by Rutgers University
revealed that Internet plagiarism is rising
among students.
Donald L. McCabe, a management pro
fessor at Rutgers, organized the survey
which asked 18,000 students, 2,600 faculty
members and 650 teaching assistants at 23
large and small public and private universi
ties nationwide questions about plagiarism
and cheating.
Forty percent of students surveyed
acknowledged plagiarizing written sources
within the last year.
Mary Wise, assistant vice president for
Academic Affairs, said academic honor
code violations have increased at Elon con
sistently over the past few years.
During the 2001-2002 academic year, 37
incident reports were filed with Academic
Affairs. Last year, 38 incidents were filed.
For the past two years, there have been 53
students investigated for honor code viola
tions.
See PLAGIARISM p. 11
Fire house fields central in
development discussions
Steve Earley
News Editor
Elon — the university — has seen it’s
share of changes in the last five years —
Construction of a new library, football stadi
um and two new academic pavilions to name
a few. And a new political science pavilion
and business school building are on the way.
Meanwhile, downtown Elon — mainly
defined by the block of merchants along
Williamson and Lebanon Avenues — has
remained relatively stagnant.
But, a North Carolina State University
graduate student’s vision for downtown and
a pending contact for development of the fire
house fields suggests that sweeping change
may soon be on the way for Elon — the town.
Pam Graham, who recently earned a
master’s of landscaping architecture at North
Carolina State University, outlined a decade-
long development plan in a term project.
In the project, Graham outlines a down
town district made up of residences, retail
establishments, green space and public
gathering places. The site, which would
extend across the current firehouse fields,
See DOWNTOWN p. 10
p-j d • The Brian Wlltsey Band makes a much-anticipated O •
• return to the Lighthouse. in an exclusive interview.