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Review: Improv group brings creativity to comedy page 9 Tre Lennon makes good use of height for Elon Football page 12 The Pendulum Elon, North Carolina • Wednesday, October 22, 2014 • Volume 40 Edition 24 www.elonpendulum.com WADE A MimJTE -1^ I Fountain jumping tradition holds consequences Leena Dahal p ■ Senior Reporter r ■ TTe daring tradition of wading in all four ; . of Elon University’s fountains -wnthout being • . jcaught has left trails of wet footprints for ?§!^ears. '■'V.- In a Pendulum survey of 112 students, 98 percent indicated they have jumped or plan to jump into one of the Elon fountains before they leave. But as the number of stu dents who choose to engage in the tradition - rises, the potential for injuries and property damages does too. ,Maintenance On a typical workday, plumbing mainte- tance' staff member Eric Biebel crosses off numerous tasks on his extensive to-do list. ^?^ome of those jobs related to the fountains -/:^clude checking water levels, measuring biochemical and pH balances, cleaning large jj^^^ters and removing debris. According to Biebel, fountains are basi- f*^r^ally large electrical pumps that push water f'lnto different valves, out of jets and into the ^r. The equipment required for this to take i ..^lace, he added, requires a good amount of : ^ Maintenance. rin Biebel’s to-do lists are longer on some JJtnornings than on others. On top of the ! ^^\vork required to regularly maintain all four ' .^^?^ountains, a slight damage to a single piece of ^^quipment could lead to more work and an icrease in water waste. “If a light is knocked over causing dam age to one of the jets, for example, it would lead to a loss of at least 22 gallons of wa- . . ter,” he said. “To fix the damage entirely, we .' i^ould then have to drain the whole fountain >■* • as well.” 1 For Chandler Fountain in front of the Koury Business Center, that would mean draining 80,000 gallons of water. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the same amount would provide an average U.S. family of four with 200 days of water usage. To avoid water waste, the university pur chased two pumps in 2005 and 2007, elim inating the need to drain the fountains for cleaning. According to the Office of Sustain ability, the vacuums save 186,720 gallons of water annually. That is, unless, damage is caused and fountains need to be drained. According to Biebel, the potential for equipment damages when students wade in fountains are endless: lights can be broken, jets can be moved or dented and metals and pipes can be stepped on. In addition to dam ages to property, he stressed the potential for physical injury is just as high. “I know it’s tempting to give in to,” he said. “But consider the possibility of hurt ing yourself, the amount of water you would waste if a damage was caused and, not to mention, a hefty fine.” Fines A variety of rumors circle the monetary fine of jumping into the fountains, including the popular “pay-by-lirnb” theory, which sug gests that students pay a fine based on how many limbs were submerged in the fountain. According to Elon’s 2014-2015 Hon or System, no wet limbs are counted. In stead, point 2014.36 states that sanctions for swimming or wading in restricted areas normally include “no less than an official warning and possibly disciplinary probation; campus restitution hours, education program or project.” Associate Dean of Students for Leader ship and Honor Code Jodean Schmiederer said monetary costs are only charged when physical damages are made to the property. “For example, last year, damages were made to both Chandler Fountain and Fon- ville Fountain over the course of one week end,” she said. “The students were fined solely the amount of money it took for the utilities department to repair the damages.” Trends and Awareness While wading in fountains is listed as a violation of the Student Code of Con duct, special events have contradicted the rule, such as when the Senior Class Gmng Campaign offered students who donated the chance to have their picture taken in Fonville Fountain last year. One alumnus who attended the event, and wished to remain anonymous, argued that this contradiction reflects poor admin istrative decisions and is a threat to the tra dition. “It was basically saying if you spent mon ey on Elon, you can break a rule,” he said. “It just weakened the tradition because it wasn’t nearly half as fun as jumping in during the middle of the night.” One surveyed student pointed to the event as a reason to lift the ban. “Events like that just show that Elon is seemingly OK with people wading in foun tains,” the student wrote. “It just shouldn’t be restricted.” A majority of the surveyed students in dicated that they would only jump with the protection of their senior-year status. “I think Elon knows that everybody is going to do it, especially as a senior,” another student said. “They should just lift the ban.” For other students, the existence of the See FOUNTyiJNSpage 7 Cheating, plagiarism persist as current academic concerns Michael Papich Assistant News Editor Cheating and plagiarism sit at the top of honor code concerns at Elon University and at most schools. But as the technol ogy around teaching and the professional world change, the need to reassess the cli mate of unethical behavior arises. “It’s one of the things that’s so basic, we forget to talk about it,” said George Padgett, associate professor of communi cations. One of the main changes to classrooms in the past few years has been the pop ularization of online courses. In an envi ronment where a professor and a student cannot see one another, professors have different takes on whether this makes cheating more or less likely. “I’m not concerned that they’re look ing things up,” said Megan Isaac, associ ate professor of English and chair of the department. “The assignments are open- book already.” Isaac said in the online courses she’s taught, the assignments are mainly essays or other written compositions. When it comes to students buying essays or having someone else write those works, Isaac said an online course “very marginally magni fies” concerns. “The same red flags I look for in a face- to-face classroom carry over to papers in an online class,” she said. Other professors are more concerned. Art Cassill, professor of accounting and Wesley R. Elingburg Professor in the Spencer and Martha Love School of Business, said an online class “absolutely” increases his concerns when it comes to cheating. “You’re more sensitive to it. You don’t have that control that you’d have in a live classroom,” Cassill said. “You’d be naive to think it’s not a possibility.” Cassill said a student cheating in a classroom can be observed and confronted more directly than in an online environ ment where students are in different time zones. “My perception of cheating online is less than when I started, but I try to think the best of our students,” he said. “But the reality is, if I give an exam, I don’t know if that student is the one actually taking it or if that student has his or her book open at the computer. You do what you can do.” Isaac said the idea of someone else tak ing a class for a student is one thing she is cautious about because she cannot tell who the person on the other end of the computer is, but added this still wasn’t an especially large concern for her. “When it comes to idea that someone’s girlfriend or boyfriend will take an online course for a student, I don’t think that’s how our population acts,” Isaac said. See CHEATING page 5
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