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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TALK TO US: Contact Leita Walker, Jay Krail or Kyle Ramsey at (785) 864-4810 or editor@kansan.com
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 6,2002
ISSUE 87 VOLUME 112
Web site helps teachers spot plagiarism
By Summer Lewis Kansan staff writer
Professors at the University of Kansas have a new method of detecting plagiarism in their classrooms.
Michele Eodice, director of the writing center, is the administrator of KU's subscription to www.turnitin.com. Professors and students at any university can use this Web site to check papers for plagiarism against its system.
"Each campus subscribes to this digital plagiarism program." Eodice said. "The subscription is a one-year fee of $4,000 for a university the size of KU."
Eodice said that when students submitted papers to professors, the professors could enter them into the Web site's system. Any paper that is in digital format can be run through a similarity index to find similar phrases and sentences, she said.
John Barrie, a founder of turnitin.com said that the system searched the Internet books, journals and all submitted material from other universities.
from other universities.
Rose Marino, associate general counsel, said that it did not violate a student's rights by submitting papers to the site. She said it was part of the professors' grading and assessment of students when papers were submitted to the turnitin.com system.
"At KU, students own their academic productions," Marino said. "However, by enrolling at the University, they are giving KU the right to mark on, retain or handle the work. Submitting it would be part of retaining it."
Mike Kautsch, professor of media law, said article seven in KU's Student Rights and Responsibilities manual discussed the disclosure of a student's views. The article says information about a student's views should be kept confidential. Kautsch said the program did not disclose the identity of the student, therefore the student's views were not disclosed.
"There is no way to tie the views of the student to the submitted paper, so I don't think turnitin.com raises a concern," Kautsch said.
Eodice said instructors could check their students' papers at turnitin.com and know within 48 hours if plagiarism was present.
She said there were several cases at the University that had been detected through this site, but not all of the students caught knew they were plagiarizing. Eodice said that some students didn't realize that copying and pasting was plagiarism.
"There is a range in the cases that we find," she said. "At one end of the scale, you have someone who is not being careful about citing material because they don't understand how and when to cite. At the other end, you have a student who is committing outright fraud by purchasing a paper online or using someone else's."
Eodice said that the program began at the beginning of the fall semester, so she did not yet know the number of students who had been caught with plagiarism by the program.
She said all of the faculty would send a report to her in May with numbers and cases that were discovered with turnitin.com
Dawn Gale, Overland Park graduate student and philosophy teaching assistant, said that she was careful about plagiarism as a student and teacher.
"As a student, I have been and am currently very careful about citations and making sure that I cite things the right way," Gale said. "As an instructor, I have watched for and encountered plagiarism."
Students also can use the turnitin.com Web site for free after setting up an account with Eodice.
She said she would provide students with passwords and help them set up their own account for the Web site.
Eodice said that with all of the information that was available, it was important to teach students about plagiarism.
"It is a mutual responsibility between the teachers and students," Eodice said. "We are in an academic environment. Teachers are trying to pass on to students an academic integrity to be great readers and writers. Students have the responsibility to write papers on their own."
Contact Lewis at slewis@kansan.com. This story was edited by Kristi Henderson.
CAMPUS HEALTH WATCH
Meningitis diagnosed
By Summer Lewis Kansan staff writer
Steven White, an associate professor of teaching and leadership, was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis last Saturday.
Myra Strother, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said that White was hospitalized in Kansas City. Mo. Sunday.
"Luckily, he was treated immediately and is recovering completely," Strother said.
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, only people who have been in close contact with a meningitis patient need to be considered for preventive treatment. Casual contact,
Angela Lumpkin, dean of education, said steps were being taken to get in touch with anyone who had contact with White so that medicine could be given if necessary.
which might have occurred in a classroom or office, is usually not significant enough to cause infection.
Strother said even students who came in close contact with White should be safe.
"So, we're actually getting to the point of almost no worry, but the very last possible day that we look at is 10 days from Saturday," she said.
Meningitis facts
Watkins Memorial Health Center vaccinated about 500 KU students for meningitis last fall.
Strother said about 75 students were in contact with him within the last 10 days.
Anyone known to have been in contact with him since Jan. 23 should have been notified yesterday.
The vaccination costs $65 at Watkins and is effective from three to five years.
Source: WebMD
Bacterial meningitis causes death in 10 to 15 percent of cases. Source: WebMD
"We are contacting every person that was in one of his three classes in the last 10 days," Strother said. "I have already been to one class and offered them all medicine."
Strother said the other two classes were notified yesterday, leaving only a few people who had come in contact with him within the department and may not have been notified.
"Just to reassure students, even if your boyfriend was in the classroom, we do not treat you with medicine," she said. "The only way you could get it is from your boyfriend is if he is now ill."
Meningitis is not new to Lawrence and the KU campus. In 1997, the illness struck student Robert Brogi, of Deerfield, Ill., who died within hours. A form of meningitis also was diagnosed in Lea Cheyney, Glenwood, Iowa, in 1996, but she lived.
SEE MENINGITIS ON PAGE 3A
Lawrence doctoral student Christine Robinson is presenting a proposal to the Board of Regents to get employee benefits extended to same-sex and unmarried domestic partners.
AARON SHOWALTER/KANSAN
Graduate student works to improve benefits for domestic partners
By Leah Shaffer Kansan staff writer
A University of Kansas doctoral candidate has formed a task force to make sure that same-sex and unmarried couples can get the same benefits as married couples in Board of Regents' institutions.
Christine Robinson, Lawrence graduate student, is running the task force, which has representatives from Regents' institutions, such as Wichita State University and Kansas State University. They will write a proposal that will be submitted to the Board of Regents later this year.
"We are asking for nothing more than for the Regents to fully implement their own policies of nondiscrimination," Robinson said.
In one instance, Robinson said she was contacted by a male international student who had to drop out of KU because he could not afford the non-resident tuition. She said if he could have been legally married to his partner of eight years, his Kansas residency annli-
Robinson said last year the Regents added "sexual orientation" to its antidiscrimination policy. She wanted to see the Regents put the policy into action by allowing same-sex couples a chance to obtain the same benefits that married couples have. Such benefits may include health insurance, pension plans, bereavement policies, family and medical leave, and Kansas residency.
"All unmarried couples
"All unmarried couples and their dependents would have benefits that are currently only offered to married couples. We are asking for simple equality, nothing more nothing less."
Christine Robinson Lawrence graduate student
cation would have been approved. Robinson said people such as that student could be helped with a change in policy.
poney. "All unmarried couples and their dependents would have benefits that are currently only offered to married couples. We are asking for simple equality, nothing more, nothing less," she said.
File swapping violates media industry copyright laws
Mike Silverman, a KU graduate and chairperson for the Freedom Coalition,a Lawrence human rights group,said although KU's lack of benefits might cause some staff and faculty to leave for other universities that offer health care for domestic partners,the only other Big 12 university to offer it was Iowa State University.
The University formed its own domestic partnership task force in 1998.
SEE DOMESTIC ON PAGE 3A
Jessica Tims
Kansan staff writer
Downloading music and movies is common practice to thousands of KU students and it could get them expelled from the University, a KU administrator said.
Groups such as the Recording Industry Association of America and companies including Sony Corporation usually present one complaint per month to the University's Office of Information Systems because students download or offer for download copyrighted material on the Internet.
Even though the University doesn't give students' names to these companies, it contacts them itself, said Jenny Mahmedovic, assistant to the vice chancellor for information systems.
"I find that many students don't know that what they are doing is illegal," she said. "If we have to contact a student more than two times we also forward the information to the dean of students who will take any further disciplinary action necessary."
"I have a face to face with them," she said. "I explain the importance of the copyright law, the importance of not having academic misconduct against them at the University. If they do it again, they are in violation of the code of students right and responsibilities."
Jane Tuttle, assistant to the dean of students, said that if a student is sent to her office for violating copyright laws, she explains the violation and gives them a warning.
Although this has not happened yet, Turtle said it may happen soon. If a student has received a warning from her office and is caught again, Tuttle said they can be put on probation, suspended or even expelled.
"Any time a piece of music or a movie is copied it is a federal offense," Mahmedovic said.
Patrick Knorr, general manager of Sunflower Broadband, 1 Riverfront Plaza, said his company has also received complaints from the RIAA, Sony and the Motion Picture Association.
"I have been doing it for a couple years now, and I have over 2000 songs," he said. "I probably have about 15 or so movies, I am just getting started, but I haven't had any trouble yet."
Sunflower Broadband notified customers when they were turned in for the infringements but Knorr could not specify what was said or done.
"We try to walk all the lines," he said. "We try to cooperate with the copyright laws and with the customer's right to privacy, but sometimes that is a hard thing to do."
"I can't say for sure," he said. "I would guess they use the same software and trace it back to the person who posted it."
Knorr said he thinks the groups find the IP address by using the same software Sunflower customers use to trade the copyrighted works.
Danny Williams, Topeka junior said he has been downloading music from the Internet over the past two years and recently began to download movies.
Contact Tims at jtims@kansan.com. This story was edited by Cassio Furuto.
INSIDETODAY
AREA NEWS ...2A
HOROSCOPES ...2B
WEATHER ...4B
CROSSWORD ...4B
COMING IN TOMORROW'S KANSAN
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The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of the Kansan are 25 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at 119 Stauffer-Flint Hall.
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