4A the university daily kansan
opinion
monday,october 20,2003
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Michelle Burhenn
editor
864-4854 or mburhenn@kansan.com
Lindsay Hanson and Leah Shaffer managing editors
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Louise Stauffer and Stephen Shupe
opinion editors
864-4924 or opinion@kansan.com
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business manager
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general manager and news adviser
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Free forAll Call 864-0500
Free for All callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. Kansan editors reserve the right to omit comments. Slanderous and obscene statements will not be printed. Phone numbers of all incoming calls are recorded.
For more comments, go to www.kansan.com
Hey, don't eat the pears, they will make you sick. Believe that.
Chili with beans or without?
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Magazines are for girls.
I am as cool as the other side of the pillow.
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You know you are really stoned when you don't have the munchies.
It is 12:17. Do you know where your roommate is?
It is midnight and instead of doing my paper, I opted to clean my bathroom. Procrastination rules.
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Hmmm. I smell bacon. You know what that means? Nate is cooking lunch again.
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To the women of KU: Games are for kids. Grow up and tell me what you want.
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My grandmother is proof that evil can't die.
Wow, the UDK sure is biased. All week they have printed anti- Republican cartoons.
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The chance of seeing a pig fly is greater than seeing a Greek walk alone.
What do dogs think about?
sack's view
'HIRe OUT-OF-WORK POLITICians TO DO THE BORING "GOVERNiNG" STUFF, MILK the POSiTiON FOR EVERY Nickel YOU CAN, AND THEN REtIRE TO AN OVERPAID GiG ON AN UNWATCHED CABLE TV SHOW. WORKED FOR Me!'
McCarthy commits plagiarism, he and Kansan held accountable
perspective
COMMENTARY
Louise Stauffer
opinion@kansan.com
A letter to the editor notified The University Daily Kansan on Friday that one of the opinion page columnists had committed acts of plagiarism. Jon D. Snyder, a lecturer in chemical and petroleum engineering, cited five excerpts from the column, "Brownback policy smacks of McCarthyism," written by Ben McCarthy, a Lenexa nontraditional student and Kansan columnist, that were taken from three Web sites. After examining the online articles from the Web sites of The Libertarian Party of Tennessee, IslamOnline.net and Antivaar.com, the Kansan determined that McCarthy had indeed plagiarized in his column. He is no longer employed at the Kansan.
As opinion editor, I am ultimately responsible for the content of the page and for informing you, the reader, what happened and why it was wrong.
When Iasked McCarthy what sources he used for his column in an e-mail last week after receiving the letter from Snyder, he wrote he had read about the topic in an article from The New York Sun. McCarthy did not mention the three Web sites his material was stolen from and did not admit to plagiarism.
McCarthy was given an opportunity to admit his wrongdoings in a meeting on Friday and in a statement. In his state
What McCarthy did was wrong for one reason: He claimed material he submitted to the opinion editors was his own. It was not. There were phrases, sentences and even paragraphs in McCarthy's column that were the same exact words of other authors, to which he did not attribute any credit. That is plagiarism.
He wrote he mistakenly took this document as a column when, in fact, it was notes he had collected and saved from different electronic news sources that laid out the details of the case. He cleaned up the language and forwarded it along for the opinion page to use.
ment, he described how what he thought was his column was something else. McCarthy wrote he found the piece in an outdated computer file from last spring and thought it was an old column.
"Nothing in the column stuck out to me as something taken directly from an outside source, without attribution. However, I could not have been more mistaken," he wrote.
"I alone am responsible for doing so. However, the information within the article is factually accurate."
The accuracy of his column is still in doubt. Snyder wrote in his letter that he called Brownback's offices in Overland Park and Washington D.C., and the people he spoke with had no knowledge of any such legislation of the Santorum-Brownback proposal McCarthy mentioned in his column. This matter is still
Steve Sack for Knight Ridder
being pursued by the opinion editors.
being paralyzed by plagiarism. Plagiarism is plagiarism, no matter how it got there and if it factually correct or not. It is not tolerated at the Kansan.
McCarthy lied to the editors at the Kansan by turning in the column as his own work. More importantly, he has also lied to you, the reader, by implying that the words in his column were his own. As the reader, you should trust all columnists to be honest. As editors, we do the same. McCarthy has written six other columns this semester, as well as two guest columns last spring. All of those pieces will be checked by the opinion editors for plagiarism as well.
Because of this breach of trust, all other columnists, including guest columnists, and editorial board members will now be required to submit all sources used when researching for their piece. The opinion editors will also be randomly spot-checking pieces for plagiarism. But, much of journalism relies on the honor code. An editor does not have the time to check every statement a commentator makes for originality.
Stauffer is a Holland, Mich., senior in English and journalism. She is editor of the opinion page.
A writer must be honest. If not, he or she will be caught eventually. I am thankful for Snyder's investigation and promptness in notifying the Kansan of McCarthy's acts. And I am thankful to all of the Kansan staff members and guest columnists who have adhered to the ethics of journalism.
Vote means good changes for classified employees
perspective
The results are in: 623 — or 54 percent — of the University's Lawrence campus classified staff members voted Wednesday to pursue an alternative to the civil service system, while 545 (46 percent) voted not to pursue a change. A total of 1,159 (78 percent) of eligible classified staff members submitted ballots (four were disqualified). Based on this outcome, the University will open discussions with the Kansas Board of Regents to gain support for advancing the proposal to the Legislature. Although much work has taken place, we clearly are still at the beginning of this process.
at the beginning of the twice in the past six months, the classified staff has voted on this issue. In February, a work group that I had asked to study the issue presented a proposal for an alternative. In May, following three months of campus discussion, a vote resulted in a tie: 1,090 classified staff
David Shulenburger opinion@kansan.com
GUEST COMMENTARY
members cast ballots, with 545 voting for the alternative and 545 voting not to pursue a change.
During the summer, the work group surveyed classified staff to learn what parts of the proposed alternative were most and least attractive and revised the proposal. It was circulated to all classified staff Sept. 17.
Any prospective change in a long-
established personnel system must be weighed carefully, and I understand that some classified employees may have misgivings about what seems to be a major change. However, I also have great confidence in the judgment of the classified leaders who served on the work group. All of them have long service as classified staff members and are very familiar with the perceived advantages and protections that state civil service affords.
After reviewing all sides of the issue, they concluded that the state civil service, as currently constituted, does not serve either the University or its classified employees well. In their final proposal, they sought to preserve the best features of the civil service system — job protection, benefits, and appeal avenues — while creating better working conditions and offering
the opportunity for improved compensation.
Some employees are clearly concerned about the possible loss of protections and benefits if an alternative system is approved. It is my impression that many of those concerns stem from misunderstandings about the proposal. I urge classified employees to review the revised proposal again and to communicate their questions and concerns to the University's department of human resources.
I extend my thanks to all classified employees who joined in the discussion of the proposal and helped refine it. I am especially grateful to members of the work group, who spent countless hours on this project.
David Shute:burger is provost and executive vice chancellor for the Lawrence campus.
Know where your tuition money goes
A raise for the chancellor, new buildings in departments, new computers in the Union computer labs, all of these things, whether rumored or true, have students talking about what is being done with our tuition money. It is imperative that students be informed about where their money goes.
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In an era of state money crises and tighter budgets, the University of Kansas is getting less money from the state. Provost David Shulenburger said the University "get[s] about 80 cents on the dollar" compared to other state universities. On top of all of this, University administrators are in the second year of a five-year tuition increase. This increase in funds ostensibly goes to improve the value of a KU degree, not to make up for the lack of state funds.
The quality of our education hinges on the University's appropriate use of money. It also depends on the state Legislature budgeting appropriate funds to the University. As students of the University of Kansas, it should be our duty to hold the administration and the Legislature accountable for how it budgets and spends money on our behalf.
So, what does this mean, exactly? Students should educate themselves about what our money is being used to fund. Chancellor Robert Hemenway and other University administrators say that money from tuition increases is being spent on need-based funds for students. However, Hemenway admits that times are tough with the lack of state funds that have always been awarded to the University. We may end up paying less tuition than other students at other Big 12 Conference colleges, but we still must take a long, hard look at what we're getting in return for our increasing price tug.
Every KU student should be aware of what happens to his or her money after it is signed over to the University and what merits an increase in price.
Ask the provost and vice provests questions. E-mail the chancellor. Find out where your money is going and what the administration is doing to make up for the state money that is no longer available. We should not let their information fall upon deaf ears, nor should we accept it at face value.
The legislative session is approaching and the University needs attentive students now more than ever. Let's all work together to hold ourselves accountable for having a valuable degree, an enjoyable college experience and an education that is worth every penny we spend on it.
Patrick Ross for the editorial board
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