The QC, Vol. 88, No. 16 • February 14, 2002

              The Voice Of Whittier College Since 1914
February 14,2002
QUAKER CAMPUS
http://web.whittier.edu/qc
«
Undergarments
stolen from room
CRIME
by Rose Ochoa
QC Asst. News Editor
A female student who returned
to her room from the restroom
observed a suspicious male leaving her room on the third floor of
Wanberg Residence Hall at approximately 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8. He exited down the
stairs and continued in an unknown
direction. The student returned to
her room to find one of her dresser
drawers open and realized that
some of her undergarments were
"missing. At 7:48 a.m. she called
Campus Safety to report the incident.
The suspect was described to
Campus Safety as a medium built
Hispanic male about 5'8" and 180
lbs. He is said to be in his mid-
thirties and mustached. He was
wearing a dark baseball cap, a blue
long-sleeved flannel shirt, blue
jeans and tennis shoes. The suspect was not found by Campus
Safety in the residence hall or in
the surrounding areas.
After further investigation, another resident claimed to have observed a similar-looking man on
Tuesday, Feb. 5 at approximately
2:15p.m. walking through the first
floor of Wanberg. These two incidents are possibly related, according to Assistant Chief of Campus
Safety John Lewis.
In reference to resident hall
security, Lewis has increased
Campus Safety patrol in the area
and has posted a crime alert bulletin throughout campus. "All doors
are working with consistency,
[but] the building is only as secure
as the residents who live there,"
he said. He insists that locking
room doors, completely closing
all entrance doors and not letting
strangers in are all vital steps in
maintaining a safe environment.
He encourages people to call Campus Safety if any suspicious behavior is observed.
"This is a reminder that we
have to be vigilant in our environment and community. You are never wrong in calling Campus Safety," he advised.
REBECCA WOLF/QC MANAGING EDITOR
COR 2002 Inauguration
Whittier College President Katherine Haley Will inaugurates junior Jess Craven into his role
as the Council of Representatives (COR) President on Thursday, Feb. 7 in the Campus Inn.
"This College is a production plant of diversity and greatness," Craven said. For a full story
on the 2002 COR Cabinet inauguration, see page 5.
Downloading the workload does not pay off
Failed honesty in the dot com world becomes a business
ACADEMICS
by Eva Sevcikova
QC News Editor
One click of a computer mouse
can do quite a bit: pay for one's
bills, order a box of chocolates or a
new pair of boxers, find a life partner or offer the latest news about a
race in the Olympic Games that
ended a half hour ago.
It was, however, quite a few
clicks on the Internet that several
years ago made Associate Professor of English and Literature and
the Writing Program Coordinator
Susanne Weil sit in her office and
cry.
Two students in the English
classes pulled papers off the Internet and each turned them in as their
original work, Weil said as she remembered how surprised and appalled the faculty and she were. "I
COR and more
COR agendas and letters
aplenty. Read 'em and
weep!
Opinions, Page 3
couldn't believe it," she said about
the students, who were in good
standing with the faculty.
The two students did not get
caught right away. It was when they
attempted to boast with their papers
by submitting it to the
annual Scholarly Writ- ^^^^^
ing Contest organized
by the English Department that Weil nailed
them.
"I read it, and I
thought T couldn't
have written it myself.'
SoIGoogledit,"Weil
said.
Weil is referring to
justoneofmanymeth-    	
ods available to professors to identify plagiarism in student papers—a well-known search
engine: Google.com. In addition,
there exist services that give access
to "firewalls," or protected Web
sites that do not show up in Google,
according to Weil. Many services,
when returning the paper-in-ques-
tion to the professor who requested
identification, can even highlight
the suspicious passages in red.
The two plagiarists were sus-
"Because of the technology, it
makes it easier for students to
download [papers]; on the other
hand, it makes it easier for us to
catch them."
dAve pAddy
Assistant Professor of English
Language and Literature
pended from the College and did
not apply for readmission, Weil said.
"Each one of them was bright
enough to write a good paper without this kind of help," Weil said
about the students who chose to
download their workload.
Literally dozens of Web sites
are available now offering essays
and papers to anyone interested.
Some of these Web sites create entire databases of student essays and
attempt to gain legitimacy by justifying their existence by research
purposes. Others shy from euphemism and are not ashamed by the
nature of their business, which in
simple words, is cheating.
With the current state of technology, ordered papers can arrive
via fax or e-mail as soon as 24 hours
after submitting an individual's
credit card number. Prices vary, but
with the boost many of these Internet companies have experienced,
prices from $4.95 to $19.95 are not
uncommon. Topics range from business management and marketing to
culinary science or sex education.
Occasionally, versions in several
languages are available. Many sites
offer various discounts if the regis
tered user refers a number of potential customers.
"Because of the technology, it
makes it easier for students to download this kind of work; on the other
hand, it makes it easier for us to
catch them," Assistant Professor of
English Language and Literature
dAve pAddy said.
Plagiarism in this context is a
lot more insidious, according to
Weil, who had many encounters
with this form of cheating. "It ruins
the point of the research process,"
she said. "It makes me really sad
when students do this. They didn't
learn when they could have learned.
In a way I also feel I failed them to
teach why research is important."
Cases of plagiarism are in no
way typical only for large research
universities where students blend
with several hundreds other people
in large lecture classes and hope
See ACADEMICS, page 5
ISSUE 16« VOLUME 88
What's that smell?
Love and sex together at last? Not
really, but see some of both in
this section.
Campus Life, Page 6
C.I.A. has dead clown
Performance art venue holds a
funeral for a Parisian clown
who died in 1912.
A&E, Page 10
Hey, new sports, cool
Tennis, baseball and softball all
started their seasons and are
swinging away.
Sports, Page 16