106 Y
lursday • October 14, 1999
Jft "W" a V*KS*,'%# r Ml 42
SITY
College Station, Texas
Volume 106 • Issue 34*16 Pages
ule change makes proving
lagiarism by faculty difficult
BY STUART HUTSON
The Battalion
|Aggies may not lie, cheat or steal, but a June
,1999, revision to the University Rules and Reg-
fetions which mandates that intent must be
pven to convict a faculty member of plagiarism,
;some professors asking if the University toler-
; those who do.
[Colin Allen, associate professor of philosophy.
Id the revision followed an investigation of pla-
|rism charges between two professors of sociol-
hhat revealed Texas A&M — College Station’s
[tinition of plagiarism conflicted with the Texas
[University System’s definition of plagiarism.
[“Basically what happened was that the inves-
lation was canceled until the differences could
rectified,” Allen said. “While they were re
fining the rules, the word intent came to be part
lour campus’ rules.”
[Allen said the inclusion of “intent” greatly in
cased the likelihood that professors would not
found guilty of plagiarism by the University.
I “To prove intent, a person would usually have
[prove some sort of pattern of plagiarism by the
ofessor, which is extremely difficult to do,” Allen
lid. “It seems like the University is saying ‘we
[n’t want to hold our faculty members account-
lie for plagiarism.’”
[Harland Prechel, associate professor of sociol-
, pointed out that The University Student Rules
does not mandate that intent be proven for a stu
dent to be found guilty of plagiarism.
“The students are judged purely on whether or
not they committed an act of plagiarism, while a
faculty member is judged on whether or not he or
she actually meant to plagiarize,” Prechel said.
"/t seems like the University
is saying, 'We don't want to
hold our faculty members
accountable for plagiarism/"
— Colin Allen
associate professor of philosophy
“This is an embarrassing double standard that
makes us hold our students to a higher standard
than our own faculty, who are suppose to be the
role models for our students to follow.”
Robert Kennedy, vice president for research and
associate provost for graduate studies, said that
while the inclusion may make proving guilt diffi
cult, it may often protect professors from abuse of
power, false accusations and honest misunder
standings and oversights that may be made by oth
er faculty members.
“There was considerable debate over the inclu
sion of this word by the Faculty Senate and Acade
mic Program Council,” he said. “But our policy does
now include intent in it’s definition of plagiarism.”
Max Amoss, a professor of veterinary physiol
ogy and chairman of the Faculty Senate Research
Committee, said the Faculty Senate chose to in
clude the word after hotly debating the issue be
cause the word was needed to protect professors
from allegations of plagiarism that may rob them
of their reputations.
“We were referring to plagiarism in the narrow
context of scientific research,” he said. “In that con
text, a professor may use the good ideas of another
professor without even realizing it, and we needed
something to safeguard that a professor wouldn’t
lose his reputation over an honest mistake. ”
Mark Goodman, executive director for the Stu
dent Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., said
the inclusion of the word intent often makes prov
ing guilt in a plagiarism case difficult.
He said proving intent requires that whoever is
judging the case to speculate as to what state of
mind the defendant holds while committing the
alleged crime.
“What you have to do is try to get into the de
fendant’s mind, but the only way you can try to
do that is by examining a lot of circumstantial ev
idence, which can lead to a subjective ruling by
the judge,” Goodman said. “There is rarely a
smoking gun to indicate intent.”
CHAD ADAMS/Thi Battauon
Rick Younts (left), senior adviser to Asia Pacific Affairs with Motorola
Inc., and Dr. Julian Caspar, director of the Center for International
Business Studies, field questions from the audience at the George
Bush Library.
Global disability
Forum addresses future of China
BY STASIA RAINES
The Battalion
The director of the Center for
International Business Studies
said China has taken a huge leap
forward in the last 20 years last
night as the Kyle R. Younts Forum
on United States-China relations.
Dr. Julian Caspar, who spoke
last night at the George Bush Li
brary, said he thinks it is time to
question if possible changes need
to be made to continue the
progress in China.
“The question we must ask is
if the Communist party that suc
cessfully guided China through
the last 20 years will be able to
successfully guide China through
its transformation in the next 20
years,” he said.
Caspar said a potential prob
lem in China is the possibility of
social unrest due to the huge eco
nomic disparity between the
classes. Caspar pointed to in
stances in which this disparity has
see China on Page 2.
CODY WAGESA'hk Batialion
Students at the Brayton Fire Training Center train for one of many firefighting-related scenarios Wednesday. Last night the students prac
ticed on a mocked-up blaze involving oil equipment.
College of Education
faces reorganization
BY MATT LOFTIS
The Battalion
The Texas A&M College of Educa
tion is gearing up for a large-scale re
arrangement. The College will sub
mit plans outlining the rearrangement
to the Graduate Council tomorrow
and to the University Curriculum
Committee on Friday for considera
tion and approval.
According to a memo from Dr.
Jane Conoley, dean of the College of
Education, foremost on the list of
changes is a transformation from five
school branches to four, with more
specialized areas of coverage.
The current configuration contains
five branches named the Department
of Educational Administration, the
Department of Educational Human
Resource Development, the Depart
ment of Educational Curriculum and
Instruction, the Department of Edu
cational Psychology and the Depart
ment of Health and Kinesiology.
According to the memo, the De
partment of Health and Kinesiology
will remain the same in both form
and function, but the rest of the areas
are preparing to undergo potentially
extensive rearrangement.
The first of these changes will be
to alter the names of the colleges to
better fit function and scope. The Col
lege of Education will have four de
partments following the change,
named the Department of Education
al Administration and Human Re
source Development, which will be a
the
the go a 1
is to enhance
academic^
research OC
service functions
associated with our
technology^
JR BEATO/The Battalion
combined form of the Department of
Educational Administration and the
Department of Human Resource De
velopment, the Department of Teach
ing, Learning, and Culture, the De
partment of Educational Psychology
and the Department of Health and Ki
nesiology.
According to a “Nonsubstantive
Administrative Change Request” is
sued by the College of Education, the
changes will increase the depth and
breadth of research and instruction
focused on adults, increase diversity
among their student body to meet the
needs of an increasingly diverse pop
ulation and foster the creation of a na
tionally prominent program in edu
cational technology and distance
education.
The “Change Request” said the
proposed reorganization will allow
the College of Education to better
serve the needs of the schools and cit
izens of Texas in the next century.
see Education on Page 6.
NSIDE
Sports
•There is no T in
Jameson
A&M safety quick to
credit others for his success
in football.
,7 Page 11
Aggielife
•Looking closer at Kevin Spacey
Spacey speaks about his new ac
claimed movie, American Beauty.
Page 3
Opinion
Dumb & Dumber
Website ad
dress envi
ronmental
o concerns of
Bonfire.
Page 15
Batt Radio
Listen to KAMU-FM 90.9 at 1:57
p.m. for an interview with Acade
my Award winner Kevin Spacey.
Administration
names interim
vice president
BY KENNETH MACDONALD
The Battalion
Charles Sippial, vice president for Physical
Plant since August 1995, has assumed his new du
ties as interim vice president for administration.
His new position was left vacant by Dr. Jerry
Gaston, deputy chancellor of the Texas A&M Sys
tem, and will be permanently filled after a na
tionwide search is completed.
Sippjal said that while his job has changed,
his mission to provide service to A&M remains
the same.
“This is a career broadening opportunity,” Sip
pial said. “It is a larger job with more responsi
bilities, but about the same amount of business. ”
Sippial said the transition has been very com
fortable for him.
“Dr. Gaston is a good leader and mentor, it is
easy to follow in his shoes,” he said. “I appreci
ate the opportunity Dr. Bowen has given me.”
Sippial will oversee Food Services, Parking
Traffic and Transportation Services, Geograph
ic Information and Graphic Services, Universi-
JP BEATO/The Battalion
Charles Sippial has been named as as interim
vice president for administration.
ty Police Department, Human Resources and
the Physical Plant.
Sippial was a supervisor of maintenance and
operations at Air Force bases in the U.S. and Eu
rope and retired as a Colonel. He was also direc
tor of the physical plant at San Diego State Uni
versity for six years prior to coming to A&M.
Texas A&M President Dr. Ray M Bowen said
Sippials broad-base will aides him in his tempo
rary position.
“Chuck Sippial has done an outstanding job in
managing the varied facets of our Physical Plant,”
Bowen said. “I am confident that he will do an
equally good job overseeing our overall adminis
trative functions during this interim period.”
Until Sippial returns, former assistant director
Dick Williams will act as interim vice president
of Physical Plant.
see Sippial on Page 2.
Committee’s contest offers
$3,000 prize for oratory skills
BY ROLANDO GARCIA
The Battalion
Six Texas A&M students will compete
for over $3,000 in cash prizes in the
“What’s the Word” oratorical contest
tonight at 7 in the MSC.
The topic for the competition, spon
sored by the Black Awareness Commit
tee (BAG), is “Bias in the Media: How
Stereotypes Are Perpetuated.”
Tammy Henry, BAG president and a
sophomore political science major, said
the contest encourages dialogue on im
portant issues and current events.
“There’s a lot of subjects [students]
need to speak out on, and this is a way
for students to voice their opinion,” Hen
ry said. “And public speaking is also a
skill you need in the real world.”
Henry said the BAG hosted the first
“What’s the Word” contest last year. The
topic was the ramifications of the Hop-
wood court decision that restricted using
race as a basis for admission into a Texas
institute of higher education and for
awarding scholarships.
With the success of the previous com
petition, the BAC hopes to make the con
test an annual event.
The Committee chose “Bias in the
Media” as the topic for this year to in
corporate several themes, primarily in
light of minority groups recently criticiz
ing television networks for not placing
enough African-Americans and Hispan-
ics in lead acting roles.
“This ties in several important issues
because the media is how we get our in
formation,” Henry said. “We wanted a
broad subject, and this can address not
just race, but other stereotypes like gen
der and age. ”
Twenty-four students had originally
applied, but preliminary rounds nar
rowed the field to the six finalists and
each contestant will have five minutes to
deliver his or her speech.
The first place winner will receive a
cash prize of $1,500. Second place will
receive $1,000, and $750 will go to the
third place finisher.
The judging panel consists of Student
Body President Will Hurd; MSC Council
President Bill Anderson; Rodney McClen
don, coordinator for Student Retention
and Development at the Multicultural Ser
vices Department; and Carolyn Sandoval,
the assistant coordinator for diversity ed
ucation at Multicultural Services.