Annual cheating report: 4 expelled

Plagiarism at UW would have been down last year from the year before, if it weren’t for one class in which 86 students were found to be cheating.

“Most of these students were first time offenders and their cases were handled informally,” says a review of 2005-06 academic offences posted online by the University Committee on Student Appeals. “However, repeat offenders and their cases were handled formally by the Associate Dean.” The incident involved 76 first-year students as well as three in second year, 5 in third year and 2 in fourth year.

“Half way through the term,” says the UCSA report, “the TAs of the course discovered cases of plagiarism while marking discussion topics posted on a discussion board. Two weeks later, the instructor of the course notified the class of the discovery and indicated that software would be used to check topics. . . .

“Following consultation between the various faculties and Associate Deans, the instructor imposed a grade penalty of 2.2 out of 2.2 for each occurrence of this offence. In addition, the students were placed on disciplinary probation for the remainder of their undergraduate studies.” The course and even the faculty involved aren’t identified.

The 86 students in that one case boosted the total of students guilty of plagiarism in 2005-06 to 153. The figure for 2004-05 had been 98. The totals include 29 in 2005-06 and 58 in 2004-05 whose plagiarism is reported to involve the Internet.

In its annual report, submitted to the UW senate this spring, UCSA says there were 405 students guilty of “cheating” during 2005-06, down from 432 in 2004-05 (and 248 in 2003-04). Cheating includes “collusion, excessive collaboration, unauthorized aids, other violations of exam regulations” and is listed separately from plagiarism.

Also reported last year are 9 cases of “misrepresentation”, and 7 of “harassment, unethical behaviour, non-academic misconduct”, including two that involved criminal acts.

A total of four students were expelled during the year, and 53 suspended for anywhere from one term to as long as six terms.

“As in years past,” says the annual report, “UCSA stresses that students are responsible members of the University community and that the conduct of the vast majority is exemplary. When considered in light of the total UW student population, very few disciplinary actions or instances of misconduct are reported.”

The committee also notes that “among UW students (perhaps first year, in particular), it seems that there continues to be confusion re collaborative learning, group/team work on assignments or projects, and that, at UW, there are ‘degrees’ of team work. UCSA notes that this is being addressed by the Academic Integrity Committee.”

The report says tribunals at the faculty level “dealt with 18 undergraduate student appeals, 12 of which involved disciplinary matters.” (The other cases mostly were requests to have grades changed.)

The university-wide committee itself heard nine appeals during the year. One case involved a graduate student who was required to withdraw from a PhD program because “after several extensions, the student still had not done the comprehensive exam.” The other eight cases involved undergrads accused of various kinds of cheating or misbehaviour, plus one complex case about an admissions decision.

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The future of furniture is recycling

Environmentalism has gone completely mainstream, I realized during an unexpectedly interesting noontime meeting on campus one day this spring.

I was invited to sit in on a briefing, aimed mostly at people in the plant operations department and central stores, about a “remanufacturing program” being launched by Calstone Inc., a furniture company that does a lot of business with UW. “I think it is important for all campus departments to know this is about to happen and make a responsible decision to support this program,” Frank Esch of the plant ops design section told me.

Calstone president Jim Ecclestone explained that from now on, his company’s furniture will come with a promise that when it’s no longer needed and the customer is buying something new, Calstone will purchase it back, for a token $15 per item, and recycle it. Major components will be reused if possible, other pieces will be cut into new shapes, ground up, melted, sent to suppliers for other kinds of processing. Wood scraps will be sold for animal bedding. “We guarantee the university,” said Ecclestone, “that zero per cent will ever end up in a landfill site.” Even badly damaged items will be taken back, he said, although the $15 fee might not apply.

It took me a while, as a dozen of us sat around the big table in the plant operations conference room, to grasp the idea that furniture needs to be recycled. I thought of desks, for instance, as pretty much permanent things (the desk in my office in Needles Hall dates from the 1960s). But no, I was reminded. Departments move or remodel, needs change, and some furniture gets very rough usage. Calstone is a major supplier of workstations for UW computer labs, where heavy and sometimes careless use takes a big toll.

The company began 20 years ago making tables for mailrooms and similar facilities. It now has an extensive line of office and classroom furniture, all using metal structural components and plastic laminate work surfaces. Most of the company’s business is done with educational institutions and the federal government. York University has been the first customer to test the “remanufacturing” program, Ecclestone said, with two loads of old furniture already shipped back to the factory in Scarborough, east Toronto.

He took time to boast about the environmental features of the plant, mentioning welding equipment that’s cooled by recirculated rainwater, and his pride in being a customer of Bullfrog Power, which generates electricity from “green” sources.

I asked Ecclestone: how far ahead of the furniture industry as a whole are you? Quite a bit, he maintained, noting that “it’s easier for me to control my own destiny” than it might be for a larger, more decentralized company, especially one that sells through distributors rather than direct to a modest number of customers as Calstone does.

He acknowledged that while recycling, or “remanufacturing”, is a great thing, it’s still better to reuse furniture as long as the university can make use of it. That point led to some discussion around the table, as central stores staff explained what currently happens. A department declares some piece of furniture “surplus”, and it’s put in storage for a time in the hope that someone elsewhere on campus might want it. If that doesn’t happen, it goes into one of the periodic “surplus sales” held in East Campus Hall, and typically a student carries it off for a few dollars.

But that reuse is only temporary, more than one voice around the table said. Often, the next step is that the student graduates, the desk or chair is abandoned, and it’s sent to the landfill — directly or, in some cases, after being abandoned at the side of a street. The Calstone program will keep that kind of waste from happening, but at the price of a reduction in the amount of cheap furniture available for sale to students along the way.

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The likely future development of UW's north campus is set out on panels that are on display until Tuesday in the main-floor lobby of the Dana Porter Library. In the panel at far right, red circles show the location of recreation facilities — from the Trans-Canada Trail to a planned YMCA and the Columbia Icefield. Photo courtesy of @UW.

Other notes to wind up the week

The Iron Warrior engineering newspaper calls it “a defining moment in the history of the Professional Development for Engineering Students program (PDEng)". The article by mechanical engineering student Jaclyn Sharpe explains: “For the first time, students are receiving letters . . . informing them that they will not be able to graduate with the class with which they are currently studying because they cannot meet the PDEng degree requirements by 4B. All students admitted who began their studies in the Fall of 2004 or later must complete five PDEng courses as part of their graduation requirements. . . . This is the first term that any students have been far enough along in the program to have an impact on their graduation. Only a handful of students have received letters this term; however, the number of students affected is expected to increase. Any of the 8-stream students from the class of 2009 (currently off-stream after having completed 3A) who do not complete PDEng 15 this term will find themselves in the same situation when they return in the Fall.” Carolyn MacGregor, director of PDEng, confirmed yesterday that "there are 5 or 6 students who have failed PDEng 15 four times — primarily because they have submitted little or no work for grading. The students who are now receiving advisory letters also received warning letters and emails after they had failed PDEng 15 for a second time. The students who are in jeopardy have known about their situation for some time. Most have not done anything to try to get themselves back on track.”

The deadline is approaching in this year's Special Recognition Award Program for UW staff, which was somewhat revised from the 2004 through 2006 rounds following a review by the staff compensation committee. "The nomination period is compressed this year," Trenny Canning of the university secretariat notes, explaining that the revisions delayed things. For that reason, the deadline, previously in the spring, has been set back to July 31 for this year. The awards, leading to a one-time $1,500 bonus for each of 150 individuals (plus a possible four "team awards"), are to recognize "staff members' dedication, hard work and continued commitment to excellence in the performance of their jobs". There's much more information, including "tips for nominators", on the web.

A couple of readers e-mailed yesterday to remind me that "Honest Ed" Mirvish, the Toronto entrepreneur who died this week, was an honorary graduate of UW (1969). • Amy Endert of the residence life office says application forms and a job description will be available online starting today for the fall-and-winter position of graduate don at Columbia Lake Village North. • August 1 is the official deadline to submit Intention to Graduate forms for students who want to collect their degrees at fall convocation.

Systems design engineering professor Keith Hipel was inducted as a Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) at the 2007 INCOSE International Symposium held at the end of June in San Diego. Hipel was recognized for his research in the advancement of systems engineering methodologies with application to environmental resources management and sustainable development.

"Please be advised," writes Gary Kosar of plant operations, "that the ring road will be closed to all traffic except for emergency vehicles in the area where new conduit is being laid for electrical wiring. On any given day a small section of the ring road will be closed to allow for this work." The conduit is part of the work being done on the east side of the ring road; digging started near the Columbia Street entrance and has been moving south, currently reaching the area just outside the Commissary building (where the UW police and UW Graphics are housed).

And . . . I'm going to be away from the office and keyboard next week. For the next few days the Daily Bulletin will be served up by Pat Bow, my colleague in the communications and public affairs office; e-mail can be sent, as always, to bulletin@uwaterloo.ca.

CAR

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