PAGE FOUR Published Tuesday through Saturday mornings during the University year, the Dally Collegian is a student operated newspaper. Entered as ieeond-elasa aiatter July ft, 1984 at tha State College, Pa. Poet Office under the act of March ft, 187 ft. MIKE FEINSILBER, Editor M.nagin, Editor. Mike Miller: Clt, Editor. Do. Shoo- Ad^Hur.fj^ maker; Copy Editor, Dotty Stpne: Sports Editor, Roy WU- Fried: Co-Circulation Mgrs., Milt Llnlal, Christine Kauffman: Hams; Editorial Director, Jackie Hudgins: Society Editor, Promotion Mgr., Dellte Hoopes; Co-Personnel Mgrs., AletU ln« Althoosei A.si.tant Sport. Editor. Roser B.idl.r: Photo,- M«ba«k. Mgr. raphr Editor Eon Walker. and Reeorda Mgr., Virginia Latshaw. STAFF THIS ISSUE: Night Editor, Judy Harkison; Copy Editors: Mike Moyle, Fran Fanucci; As sistants: Ned Frear, Cynthia Bell, Becky Zahm, Pat Tomlinson, Harry Kitzinger, Jane Hartzell. The Hangman’s Noose: It’s Out of Date How do you punish the student who cheats? Is all cheating equally wrong? Should Eli cheaters be dealt with equally? Or is there a degree oi wrongness? Should cheaters be penalized according to the serious* ness of the offense? The questions concerned the many commit tees and groups whose efforts restulted in the University’s new academic honesty policy. The solution classifies cheating into three types and establishes three graded penalties for each type of cheating. Spur of the moment un premeditated cheating draws a penalty of send ing probationary memorandum to the office of the dean of the student’s college, the dean of men or women, the student’s advisor, and noti fying the student’s parents. Planned, premeditated cheating, such as using crib notes, results in disciplinary probation for a year and notification of parents. Disciplinary probation goes on the student’s records and bars him from holding office in activities and from representing the University in any offi cial capacity, such as on a team. The most severe type of cheating, cooperative premeditated cheating involving collusion, such as stealing or buying a final, draws the most severe penalty: suspension for the rest of the semester or for the next semester. Outside of removing a student from the cam pus, there are few measures the University is able to take to discipline students who break its rules. It cannot fine them or jail them as civil authorities can—and it is obvious that it should not even if it could. The University’s disciplinary actions are both warnings to violators and humiliating experi ences for them. By informing parents and Uni versity officials of probationary actions, and by putting these on the student’s permanent rec ords, the University is making the student feel discomfort. How great this discomfort is de pends, of course, on the individual. Far more important than merely punishing Scholastic Difficulty? Every year the registrar releases figures on the number of students who have flunked out, and every year students complain about the unsympathetic administration. But we feel this accusation is unfounded. Since 1949, when the Division of Intermediate Registration was set up, the administration has been campaigning actively to help solve the students' academic problems. In the nearly six years DIR has been in existence, hundreds of students who might otherwise have left school have been graduated because of their work in DIR. When a sttrdent applies for help at the DIR office in Old Main, he is given counseling by a trained personnel worker. If he is not sure just what he wants to • study he is given tests to determine his interests and abilities. The student is placed in DIR as his official curriculum until he decides what he wants to major in or until his average is sufficiently high for him to be accepted in another cur riculum. Seventeen per cent of the students who were enrolled for the fall semester were accorded some sort of disciplinary action. Most of them were placed on scholastic probation, a few were entered into DIR, and some were dropped from the University enrollment. If these seventeen per cent had gotten help early in the semester, fewer of them would have been given scholastic probation and the number leaving school would have been cut considerably. One big problem confronting workers in DIR is that students put off seeking counseling until they have ‘wasted’ a semester, so to speak. It is a mistake to think of DIR as the last chance to avoid being tossed out of school. If students would seek guidance when they first recognize their scholastic difficulties, more effective programs of rehabilitation could be carried out. , The administration is willing to help, but the students must first be able to recognize their need for help Gazette •.. Today NEWMAN CLUIL Daily Hot*ary, 4:30 p.m., Church; party, 8 p.m., stmU-nt center UNIVERSITY SU*vi-n Hwman, Francis Markltmd, llonry Krause, Henry Wm*!ma:i. Comhl Ferro, llenjnmin Woiu. Fhilip Smith. Kdna l> ut