PAGE FOUR Published Theaday through italarday mornings during the University year, the Daily Collegian is a student operated sowspoper. F:ntered as second-elasa matter Jul, 5, 1934 ■t the State College, Pa. Post Office ■nder the ■ct of March 3, 1879 MIKE FEINSILBER, Editor MIKE MILLER, Associate Editor STAFF THIS ISSUE: Night Editor, Judy Harkison; Copy Editors, Rog Alexander, Ron Leik; As sistant:, Dick Fisher, Bob Franklin, Pauline Metza, Li] Junas, Ginny Phillips. When Tests Count Too Much: Cheating A practice which encourages dishonesty ought to be discouraged. About this everyone can It might be worth considering, then, a pro po,al that would discourage the practice. The proposal: That no test, term paper, re port, or any single unit of work done for a course, may determine greater than one-third of the grade a student receives in any course, excluding those courses exempted from this regulation by the dean of the college in which the course is offered. We are convinced that such a regulation would have the effect of cutting cheating. It is a safe assumption that a study would show that cheating is proportional to the pressure on the student. The greater the pressure, the more likely cheating will be employed as an escape from it. Pressure on the student results from over weighted examinations. When one single blue book or final can affect a student's final course grade excessively, many students take the easy way out: they cheat. A final which counts 50 per cent of a stu dent's course grade is an example of such an overloaded test. But it is not a rare example. There are many courses in which the professor adopts, as standard operating procedure, a sys tem of two tests and a final. In these cAses, the final determines at least 40 per cent of the final course grade. As the Senate Subcommittee on Academic Honesty at Penn State put it in its excellent report adopted last spring: ". . , Incentive to cheat must be reduced ... Here again the fac ulty can help greatly. Cheating occurs largely where students feel that only thus can they get a grade they feel they must have. The faculty should avoid making any individual grade more important to the student than is absolutely necessary." Who determines what "absolutely necessary" means? Any professor can read this report and nod his head confident that his tests which weight 50 per cent of the final mark are "ab solutely necessary." But we can think of few courses which would be greatly altered by giving more than three tests, cutting down on the importance of each. Double Jeopardy: The Reasons Why The disciplinary policy of the University as it affects students who have already been subject to civil punishment has been the occasion of much student resentment. Many students contend that for the Univer sity to discipline a student after he has already received civil punishment places the student in "double jeopardy" and is thus unjust. One punishment for one infraction i 3 sufficient, they contend. We believe that much of the resentment directed to the administration has resulted from a misinterpretation of the University's policy in regard to such matters. The policy of the University is essentially this: It does not deny that a student who is punished by both civil and University author ities is placed in double jeopardy. It contends, however, that such double jeopardy is neither unjust nor peCuliar to the University. The ad ministration feels that many civil infractions of students reflect to such a degree on the in stitution that 'they demand attention by Uni versity authorities. Wilmer E. Kenworthy, director of student affairs, puts the administration policy this way: "It is a simple fact that a student who 'gets in trouble' is in double jeopardy. This is not a situation peculiar to Penn State or to colleges and universities. Every individual is responsible not only to the laws of the. borough, state, and nation, but to his family, his friends, his em ployer, and such organizations as his church and clubs. "It is well known that when a man is guilty of misconduct he pays his penalty before the law, and then faces the fact that it may cost And They Wilt Fraternity men proved themselves wise men Monday night. Their Interfraternity Council representatives voted to discourage corsages at the IFC-Panhel dance. A corsage represents a beautiful gift and is a nice gesture, that cannot be denied. But it also all to• often represents a financial burden to the giver. When a man pays $5.00 to take his date to a dance in addition to the sundry expenses of a big weekend at Penn State. corsage giving be comes impractical to the great majority whose financial means are limited. Many schools have long banned corsages from their dances to alleviate such financial strain and to encourage more people to attend the dance. This is sensible and it is proper for the IFC to adopt this policy. We hope the sponsors of other University dances follow 'this sensible step. —Mike Miller alle Daily Colltgian Sueeesaer to THE FREE LANCE, est. 1881 .I<fatla I THE DAILY COLLEGIAN. STATE COLLEGE PENNSYLVANIA ROGER VOGELSINGER, Business Manager Besides cutting cheating, the regulation would lead to more tests which would result in stu dents reviewing their work more often and assumedly learning it more thoroughly. Educa tors agree that cramming doesn't educate. Over-weighted exams encourage cramming: ex ams given more often and carrying less em phasis encourage studying. Despite these arguments, this proposal, were it introduced before University Senate, the faculty body which rule on such matters, would probably meet with strong opposition. Faculty members would feel their academic freedom and their right to teach as they see fit is being tampered with. This is not necessarily so. The Senate, in the interests of the well-being of all, has been known to pass legislation which might like wise be interpreted as limiting the instructor's rights. Such a regulation is rule 1-9 of the Sen ate Regulations for Undergraduate Students which lists five conditions which must be met before an instructor may schedule evening ex aminations. Few faculty members oppose this rule. Regulations about what the instructor may or may not do in his classroom are not bad, per se. The proposal stated here would alter the professor's routines only slightly. We are convinced the regulation would cut cheating, thus easing the burden on the pro fessor to police his classes. Such a development would be welcomed by all faculty members. This regulation, then, would cut student cheating in tests, by removing the pressure which is partially responsible for cheating. It would increase the amount the student learns by forcing him to review more often instead of cramming. It would, it is true, increase the amount of effort the professor would have to exert in drawing up tests and decrease some what the amount of time he would have for teaching. But it would not decrease the amount of effort the instructor must spend in policing his classes. This proposal is in the best interest of the student and of the professor, since both are concerned with the student getting an educa tion. It is worthy of the consideration of the University Senate. him his job. His employer has to decide wheth er or not what he has done reduces or removes his worth to the organization, or reflects on the organization in such a way that he must be separated. "What the University does is, taking cog nizance of what civil authorities decide as to the guilt or innocence of a student in relation to civil or criminal law, to decide about his future as a student. In some cases the decision is that what he has done indicates 'that he is not a desirable citizen of the University com munity: sometimes that he needs to be denied the privilege of attendance for a short period of time; and sometimes that he needs to be put on probation. "These decisions are based on three factors._ what- the student needs to make him under stand what he -has done and learn from the in cident; what penalty he must be given to in dicate to other students how the University feels about his actions; and what needs to be done to indicate .to the public that we disap prove of such actions on the part of our students." The administration has placed much of its disciplinary authority in the hands of the students themselves in order that the infrac tions may be dealt with in the most under standing manner possible. We honestly believe that the University attempts to administer its policy in a fair and just manner. The cause of much of the re sentment may be that the reasoning behind policy has heretofore not been adequately ex plained. Gazette Today ACCOUNTING CLUB, 7 p.m., Phi Kappa Tau DAILY COLLEGIAN sophomore board circulation staff, 6:30 p.m., Collegian office HORT CLUB. 7 p.m.. 108 Plant Industries MARKETING CLUB, 7:30 p.m., Phi Mu Delta MINERAL INDUSTRIES STUDENT COUNCIL, 7 p.m., 209 Hetzel Union NEWMAN CLUB CHOIR PRACTICE, 7 p.m., Catholic Church PENN STATE BARBELL CLUB. 7 p.m., 102 Willard PENN STATE CHESS CLUB, 7:10 p.m., 7 Sparks INSTITUTE OF RADIO ENGINEERS AND THE AMERI CAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, 7:30 p.m., 220 Electrical Engineering PHILOSOPHY CLUB. 7:30 p.m., 209 Hetzel Union University Hospital Donald Catlin. John Earhart, Barbara-Lee Edwards, Murl Hockenberry, William Hoke, Joseph Humphreys, George MacCubbin, Phyllis Payloff, Raymond Pottios. John Rusnak, Karl Schwenateler, Joakob Stekel, Pam Talky, William Thomas. and Elizabeth Tolan. STUDENT EMPLOYMENT The toilowing camps will conduct interviews at • the Student Employment Agency, 112 Old Main. Interested students may sign up for interviews there. CAMP WISE. Ohio. Feb,- 23. CAMP HIRAM HOUSE. Ohio. Feb. 24 and 24. Editorials represent the viewpoint► at the writers. not nett/tarn, the Polk/ of the paper. the student body, or the University. —The Editor —Mike Miller Tomorrow Little Man on Cam "Our sorority has only ONE entrance requirement, Elsie Mae." Quips and Quotes In a dramatic session last week, the House rejected the adminis- tration's latest attempt for a new tax law. Meanwhile, the State's scholastic institutions continue to operate on borrowed time. We can't say whether the University is hard pressed, but re cently we've been seeing soiled shovels and maps of buried treasures i❑ the comptroller's office • • • We understand that faculty members have made so many loans that the local banks could go into the real estate business. If things don't get better soon. Campus Chest may have an other cause next year. Some say we're going to send several professors to the $64,000 Question. The curtains in second-floor Sirgm e ns started burning last week and a volunteer fire com pany was called in. It took the firemen only 10 minutes to put out the fire. It took the coeds 30 minutes to put out the firemen. One professor has noted the ar rival of a new genre of humans called HUB-worts. These are students who can be removed from the HUB only by a surgical operation. An anonymous contributor sends along this thought: qt would seem that those students scheduling three or more courses by television this semester may find it advisable to purchase a TV Guide along with their textbooks." 'Did you hear about the optome trist who buys old light bulbs to put in the lamps in his waiting room? The Dean of Men issued this statement last week: "Any behavior calculated to in cite or contribute to mob action will be treated with the utmost severity." This may • bar some coeds' from wearing tight sweaters in the HUB. The advertising men of today must believe that the shortest,way to the pocketbook is through the funny bone. Maybe they think that if they make you laugh hard enough, they'll shake some money out of your pocket. 1::3 Anyway, a current advertise ment by a motor car company shows a 1956 station wagon packed to the roof with people and lug gage, The caption calls the car: "Tops on the `tote-ern' poll." And a shirt manufacturer asks the girl friend to buy her beau an Arrow. The people who live in the State College area are fortunate WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 15, 1956 By RON LEIK in being able to' see a selection of foreign films, some of which are of as high a quality as many Hollywood movies. But we question whether some• times something isn't lost in trans• Wirth, especially in a scene, for example, where the hero delivers a three-minute monologue to the heroine and the screen then reads: "May I walk you home." We are privilged to report that foreigners have the same problem with American films. In a Western, which was shown in France, a cowhand comes up to the bar and says, "Gimme a shot of redeye" and the subtitle read; "Un aperitif, s'il ♦ous plait." One sunny Sunday last fall, a student was focusing a camera on a young thing, obviously not a coed, who was posing in front of a foliage-covered wall of Old Main. "Look out," he said. "That's poi son." "Darn," she replied, "why don't they cover these buildings with that pretty ivy you see at other colleges?" Keep sending in those cards and letters, friends. That address is The Daily Collegian, Carnegie Hall. Library Exhibits 'Book- Processes' The Pattee Library is now fea turing 'an exhibit on processes used to reduce the cost and bulk of books. These processes have made it possible to acquire re productions of rare volumes. The exhibit, which includes newspapers and manuscripts on microfilm; thesises and old Eng lish plates on microcards; and three major projects including one for reproducing all Ameri can books before 1820 in micro print, will continue until Febru ar3 29. - Collegian Circulation Staff The Daily. Collegian sophomore board circulation staff will meet at 6:30 tonight in the Daily Col legian_ office. , Tonight , on WDFM 91.1 HEGACYCLES 7:25 Sign On 7:30 8:30 9:00 10:00 9 :15 ----------------- dus _ ai rc tioef _ Be Blhe7eVeViimPri4e e kte °° li r o o l )1:1: 1° I" • tor the Dal 10:36 • sign On Bibb
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers