SU President Fears Students may be

Punished in Faculty Deal

Prez fears deal will increase costs that will result in increased tuition or program cuts to programs

President Brandon MacKenzie _ welcomes the improvement in negotiations between the univer- sity administration and the faculty association, but warned "I am worried about the implications a deal will have on the UPEI budg- et and the spill-over onto univer- sity tuition."

There are two major sources of financing for UPEI, those being government funding and tuition fees. MacKenzie is worried that with provincial treas- urer Mitch Murphy's hands tied with a huge provincial deficit, university shortfalls may be ~ recouped through tuition.

"When pressed at a Board of Governors meeting, the Vice- President of Finance and Facilities Gary Bradshaw responded by saying 'I am confi-

dent that a reasonable tuition increase and the proposed increase in operational funding from the government will cover the cost'. We should all be very cautious regarding the language ‘reasonable tuition increase’, espe- cially at this point. I am worried about a 25 year trend continuing - when

cost issues at this university." Common sense dictates that if workload is decreased, additional professors would have to be hired in ordered to sustain the number of classes which are currently offered.

MacKenzie went on to say that the net effect of a decrease of

work-

universi- | There is another option open to the university |load ty costs administration and that is to cut spending. j|may rise the not

only recourse to recoup those costs end up being the students." "Why doesn't the Board of Governors take a stand on behalf of students and tell our province that this is simply unacceptable?" Regarding the contract currently being negotiated with the faculty association he explained, "it's not the rise in pay but the decrease in workload that may create some capacity and

automatically be an increase in costs, a message the faculty asso- ciation has emphasized. However, MacKenzie is skeptical regarding this argument.

While MacKenzie is con- cerned the University may raise tuition if its operating expenses increase, there is another option open to the university administra- tion and that is to cut spending, a scenario that is also very trou-

bling.

"There is another side of increased costs and it could result in the smaller specialty courses being cut. Required courses for some smaller programs could be offered every second year, and we could see a dramatic increase in class size. It threatens what makes this university great - our small class sizes and closeness to our professors."

MacKenzie ended with a clear statement for the student body.

"On the suggestion that student leaders disassociate them- selves from the [negotiation] process, I can assure everyone involved that while both sides are looking out for their best inter- ests, so will we."

McGill Student Battles University’ s Anti-Plagiarism Policy

By Na In a decision that could © affect university students across Canada, it was reported last week in The McGill Daily that the administration of McGill University had reversed an earlier decision that would have penal- ized Arts student Jesse Rosenfeld for refusing to submit his essays

to an online anti-plagiarism web- ‘site.

Beginning in December 2001, the Montreal university instituted a two-year trial pro- gram under which students were

_ required to hand in their papers

to Turnitin.com. The private company uses its database of over a million essays, as well as

‘other online sources, to detect

student plagiarism. At McGill

alone, the work of some 1,400 students has been submitted to Turnitin.com over the past two years. ae

This past fall, Rosenfeld, an International Development Studies student at the school, took exception to the new policy, citing the fact that it presumed the culpability of students. "By making students submit their papers to [Turnitin. com] before

UPEI Cadre February 4, 2004 page 5

they are read by professors is basically saying, ‘prove you did- n't plagiarize before we even bother to read your paper." said Rosenfeld in a McGill Daily interview. When he was informed that it would be a class require- ment to submit his essays via Turnitin.com, he refused, opting instead to hand them in directly to his professor. As a result of his Continued on page 6.