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Group designs sale taxi logo By MARY WALKER The Rep & Buck Taxis should be the saf est way to get home from a night downtown, but in the past two years, four attempted and successful rapes have occurred In Athens cabs. This recent issue has inspired five students, doing a project for a wom en’s studies course, to take preventative measures to help others avoid these dangerous situations. Courtney Daniel, Sara Dever, Sara Lindsey, Sarah Norris and Melanie Wilson came up with the idea for Athens-Clarke County offi cials to distribute a stan dard emblem to legitimate cab companies. “There are regulations about what a registered cab must have, but most people do not know them,” Dever said. “There is not a one-color cab system like you see in New York, so it is very easy to replicate a cab.” The easily-recognizable emblem would be placed on both doors of the cab. This would signal to stu dents and local residents the legitimacy of the cab. The primary goal is to provide more safety to stu dents at the University. But the emblem would also be Humanities stay strong despite budget By KATHRYN INGALL The Red & Black According to Hugh Ruppersburg, the humanities at the University are thriving despite the overall budget cuts to the University. “Like every area of study at the University, the humanities have suf fered under budget cuts, but cer tainly not permanently damaged. I don’t think the humanities suffered more than any other area,” said Ruppersburg, associate dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “Those majors are very popular.” A Boston Globe article published earlier this month reported an over all decrease in interest and support for the humanities in universities across the nation. Many students are choosing majors they believe will earn them jobs after graduation, such as busi ness or computer science. U.S. Department of Education data from 2007 shows that about 10 percent of students are majoring in HONEST: Professors know cheating tricks ► From Page 1 facilitator in the Office of Student Academic Services. If they can’t reach an agreement about the academic dishonesty viola tion, the Academic Honesty Panel decides what to do. If the panel doesn’t find the student innocent of the violation, he or she would be subject to punishment. Wanda Wilcox, a senior academic adviser in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and adjunct faculty with religion and women’s studies, recalled an introductory religion class she taught where she reported 17 students cheat ing on one assignment. “It was really very sad, and it made me quite angry,” Wilcox said. “It was just so galling to think, ‘How stupid do you think I am?’” She said each class, stu dents would write a one paragraph essay about a random topic, which they would turn in at the end of class to act as attendance. But students began writ ing paragraphs for each other when someone was absent. Wilcox said handwriting or an incorrectly spelled name would give it away. It’s clear when a student has cheated, she said. “There’s nothing hard about catching them,” Wilcox said. “It really just hits you and you go, ‘Oh my Ood.’” During the 2009-2010 academic year, the most reports of possible aca demic dishonesty came from the biological sciences department, with 55 reports. The second-most reported department on campus was the English department, with 30 reports, a difference of 19 reports from biological sci ences. When asked why biologi helpful to visitors in Athens. "There are plenty of par ents, family and friends on gameday weekends,” Dever said. “So if you walk down the street and see three cabs with the same symbol you will connect that this is something all cabs in Athens should have.” Students are encour aged to take taxis home from downtown if they are intoxicated. It is a safe alternative to walking home alone or driving while under the influence. Dever said it was vital to create a symbol that was easily recognizable. The team partnered with Gina Berchin, a stu dent studying screen-print ing, to create an emblem that could be easily recog nized. Together, they chose a scene of the Athens sky line for the decal. “We researched what colors people remember the most,” Dever said. “So we chose the lavender and gold because they are the most recognizable colors." Wilson created a Facebook page with links to a survey and to a peti tion in support of imple menting the taxi emblem requirement. The survey relates pri marily to promoting down town safety. It is meant to the humanities at four-year public institutions, compared to more than 18 percent who majored in business and almost 20 percent in science-re lated fields. In 2008, of the degrees the University awarded, more than 12 percent were in the humanities and about 22 percent were in business. Still, some professors and stu dents recognize the need for the humanities in education. “The humanities are links to the flow of information from ancient times to the present,” said English professor James Nagel. Nagel said the humanities have received no emphasis from the upper administration. “The most recent plans have been the engineering school and the medi cal school,” he said. Nagel said he participated in a 1964 study of young engineers at Penn State who were not progress ing after their first job. The study found that engineers without impor tant communication skills, such as cal sciences had the most reports, Mark Farmer; the chair of the department, said the large number of students contributed to the number of reports. With biology as the most popular major, he said 4,300 students came through classes and labs in the department during the 2009-2010 academic year, so slightly above one per cent of those students were caught cheating. Farmer said most of these issues came from laboratory reports, where students work together in groups and the distinction between whose work it is can be confusing. “We want to stress to the students that the writ ing of the lab report is indi vidual work. Sometimes, I guess students don’t understand those bound aries,” he said. Farmer also said the number of reports from biological sciences shows the department isn’t lax about academic dishones ty. “I don’t necessarily look at it as a bad thing that biological sciences has that many,” he said. “If we let these things slide, I think that sends the wrong mes sage to students in the community.” The Student Academic Honesty Council is trying to send the tight message about academic honesty to students, said Jessica Whitaker, co-chair of the council and a senior from Marietta. In addition to sitting on the Academic Honesty Panel, one of the council’s main functions is to raise awareness of the honesty policy on campus, Whitaker said. “It’s kind of clearing up any questions students have,” she said. “So they don’t make any mistakes and don’t violate the policy Courtesy Gina Bkrchin ▲ Five University students aim to gain approval by government officials of a standard emblem for taxi companies in Athens-Clarke County. raise community aware ness about the risks of being downtown. “This survey allows peo ple to think about their personal downtown experi ence,” Dever said. “It is meant to promote change in behavior downtown.” Many students think these crimes will not hap pen to them, but the sur vey helps students realize anyone could be at risk. The petition is meant to show the student and com munity support for man dating the emblem. “There is a misconcep tion that students are not as concerned about these issues as they really are,” in any way.” Whitaker said the coun cil, which is made up of about 20 students, talks to classes about the academic policy and sometimes holds events at Tate Plaza. She said students react well to the group’s out reach, asking it many ques tions about what is cheat ing and what isn’t. Bell said her office speaks at every student orientation about academ ic honesty, faculty mem bers must have academic honesty information on their syllabus and the Student Honor Code is posted in every classroom on campus. “All of those should serve as reminders to stu dents that we want them to perform all work in the confines of the academic honesty policy,” she said. Wilcox said with so many students working to pay for college and earn a degree, she doesn’t want cheating M N T m • lip? downtown * 546-5014 • www.masadaleather.com NEWS ONLINE PETITION Whan: Through Friday More Information: Visit http7/ www.thepetitionsKe.com/ takeaction/257/859/830/ Dever said. “By having stu dents sign the petition there is proof that students are concerned.” The group is looking to get 500 signatures before it presents the proposal to the Athens-Clarke County Commissioners. The team hopes to pres ent its idea to the Commissioners at the planned meeting on Friday. writing and verbal presentation, struggled in their Job perfonnances. “And those results are still true today,” Nagel said. “The key to suc cess in any field is communication.” Ruppersburg said that even stu dents who major in biology or com puter science benefit from humani ties courses either required cours es or electives. “Even in a business setting, that's helpfiil to understand. If you want to market to them you need to under stand what’s important to them,” said Tiffany Herter-Munley, a junior risk management major. Herter-Munley is taking a class about women and Christian history. The University has also made attempts to expand the reach of the humanities. For example, the com parative literature department offers a course on literature and medicine. “The humanities cannot afford to be ignorant of the sciences and the sciences cannot afford to be ignorant of the humanities,” Ruppersburg said. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY Total Number: 337 reported violations Plagiarism: 137 reports Unauthorized Assistance: 180 reports Lylng/Tamparlng/Brtbary/ Theft: 29 reports Note: Category breakdowns exceed total number as allega tions may include more than one type of violation Source 2009-2010 University aca demic honesty report to devalue the University diploma. “I don’t want your UOA diploma to ever be a joke to anybody,” she said. “It Just means too much to too many students.” The Red a Buck | Tuesday, November 30, 3010 Tuesday j |; n | i C O *P Corner c-jrj jj cillies I. . JTqgTO I ** Cash & Carry Roses I I athenspFlorist s ls per dozen! 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