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VOLUME 47 NUMBER 21
Auditors Charge Loan Abuse;
Townsend Denies Allegations
By DEBBIE GODBEE
Pres. Maurice Townsend questions
why federal government auditors
listed West Georgia as one of four
schools in the state that are abusing
federal student loan programs.
All of the college's financial aid
policies met with approval from the
Government Accounting Office
auditors during a fall 1980 visit, but
the auditors found fault with one of the
academic policies which allows a stu
dent three quarters to make academic
progress before he is dismissed, the
president said.
Although the length of the "trial
period" is left, under the law, to the
discretion of the individual institution,
the auditors felt two quarters were
sufficient and begrudged the financial
aid dollars which, in the case of some
students, finance that third quarter,
said Tow nsend.
The report implies that w e are not
properly administering federal
funds ." West Georgia was listed as
one of the offenders, but the one and
only issue discussed was the three
quarter policy, said Townsend. “In
none of those other areas were we
found guilty ,"
The article i Atlanta Constitution,
Feb. 4, 1982i makes it appear that we
are abusing federal aid programs,
and we are not I believe the report
was a political move made and car
ried through by the administration as
a justification for future cuts in
federal student aid," said M.J.
Holmes, financial aid director.
Townsend, however, feels the
report is part of an attempt by the
GAO to encourage Congress to re
write the present law which allows
every iastitute to decide when a stu
CheatingFestersinU.S. Classes
By JACQUELINE ELLIOT
Driven by pressures to earn
higher grades, to avoid failure, and
to please parents, an increasing
number of college students are
cheating on papers and exams. In
fact, according to a recent article
in a national magazine, cheating is
so rampant in some schools, that
administrators feel they are forced
to become detectives.
Does West Georgia have many
problems with cheating?
"Cheating is not a big problem,”
says Dr. Fran Chalfant, an English
professor, "there may have been
one or two cases of plagiarism, but
that's it." says Chalfant.
"The only problem I have with
cheating," says History teacher,
Dr James T. Gay, “is plagiarism.
This problem occurs more with
freshmen and sophomores,
because they are only interested in
their major courses.” In cir
cumstances where a student is
caught cheating, he confronts the
student and the student receives an
“F”.
Last year, 3 4 of the students in a
business law class cheated on a
test according to one senior who
took the test. The students, who
cheated, had access to the test. The
students who did not receive a test
told the professor how the other
students had cheated, and the pro
fessor did not use the grades on the
test, for those who cheated.
In cases where a student has a
serious offease, he is referred to
Bruce Lyon, dean of student ser
vices. "All minor cases are handl
ed by the teacher unless the
teacher feels the student needs
more discipline,” says Lyon.
"There is an estimate of one or two
serious offenses a year. At the
beginning of the year, a student
stole a test from a teacher and was
suspended for a short time. If the
Gubernatorial Candidates Stress Education in Race
By ELLEN WILSON
The gubernatorial race was brought
to Carrollton last week by Democrat
Norman Underwood and Republican
Bob Bell as they spoke here during
their tours through the state.
.Although neither candidate came to
the campus during this Carroll County
stay, both stressed the needs of educa
tion among the three major issues of
this race. .
These major issues: crime, jobs
and education, were addressed by
WEST GEORGI AH
dent is making academic progress.
The revision would allow Congress to
decide exactly how long a "trial
period” would be allowed all students.
“From where I am sitting this is
crazy . You can’t legislate a matter
like this,” said Townsend. He cited
varying quarter and semester
systems among American colleges
Reagan Proposes 50% Cut
In Federal Student Aid Budget
The financial aid picture for West
Georgia students next year looks very
grim thanks to President Ronald
Reagan’s massive cuts proposed for
student aid, according to M.J.
Holmes, financial aid director. And,
those who will receive aid for next
year can expect their award letters to
be late.
"The Reagan budget has called for
rollbacks in student aid of approx
imately 50 percent, and new regula
tions that would deny aid to millions of
college students.” according to
Higher Education and National Af
fairs iFeb. 12), the newsletter of the
American Council on Education.
Reagan proposes for the elimina
tion of the National Direct Student
lioan, Supplemental Grants and State
Student Incentive Grants programs
restrictions in the Guaranteed Stu
dent I-oan program 28 to 50 percent
cuts in various student aid programs.
His program also calls for cutbacks
in Social Security education benefits,
student had a record of such
crimes, he would have been per
manently suspended from school,”
says Lyon
Classified as an academic ir
regularity, cheating 1s addressed
in the catalog as follows: 1) No stu
dent shall receive or give
assistance not authorized by the in
structor m the preparation of any
essay, lab report, exam or other
assignments included in an
academic course. 2) No student
shall take or attempt to take, steal
or otherwise procure in an
unauthorized manner, any
material pertaining to the conduct
of a class including, but not limited
to tests, exams, lab equipment,
and roll books. 3) No student shall
sell, give, or lend, or otherwise fur
nish to any unauthorized person
material which can be shown to
contain the questions or answers to
any exam scheduled to be given at
any subsequent date in any course
of study offered by the college,
without authorization from the in
structor, 4) Plagiarism is pro
hibited. 'Themes, essays, term
papers, tests, and other similar re
quirements must be the work of the
student submitting them. When the
ideas of another are incorporated
in the paper, they must be ap
propriately acknowledged.”
What kind of student cheats?
“Any kind of student that is
pressured by peers or needs higher
grades cheats,” says a faculty
member. “Fear tempts even the
best students to cheat,” says Gary
Pavela, director of judicial pro
grams at University of Maryland.
In fact, good students are as likely
to cheat to protect a high average
as poor students are to avoid a low
one.”
both candidates, although Bell con
tended that it would take a
Republican, an outsider, to reform
Georgia's political system.
Bell spoke to a group of 6th district
Republicans on Thursday and Under
wood invited the public to meet him at
the courthouse last Tuesday.
State Senator Bell, a 14 year
veteran in the state legislature, said
that controlling crime, increasing
WEST GEORGIA COLLEGE, CARROLLTON, GA. 30118
and universities as an obstacle to this
legislation.
West Georgia will continue to give
students "a full academic year to pro
ve they can do academic work,”
Townsend said. He added that an of
ficer with the Education Department
found no problem with the three
quarter "trial period" during his visit
which will put extra burden on
already heavy loaded remaining
financial aid programs.
According to the HENA, "the ad
ministration is proposing restrictions
in the Guaranteed Student I-can pro
gram to be effective this April, in
cluding:
—elimination of graduate student
eligibility;
—doubling of the loan origination
fee to 10 percent;
—requiring need analysis for all
loans, and
—raising interest to market rates
two years after the student enters
repayment status.
For specific student aid programs:
—Pell Grants (B EOG) would be cut
40 percent.
—College Work-Study, 28 percent....
The Pell Grant maximum would be
SI6OO in academic year. However, the
budget projects a further cut to $1
billion for Pell Grants in fiscal year
1984, which could mean a further
reduction in family incomes eligible
for the program.”
Surveys done by several large
universities have found that 30-40
percent of undergraduates have
cheated on at least one exam or
paper. A 1979 Carnegie Council
revealed that nine percent of all
students cheat on papers or exams
on a coasistent basis.
When students on this campus
were asked, “Have you ever
cheated on a test before?”, some
students admitted to having
cheated or having seen it on a large
scale.
One freshman said, “Yes, I have
cheated on a test. I was bombing
employment and improving education
can only be accomplished by creating
a competitive two-party system and
electing a Republican, himself, gover
nor.
Underwood is visiting all 159 coun
ties in Georgia in what his backers are
calling “one of the most ambitious
campaign efforts in (the state’s )
political history.” He is making stops
in each county to talk to people on the
to the campus just prior to that by the
GAO.
"We think we’re doing a proper job.
I don’t see that this is wrong.” Fall
quarter can be very difficult for new
freshmen, and they may need more
than just winter quarter to improve
their grades, he said. He added,
however, that if a student has no
chance of bringing his grades up to
standards by the end of the third
quarter, he may be dismissed follow
ing the second quarter.
Holmes stated that the grade point
averages of financial aid recipients
are checked following every quarter.
“We’re proud of what we have.
Some delinquency is to be expected in
these times, but we’ve had pretty
good success.”
West Georgia’s default rate for
federal loans was 7.56 percent as of
June 30, 1981, and Virginia Herron,
senior accounting assistant in
business services, expects no major
change in the rate when it is
calculated this spring. List June the
college had 3,509 loans in the amount
of $3,797,380, and only 199 of these
were in default, said Herron.
The GAO randomly selected 20 col
leges and universities for the audit.
Other Georgia schools cited were
Morris Brown College, Atlanta Junior
College, and DeVry Institute of Tec
nology, all of Atlanta, according to the
Atlanta Constitution.
The report, according to the article,
stated that "at 20 colleges GAO
visited, 19.9 percent of the student
recipients of federal grants and 23.1
percent of student Social Security
recipients had grade averages below
C.”
out on a test and looked on another
person’s paper. I made a “B” on
the test and passed the course. ”
A senior replied, “I never recall
cheating on a test. I have received
old tests, but never actually
cheated on a test because I was
afraid of being caught. In my
political science course, we were
taking a test and the professor left
the room. While he was gone
everyone in the class cheated.
They would ask someone straight
out what the answer was, but I still
did not cheat.”
4 oiilniued on page 1
grass roots level and intends to add
suggestioas he gets to his platform.
Underwood said, “No one person has
the right to govern in the name of the
people unless he has listened to the
ideas of those he will represent.”
Underwood, who served as Gover
nor Busbee’s Executive Secretary,
said that education should be
"competency-based,” Judges should
have alternatives to putting people
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 1982
a • "xT Ufa wr \ ,*j
"Well Rob, do you think we should go on with the show, or go watch
Fridays hack at the motel?" “I don’t know, Sobie, hot nn lower lip is stuck
to some huhhlc-gum on this microphone." If you didn't stick around lor this
weekend's Stillwater-High Risk concert, you didn't miss much Sec the
review on page 5. (Photo by Edwards.)
Drug Use, Abuse
Explored by Doctor
By ELLEN WILSON
Fifteen tons of marijuana changes
hands in this country every day ac
cording to Dr. Charles Whisnant of
the Peachtree Parkwood Hospital in
Atlanta. Whisnant treats people for
drug and alcohol addiction or depen
dence at the hospital, and he believes
that marijuana, one of the most
popular drugs among college age
people, causes a dependancy similar
to the psychological dependancy of
someone who "has to eat chocolate
all the time.”
The doctor told a group of students
last Tuesday that although mari
juana and cocaine have been
popularized by rock musicians and
Hollywood stars in this country, they
are not as harmless as popularly
believed.
He also stressed the fact that the
physical dependence of alcohol and
other drugs is the “bad type” of ad
diction. Whisnant said that he sees a
pattern in his patients of moving
from one drug to another perhaps
more harmful one. “I rarely see so
meone who is addicted to only one
drug,” Whisnant said. “There’s just
no such thing as an old-timey
alcoholic any more,” he said, adding
that most alcoholics now supplement
Frosh Applications Up;
40 Fall Short of Criteria
By THOMAS BALLENGER
Freshmen applications for fall
quarter at West Georgia College are
up by 250 students, according to the
admission office. Along with this rise
in applications, there have also been
40 more prospective students rejected
by the college.
Doyle Bickers, director of admis
sions, attributes the rise in applica
tions to “the increased good image of
the school, not only academic gains,
but social, economic, and athletic
ones as well.” Another reason that
convicted of minor charges in jail,
and vocational policy should be
"tilted toward more technically
developed training” while an effort Is
made to bring more industry into the
state.
Bell believes a statewide in
vestigative grand jury should be
formed to help stem the crime pro
blem, that educational funding needs
attention, and that more industry
should be enticed into the state.
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their 'drinking with manjuaha oi
another drug.
Whisnant explained the medical ef
fects of alcohol and other drugs
which cause physical dependencies
as well as the known effects of mari
juana. He pointed out tluit of the 461
chemicals which have been isolated
in marijuana, only 61 have names.
The doctor said, These are not
horror stories dreamed up to scare
the youth,” but medical facts.
Marijuana, according to the doc
tor, causes as much damage in one
cigarette as 20 cigarettes of the
tobacco variety. It also causes
damage to the short term memory,
and could cause precanceroiis
legions in the lungs as well as leading
to the use of other drugs.
One who is addicted to alcohol or
other physically addictive drugs will
have serious problems if he or she
stops or tries to cut down intake of
the drug, Whisnant said. These with
drawal symptoms include insomnia,
tremors or shaking of the hands,
frightening hallucinations, and more
seriously, delirium tremens, convul
sions and grand mal seizures.
The body is under a great deal of
stress in the withdrawal stage and
often hospitalization is necessary for
4 nnliiimtl mi page II
more students are interested in West
Georgia is the intense recruiting ef
forts that Bickers and his staff go
through to attract ttie elite student.
“All four major state supported
schools (Georgia, Valdosta St.,
Georgia Southern, and WGC) have en
joyed slight gains in applications, hut
there is no big rise in high school
seniors this year. ’Thus the rise of ap
plications is primarily due to the
multiple applications of the rising col
lege freshmen. They want to be sure
they will attend somewhere,” said
Bickers speaking on the reasons up
coming freshmen apply to several
schools.
West Georgia does not have the big
drawing card as some schools. “We
don’t have a Herschel Walker,”
Bickers added. However, the school
does offer certain advantages that a
larger school can not offer. “We are
one of the few small schools that has a
color television production facility,
also we have a good campus radio sta
tion, and one of the l>est student
newspapers in the state,” saidj
Bickers.
One of the chief ways that West
Georgia is recommented to students
is by word of mouth. Either a
graduate, or a current student will
mention to their friends how great
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