Alcohol, academic infractions increase
Two students were expelled last year, and 108 students were penalized for alcohol policy violations ? among disciplinary actions that have been on the rise since 1999.In all, 291 disciplinary actions were taken last year ? the most since the 1996-97 academic year ? according to the Discipline Report recently released by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.Last year was the first time a student had been expelled since 1998-99.One of the expulsions resulted from a student committing 20 academic violations during four years, and the other from a student plagiarizing several papers in one semester, according to the report.Though the number of academic violations increased from 13 in 1998-99 to 32 last year ? mostly cases of plagiarism ? Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Marianne Waterbury said there was no single reason for the increase."When students write papers, because so much of what they do now is on the computer . . . they lose track of where they got the language from," Waterbury said.A student can end up forgetting whether he wrote a phrase or if it came from someone else, she added.Though such plagiarism may not be intentional, it is nevertheless an academic violation."It's reasonable to know this is not your language," Waterbury said.In other cases, students plagiarize from materials on the Internet ? a new trick that has quickly become old."The faculty has finally caught up with the students," Waterbury said.