Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sample.eng.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven.umd.edu!mimsy!mojo!russotto
From: russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto)
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: E-mail Privacy
Message-ID: <1991Jun14.173019.1085@eng.umd.edu>
Date: 14 Jun 91 17:30:19 GMT
References: <2539@maserati.qsp.UUCP> <1991Jun14.130553.28202@oar.net>
Sender: news@eng.umd.edu (C-News)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Lines: 36

In article <1991Jun14.130553.28202@oar.net> karl.kleinpaste@osc.edu writes:
>scotts@qsp.com writes:

>Imagine yourself walking through the corporate offices late at night,
>meandering past the treasurer's office.  You notice through the glass
>door that someone is working over a safe in that office's back corner
>in the dark via a flashlight.  How do you respond?

Ask for a cut?  :-) :-) :-)

>Come on, people, a little ethical consistency, huh?
>
>Anyone who witnesses a crime and does nothing to stop it is a party to
>it.  In fact, screwed up though the USA legal system surely is, it
>makes a lot of sense that certain crimes are defined in terms of the
>failure _of_the_citizenry_ to report other crimes.

When is the last time you reported someone for speeding?  Or shoplifting?
(shoplifting is perhaps a more apt analogy, as most believe it is wrong-- but
if you have ever been accused, you will probably not report anyone again).

>I'm going to assume agreement by all that cheating within the
>university is an academic crime.  If you see it, and do nothing about
>it, _you_ are as much the problem as the cheaters themselves.

But if you see it, and report it, you end up putting the alleged cheaters into
a system where their guilt is assumed, they are denied the right to defend
themselves, and can suffer the ultimate in penalties.  For someone in authority
to accuse a student of cheating is essentially to convict them-- I could
not in good conscience do that. (I've been through UMCPs judicial review system
for non-academic reasons, and the rules for academic proceedings are even 
worse.  A student has to represent himself against the legally-trained members
of the board-- who both prosecute and judge...)
--
Matthew T. Russotto	russotto@eng.umd.edu	russotto@wam.umd.edu
     .sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.