Coalition debates new committee

University Council members spent yesterday afternoon's meeting discussing a proposed amendment to the body's bylaws advocating the establishment of a Council-level Pluralism Committee and enhancing academic integrity at the University. No decision was made on whether the committee would be created, but Council members spent a good part of their two-hour meeting discussing the amendment's semantics. If approved, the bylaw amendment would create a Pluralism Committee composed of eight faculty members, three graduate and/or professional students, three undergraduate students, two administrators and three A-3 staff members. One of the proposed word changes to the amendment was to eliminate the repetition of the word pluralism. "I hate to see statements saying 'Pluralism Committee to produce pluralism,' " Faculty Senate Chairperson-Elect Gerald Porter said. UA representative David Rose then suggested using the word "multi-singularism" -- a word he said he made up on the spot. His suggestion was rejected and Council members voted to use the words "inclusion and appreciation of pluralism" instead. The discussion of academic integrity was kicked off with a presentation by interim Judicial Inquiry Officer Catherine Schifter. Schifter said that violations of the Code of Academic Integrity -- such as cheating -- should be dealt with severely rather than the retributional equivalent of having one's "wrists slapped." "I also believe that it is a privilege to attend the University of Pennsylvania, and a privilege to receive a University of Pennsylvania degree," Schifter said, adding that violations "should be dealt with in that light." Co-chairperson of the Wharton Dean's Undergraduate Advisory Board Christie Glass and board member Lawrence Berger then made a presentation on cheating at the University, emphasizing that the problem is not endemic to Wharton. "We feel strong that this is a University-wide problem, and not a Wharton-specific problem," Glass said, calling combatting cheating a "two-way effort" between faculty and students. Berger, who said that cheating at the University is a "very serious issue," said that in a survey of 200 students taking Wharton classes in October of last year, 22 percent of freshmen and 53 percent of upperclassmen said that they had witnessed incidents of cheating in their classes. Glass and Berger proposed placing a question on student-evaluation forms which would ask, "Have you witnessed cheating in this course?" and "If so, what form of cheating?" And while Porter and others said they advocate the establishment of a University honor code system, UA representatives said the creation of an honor code would hurt innocent students rather than help them. Graduate and Professional Student Assembly members recommended that the University adopt a stronger stance against cheaters in graduate and undergraduate schools, possibly requiring matriculating students to sign an agreement to adhere to the Code of Academic Integrity. Other suggestions included the Wharton Dean's Undergraduate Advisory Board's recommendation of establishing a form through which students could report cheating offenses with the option of anonymity.