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Carolina News__ E-commerce questioned on U.S. campuses by Ted Gregory College Press Exchange Andrew Cobum is studying bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago with the dream of one day designing tissue to replace ru ined ligaments. He already has a very marketable skill, however: taking notes. Cobum, a senior from Lombard, earned $2,000 last semester for posting the notes from his psy chology class on a Web site. He was the top note taker for Study24-7.com, a company that pays Cobum according to how many people look at his site. For that diligence, Study24-7 rewarded Cobum and his wife with an 8-day trip to Hawaii. “Every single day,” Cobum said wistfully, “my wife and I think about that trip. Every single day.” University and college administrators have been thinking a lot about Cobum and thousands like him who, with a few keystrokes, are becoming a con troversial influence in higher education. Sprouting across the country in the last two years, e-busi nesses that pay college students for their notes are generating serious concern as well as praise. Critics say the enterprises corrupt classroom learning and violate professors’ intellectual property rights. Supporters say the sites help stu dents learn, create a healthy exchange of knowl edge and have almost no effect on class attendance. “The key is that commercial enterprises are intruding into the world of the classroom,” said Mathieu Deflem, assistant professor of sociology at Purdue University in Wfest Lafayette, Ind., a lead- ‘ ing critic of the note-taking e-businesses. “The relationship in the classroom is very sen sitive,” said Deflem, who created a Wfeb site last fall that serves as a clearinghouse of the commer cial services (http://www.sla.purdue.edu/peo ple/soc/mdeflem/). “It is upheld only with respect and dignity. Students and teachers should be left alone with that.” Added Jonathan R Alger, counsel for the Amer ican Association of University Professors, in Wash ington, D.C.: “I don’t feel that the thing is inher ently evil, but the lesson that it sends to students is that even the classroom experience is up for sale. Everything has a price.” Companies providing notes on the Wfeb con tend that the service is a supplement—not a sub stitute—for class. Furthermore, they say that pro fessors typically encourage students to compare notes with classmates and that notes on the Inter net are the evolution of a service that has been on campuses for decades. “Students make the decision to skip classes for a number of reasons,” said Janet Cardinell, direc tor of campus relations for Versity.com, which calls itself the fastest-growing “academic communi ty.” She conceded, however, that her company and others like it may provide a reason. StudentU.com President Oran Wolf, who made his national launch in fall 1999, said he had “a hand ful of professors calling and expressing their dis pleasure.” This semester, he said, “we haven’t had any.” Wolf added that professors who might check attendance after a paid note-taker arrived in their class would find little if any difference. “Students know better than to use it as a sub stitute,” he said. Cobum and other note-takers interviewed agreed. He said blaming him for students missing class is similar to a killer blaming violent, graphic music for a murderous rampage. “We’re all adults here,” he said. “You go to col lege. I’m not responsible for you. You’re respon sible for yourself. You’re in control of yourself.” Although it is unclear exactly how many note selling e-businesses exist—Deflem has counted 13—the three major players say that they each have student note-takers on more than 100 campuses. The three, which make their money from ads on the W3b site, also claim to have note-takers in thou sands of classrooms. Illinois schools are well covered. Versity.com, which says it has note-takers in nearly 7,000 class rooms on 147 campuses, is at Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Southern Illinois in Carbondale, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Urbana Champaign and Western Illinois. StudentU.com, which says it has 121 campus es covered, has note-takers at DePaul University, Illinois State, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois and both major campuses of the University of Illinois. Study24-7.com, Cobum’s employers, says it works on 300 campuses throughout North America and Europe, including the University of Illinois’ campuses, the Illinois Institute of Tech nology, SIU, EIU, WIU, NIU, DePhul, Illinois State, Bradley, Chicago State and Loyola. As the companies spread faster than dirty laun dry on a dorm room floor, professors and univer sity administrators are debating the trend. “Students have many ways of learning,” said Michael Cummings, an associate professor of ge netics at UIC who lectures for Cobum’s educa tional and financial benefit. “If this is another way that they can use to learn the material, then I’m all for it.” Cobum informed Cummings at the semester’s first class that he planned to take notes for pay. Cummings allowed it. Since then, Cummings re ported, about four students have told him Cobum’s notes have been very helpful, and attendance for the class has remained steady at about 200 students. Cummings and other professors did that students who depend solely on the notes from a Web site are “running the risk” of assuming the notes are accurate and complete. Also, Cummings said, students who cut class miss valuable interac tion between the professor and students. “Part of the challenge of learning and being a good student is knowing how to take good notes,” Cummings said, repeating the sentiments of many professors. “That’s a required skill, and I don’t want to do anything to stop the students from acquiring that skill.” Cummings is in a slightly different position from other professors when it comes to potential intellectual-property infringement. He wrote the textbook he uses in the genetics class, leaving him unconcerned about losing compensation. £ Many universities, including the University of Illinois, DePaul, the University of Chicago, North western and Loyola, have no specific policy on selling notes on the Web, and no universities have filed a lawsuit against an e-business for the practice. Judge bars access to students' records by Christine Tatum College Press Exchange Washington - Universities would vi olate federal privacy laws if they re vealed students’ disciplinary records or details of campus judicial proceedings, a federal judge ruled this week. Monday’s decision has further stymied efforts by The Chronicle of Higher Education to access student dis ciplinary records from two Ohio uni versities. U.S. District Judge Geoige C. Smith found that campus judicial files and proceedings are “education records” protected under the federal Family Ed ucational Rights and Privacy Act, com monly known as FERPA. The law prohibits institutions of higher educa tion from disclosing records including “personally identifiable information” that a student or his or her parents have not authorized the school to release. The ruling has angered campus crime experts and journalism groups across the nation, who say colleges have used campus judiciary panels to con duct closed hearings that, in effect, hide illegal and embarrassing information that would be made public if reported to police. “What the judge is saying is that you get special protection by committing a crime on campus, and that is patent ly offensive,” said Kyle Niederpruem, president of the Society of Profession al Journalists. “What’s also horrible is that the victims of many campus crimes will never have their claims see the light of day. “Everyone has the right to know about crime on campus,” Niederpruem added. “Parents and students need the information to make informed deci sions.” The Chronicle case stemmed from a 1997 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that disciplinary records were not “educa tion records” and were, therefore, sub ject to public inspection. The court ordered Miami University to re lease complete records — including stu dents’ names — to a campus newspa per that had sued to see them under the state’s public-records law. Bolstered by that decision, the Wash ington-based Chronicle requested stu dent disciplinary records of both Mia mi and Ohio State universities. Both institutions were complying with the request when the department stepped in and filed suit against them for vio lating FERPA. Because the universities didn’t challenge the department’s law suit, The Chronicle intervened as a third party. Smith sided with the department, and cited legal precedents holding that federal statutes should apply to all is sues and documents except those specif ically excluded. Because FERPA pro vides some exemptions, but not one for disciplinary records, Smith concluded such documents are “education records.” He also stated that campus judicial pro ceedings — and the resulting documents — were not “criminal in nature,” but instead an internal way of campus codes of conduct. ‘Tell that to someone who has been date-raped or sexually assaulted,” Nieder pruem said. In his decision, Smith stated em phatically that colleges and universities must continue publishing annual statis tics on the number of campus crimes, including hate crimes, murder, rape, robbery and theft. “The Court believes that these dis closures are adequate to inform students, prospective students and parents about the safety of various college campus es,” Smith wrote. “Releasing the per sonally identifiable information of the students accused or convicted of vio lating university regulations, as well as information about victims, would not further advance the public’s interest.” Statistics aren’t enough to paint an accurate picture of campus crime, said Mark Goodman, executive direc tor of the Student Press Law Center in Virginia. “The judge’s suggestion that sta tistics are all students need to be in formed is a joke,” he said. “For starters, statistics most schools provide are in accurate, and secondly, they’re-at least a year old. “And they don’t help a young woman who’s walking alone across cam pus to know what areas she needs to stay away from,” he added. “That’s be cause statistics alone don’t provide any of the detailed information that would allow her or anyone else to take pre cautionary measures.” Only 3 things are permanent: Death, Taxas and Electrolysis ___ f M«p!8 Graduate of the exclusive Jane Riddle Institute of ' JUJ ^*c**,n ' Electrology in Modesto, California _U 2817 Devine St.»Ste. 15 • Columbia, SC 29205 »(803) 779-8790 CAROLINA ALIVE presents the 27th Anniversary Spring Show 2000 Come and enjoy the sights and sounds of USC’s talented pop singing group! Roger Center Saturday, April 1st @7:30 Students, Faculty & Staff: $5 General Admission: $10 Anyone interested in becoming a part of USC’s finest group of singers and dancers should come to open auditions on Tuesday, April 11, 7:30 pm, Music Building 210. 1 Hour Credit MWF 12:20 - 1:10 } For more information, contact Dr. Richard Conant - 777^125 Gay student says co-ed dorms are discriminatory College Press Exchange Medford, Mass. - A senior at Tufts University is pushing housing officials to allow co-ed rooms on cam pus. Carl Sciortino Jr., who is openly gay, says the uni versity’s same-sex housing policies are discriminatory against both homosexual and heterosexual students. By offering same-sex rooms only, Sciortino maintains that the university is creating sometimes-awkward situations for gays and lesbians, who “have sometimes developed crushes on their roommates.” He also insists it’s not fair to have housing policies that allow gays and lesbians to live together, but not het erosexual couples who are romantically involved. Tufts administrators considered experimenting with 10 co-ed dormitory rooms next fall, but quashed the idea earlier this month. A university spokeswoman said se niors, juniors and some sophomores can live off campus if they don’t like housing rules and that the university is happy to work with first-year students who are un comfortable with their roommates. University officials are also fast to point out that many international students would object to co-ed liv ing for cultural and religious reasons. Sciortino sus pects Tufts officials aren’t owning up to other motiva tors. “They’re afraid of losing alumni donations,” he sauL Only a small number of institutions, including tioch, Bennington and Marlboro colleges, have co-ed dorm rooms. Man who raped, murdered student executed last week College Press Exchange Oklahoma City — A man who ad mitted robbing and murderinga 21-year old Oklahoma State University stu dent from Wisconsin was executed early last Thursday. Kelly limont Rogers, 31, was giv en a lethal mix of drugs at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary for the Dec. 19,1990 murder of Karen Marie Lauffenburg er, formerly of Whitefish Bay, Wis., a suburb of Milwaukee. She and her par ents had moved to Oklahoma to that site could study interior design at OSU. A scholarship is now offered there in her name. Rogers’ court-appointed attorney said no emergency appeals were planned to spare Rogers’ life. Rogers' final ap peal was denied in January, and he was denied clemency earlier this month. Dur ing a meeting with the Oklahoma Par don and Parole Board, Rogers said he was truly sorry for killing Lauffenburg er and that he would gladly trade his life for hers if he could Rogers’ remorse wasn’t enough to mitigate the egregious circumstances surrounding Lauffenburger’s death, said Frank Muret, the prosecutor who han died Rogers’ 1991 trial. “The young woman was tortured to death,” Muret said. Court records relay the following: Only five weeks out of prison, Rogers ordered a pizza and told his girlfriend, Audra Todd, that he intended to rob the person who delivered it. Lauffenburg er, an OSU freshman who made extra money by delivering food, made the de liver to Todd’s apartment. Afterward, Rogers followed Lauffenburger out of the apartment. He held a knife to her throat and took $40 in pizza money she had col lected. He forced Lauffenbuiger to dri ve to her apartment, where she was to retrieve her ATM card. She did, and Rogers forced her to withdraw $175 from her account at a nearby ATM ma chine. He then forced her to return to her apartment, where he stabbed and raped her as she was either dead or dy ing. Todd testified against Rogers, stat ing that when he returned to her home he showed her S275 and then spent the rest of the evening doing crack co caine and drinking wine. He was later convicted of first-de gree murder, rape, robbery and larceny. A kussw*™^ QUESTION OF THE WEEK The Russian Presidential Election took place on Sunday, March 26th. Who was the only presidential candidate who had never before run for office, never won a single vote? juapisajj 8uii3b suisasq uijnj 5551 *j£ jaquis^sQ uo puB Maisiuiw auiijj unq pauiBU uisipA ‘6661 isn8ny u| sapuaSE jossaaans s.BQX aqj jo auo 'gsj aqi jo PBaq uunj pauiBii uijpA 8661 *lnf “! P™ 9661 “! “«SJPA JoJ V<>m oj 3uibd 3H ‘686! u! II®A\ oi|Jaa J° r ||bj aqi jiiun Xubumsq isBq ui luaiuiJBdap anua3i|p)ui aqj papsaq unnj UMOiauioq siq ui aOM psuiof I pUB X)ISJ3AIDf) 3)B)S pEJ3UIUaq JO |OOq3S MB| aqj UIOJJ paisnpBJ? 3H Ulinj JIlUipBjA SBM )| :MHA\S,SJV I Undergraduate Position Available Student wanted for part-time position in on-campus office. Must have excellent communication skills and strong experience in Microsoft Office ‘97 (Word, Access, Excel, PowerPoint) and Adobe Pagemaker -6.5. Salary commensurate with experience. Contact A. Dawn Ward at (803) 777-0311 \y' for more information. I,,sc"' _J Student j oumalists detained by police Journalists detained for staying too late at office College Press Exchange Buffalo, N.Y. — Police at the Univer sity of Buffalo detained three student jour nalists whose deadlines have been clash ing with university orders that they vacate their newsroom in the student union by midnight. School officials want the union, which houses the “Spectrum” closed and emp tied by midnight—a stiff order for staffers scrambling to put out a newspaper three times a week. Three editors were leaving the union 15-20 minutes after the ordered closing time March 19 when campus police picked them up. “Three of us were detained in a hold ing cell,” Spectrum Editor in Chief Beena Ahmad said. “My two managing editors _ I were patted down. The police showed us a memorandum that said if any members of the Spectrum were left in the student union after hours, not to make an excep tion.” It wasn’t the newspaper’s first run-in with law enforcement since the unive^ ty’s curfew. Ahmad and others already face college chaiges of trespassing after failing to leave the building several weeks ago. School officials said the dispute has nothing to do with free speech or the char acter of the students involved. “It is about compliance with univer sity standards and the reasonable requests of university officials,” said Dennis R. Black, vice president of student affairs. Cabinet from page A1 rector of student services, Eaddy said. She said the market director and public relations director’s positions will be combined, and there would be one director of Greek life where there had been one position each devoted to fraternities and sororities. Eaddy said she was also dropping the assistant chief-of-staff position. “The chief of staff could handle that position,” she said. Eaddy said she will have a goal or project awaiting each Cabinet offi cer when they take the position, in ad dition to any goals those officers might already have. Eaddy will annouce her cabinet appointments April 4 and send them to the student senate for approval April 5. read it. . live it. be it. UChft&BamccocIt ) Napster • from page A1 involved therein — worth it. “If they banned it, it would really be kind of harsh, because that’s where I get all my music from,” said John Sagona, a mechanical engineering sophomore. “I just downloaded maybe 20 songs off it in the past hour.” According to Mowery, the amount of Napster usage at USC isn’t clogging net works enough to force a ban anytime soon. NAACP • • from page A1 tryway to the building housing the state’s two top courts — the Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It includes an image of the battle flag and quotes Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Another plaque includes the seal of the Confederacy. Mfume also was expected to discuss voter education and census participation during the Southwestern Regional Con ference, which ended last weekend. The organization’s agenda for 2000 includes combating racism, saving affirmative ac tion and registering about 4 million vot ers nationally. Mfume, a former congressm^frr^ Maryland who headed the Congression al Black Caucus, took over leadership of the NAACP in 1996. ) .... '