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Show 'r- c &, .m4m &.- - AifttrmfWs1- ! T ( PACE 4 Monday, December V 3, 2012 UNIVERSITY a r p E jv x VittjwT EDITOR r i : E 'v, r v i vn r ' " 4 &B Elizabeth Burns, ) S! U-(; v tc Whitney Baum Associate News Editor JR Briscoe 586-775- multiple 0 CH0IC 586-548- 8 8 Opinion Editor Elizabeth Burns Sports Editors Anthony Anderson, Alex Homer Accent Editor Tommy Gugino Outside Editor Keith Howells Copy Editors John Figueiredo, Nataly Burdick Art Editor Shaneal Fryer Layout Specialists Holly Coombs, Shari Black External Relations Ginny Romney 9 Editorial Cartoonist Zakery Mitchell 9 Photographer Elise Andrus Reporters Kaitlyn Tracy, Emily Little, Shannon Doty C- cf 13 1 -3 fdh ing sitalfcns tan b tc;:::rc;l V 5UUNEWS.COM Editor-in-Chi- ! f-- 586-548- Fiscal Dr bv y o u (IT Kgdbibs arc going (o 586-548- 8 (o casl likely tarn cal. 586-548- 8 billing together. E D 586-548- 8 iuiih a fight. Falling down t 586-548- 8 586-775- 9 , 586-775- 9 . , , (A , E j 586-775- 9 586-775- 9 586-775- i 586-775- A 586-775- 9 (2hL ZTov Advertising Jannett Johnson Ad Designer Sydney Gordon Operations Manager John S Gholdston 865-822- 6 586-775- 8 586-775- 1 y t - - The University Journal is published every Monday and Thursday of the academic year by and for the student body of Southern Utah University. It is advised by professional faculty and staff m the universitys Communication Department The views and opinions expressed in the Journal are those of individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the institution, faculty, staff or student body in general. The Unneisitv Journal is designated a public forum and is free from external censorship or advance approval of content The Journal is free to develop editorial policies and news coverage with the understanding that students and student organizations speak only for themselves Admimstratois, faculty, staff or other agents shall not consider the student medias content when making decisions regarding the medias funding Grievances Any individual with a grievance against the Journal should direct such problem first to the editor If unresolved, that grievance should then be directed to the operations manager. Any grievance not resolved at that level is referred to the Media Advisory Committee The Journal is distributed free of charge to individuals for the first copy. Additional copies may be purchased for 25 cents each University Journal SUU Sharwan Smith Center, Room 176C Mail address University Journal, 351 W University Blvd , Cedar City, Utah 84720 FAX (435) address journalsuu edu. PRINTED ON RECYCLED 2012 PAPER PLEASE RECYCLE SUU University Journal THIS days ago, a involved in the dispute, broke concerning Nina Hansen, acting as story within an individual, is pressing plagiarism SUUsESLdepartment, charges of theft. about SUU Police initially specifically allegations by former served Frost with a SUU instructor warning not to come on Belinda Frost. campus until the matter Several news sources was settled, although covered the story, that trespassing warning some more factually was quickly reduced than others. We fear to only include ESL some sources saw the classrooms and offices. juiciness of the story This ban is meant to and began to write keep Frost and Hansen premature information from interacting. in order to have the As of Saturday, the Story published more Tribune has neglected other to update its article than quickly the sources. concerning I The news ban. reduced leading outlet in this story was Hansen has accused of the Salt Lake Tribune, Frost stealing which claimed that the papers from a SUU cited a former community room that English as a Second the ESL instructors instructor shared, although the Language for theft after a fellow Tribune's original instructor accused her article reported that of stealing plagiarized Frost is being attacked student papers. The by the university, rather on than by Hansen. online story appeared Kov. 25, after Frost went American journalists strive to follow a code to them with the story. ; The Tribune, and other of ethics. One aspect pews sources in the of this code is that ftate, was caught in a journalists should be situation where they fair in reporting stories pnly covered one side to the public, allowing pf a story, not taking each person involved pther points of view the chance to present into account. This put their side of the story. this SUU in a bad light, Sometimes is difficult of the to because do, largely limited number of facts. especially when those The way a breaking who are involved either hew story like this was refuse to comment or handled was unfair to are particularly hard to the SUU community. contact. have It is also challenging Many people how received a biased to write a story while Version of the story the events are in the which does not take all midst of unfolding, the facts into account. since something which The University Journal may be true one day focused on getting might might change factual information over overnight. the course of a couple If the public is to days before running trust the media, the a story in Thursdays media must earn their on paper which we feel was trust. Reporting or based events and off emotion ethically pot frying to win the race, thoroughly is the first So to speak. step in this direction. into : Digging deeper the story, the Journal Alex Homer is a Sports discovered that SUU Editor at the University is not pressing charges Journal. Elizabeth Burns against Frost; instead, is the Opinion Editor at the other ESL teacher the University Journal. 1 1 A L A A 4 ' jer ms s. jot No compromises and delays. You know, the usual. ZAK MITCHELL TP 1 Tl 11 i(P2, VV COPY Media must not be biased A few I b . 11 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL 1 W liliii SUU is, like all universities, a company. Its customers are students, here to obtain an education. If a degree could be bought at Walmart, universities would likely become extinct. However, obtaining an education is not like purchasing zit cream. It is a process. Every SUU student selects an academic program and purchases the process by which they become educated. It has become painfully apparent that SUUs product is not perfect. SUUs ESL program will soon be under investigation by an accredited ESL institution and one of the programs instructors is currently on probation. In its current form, the program does not meet the Saudi Arabian Culture Missions (SACM) specifications for the education of their students. The SACM has chosen to stop investing in SUUs ESL program; the reasons they give for this decision, according to the Salt Lake Tribune, are that in their opinion, our ESL program is oversaturated with Saudi students and Saudi students have complained about our program. There are 182 students in SUUs ESL program. Of those, 158 are from Saudi Arabia, 87 percent of the ESL programs student population. When these students come to Cedar City, they expect an international experience, they expect to mingle with stadents from all across the world. While we do have students from all across tHe world, the SACM is right to hope for a greater percentage of students from other countries. it is easy to accuse SUUs ESL program of being broken, but ve need to remember that it is still a fledgling program. Perhaps at the moment the program is too internationally d and the students are complaining. Whats more, there have been allegations of plagiarism within the program. This program, in its current form, started in 2011, and is currently working toward becoming accredited. It has been operating under an interim director for several months. A new director will start Jan. 7. It is obvious that we need to improve SUUs ESL program. Many Utah news outlets are pointing out its deficiencies, causing embarrassment for not only the program, but SUU. The University Journal Editorial Board would like to remind journalists everywhere of the ethics of our trade: the media is committed to presenting the news without bias, giving equal voice to all sides of every public issue. We trust SUU. As students attending this university, we know it to be a worthwhile institution which will recover from this setback. Next year, we expect fewer students to be attending SUU than in previous years. The Saints has changed the age at which its members Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da- y are encouraged to serve proselytizing missions, and many of our students, current and potential, have chosen to put off going to college because of this change. The SACMs recent decision will result in evenTewer students attending SUU. This is a good time for SUU to listen to its customers and to work out the kinks in how it provides its services. If we are to become a successful university, everyone needs to help with this effort. Students must provide honest feedback. Talk about problems you see or experience and suggest solutions to people who can implement them. If you see a way in which the university could improve, do not keep it to yourself. SUUs faculty and administration nave demonstrated a willingness tcy listen to these ideas and implement them. The best, most honest feedback winch can be had is from customers. As Dr. Seuss taught us, a persons a person, and a customers a customer, no matter how small. It shouldnt take statewide embarrassment to trigger change. The Journal Editorial Boards experience is that every voice at SUU is heard and considered. We are a small university filled with the best kind of people trying their hardest to make us great, regardless of our size. There is no international conspiracy to pad our numbers. There is only a drive to make world. a difference in an We must not only talk, but also listen more. We thank whatever deity we worship for people like SUU President Michael T. Benson and Dean ODriscoll, vice president for university relations, who understand that we are all in this together. We sink or swim together. If the zit cream we buy does not work, they will fix it before it is sold again. We cannot we can only be ashamed of attempts to liide them and to be ashamed of shortcomings them. perpetuate Every program at SUU can improve. It is sad that we needed to be called out in public to remember this. Universities can, and should, be constantly improving. one-side- ever-polarizi- ng The opinions expressed above are the collective perspective of the University Journal Editorial Board. The editorial board meets Mondays and Thursdays at 5:30 pan. in room 176C of the Sharwan Smith Center. Readers are welcome to comment online at suunews.com. s s from our readers. Letters are no more than 200 words. The University Journal welcomes Letters to the Editor and All submissions must include the authors name. are no moie than 500 words. The Journal does not publish anonymous opinions. Please include a phone number, which wont be published. Submissions are subject to editing for style and grammar. Submissions maybe sent to eburnssuunews.com or taken to the Journal office, Sharwan Smith Center room 176C. Op-ed- Op-ed- |