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Show Wednesday, April 24, 2013 DIAEILY UTAH CHRONICLE The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice Since 1890 www.dailyutahchronicle.com Vol. 122 No.148 ©2013 ALSO INSIDE •• Chronicle sports editors compile the exciting, controversial sports stories of 2012-2013 » 6 The Chronicle senior staff shares fond memories, gratitude for both critics, friends and offers advice in farewell columns » 4 YEAR IN REVIEW SUU prof. Frost files plagiarism allegations Tuition at the U cheapest in Pac-12 Emily Andrews DJ Summers STAFF WRITER Originally published Jan. 7, 2013 The U's induction to the prestigious Pac-12 athletic conference set the school against many of the nation's long-established flagships of academic excellence. Despite apprehension that merely rubbing elbows with Stanford will result in Stanford-level debt, the U remains at the lowest end of the Pac-12's average tuition rates. Much has been made of the rising costs of education and the daunting debt college students face in the United States. The U — once a beacon of affordability in a state whose economy ranks highly by most analysts — has expanded tuition rates at a record pace in light of stagnate state funding. In the past io years, U tuition and fees have doubled. Compared to other Pac-i2 schools, however, the U's rates remain low. According to the figures listed in the Peterson's college guide, the average full-time, or 13-credit, tuition per year without fees for schools in the Pac-i2 conference is $14,000. At $5,800, the U is actually the least expensive school in the conference. "Our in-state [resident] tuition rates are indeed the least expensive in the Pac-i2," said U President David Pershing. "While we have had to raise tuition during the Great Recession due to state budget cuts, our increases over the past five years have also been among the lowest in the Pac-i2." Among the most expensive schools are Stanford and USC — topping the list at $40,500 and $42,200 a year, respectively. Although private schools have higher expenses than public schools, the U has had better success keeping costs lower than the Pac-12 public counterparts as well — even when taking state budgets into consideration. "We would have to increase our tuition and fees by almost 5o percent — more than $3,000 per student — just to reach the average of the public schools in the Pac-i2," Pershing said. The president insists the adherence to higher admissions standards and more stringent academics comparable to those of the well-reputed Pac-i2 doesn't necessarily come with a mandatory bump in tuition expectations. Although the U's tuition rates are significantly lower than California schools, it's naive to think they will stay the absolute lowest in the conference, said Jeffrey West, associate vice president of financial and business services. "I can say that I've heard the president say he wants the U to be 'affordable,'" West said. "Content [will] be at the 'lower' end of the Pac-12 tuition range. That's not to say he is targeting us to be the 'lowest.' Just in the lower tier. The tuition rates are likely to increase somewhat but not at the rate seen within the past io NEWS EDITOR, FALL 2012 CHAD ZAVALA/The Daily Utah Chronicle A man driving a Honda Civic on Central Campus Drive lost his way Feb. 5 and continued onto HPER Highway. His drive ended when he accidentally drove down a flight of stairs, which left his car stuck until police responded to the scene. Lost driver's detour blocks campus stairs Topher Webb ASST. NEWS EDITOR Originally published Feb. 6, 2013 An elderly man drove a blue Honda Civic down the stairs on the HPER walkway between LNCO and Milton Bennion Hall at about 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday. A tow truck pulled the Civic off the stairs at 2:20 p.m. Visible harm to the car included damage to the bumper, and the impact of the vehicle removed two small chunks of concrete from the top stair. The man walked away from the accident without injury. t.webb@ chronicle.utah.edu See PLAGIARISM page 3 Broken canoe scrapes across finish line Marjorie Clark NEWS EDITOR Originally published April 8, 2013 The concrete-canoe race did not go according to plan. Originally cast to be 22 feet long and 36 inches wide, the canoe broke in half the night before the races. But the team was determined to race anyway. "She floats, and we're here to have fun, so I think we'll be able to compete in the races," said Michael Ekenstam, team cocaptain and a senior in civil engineering. It did float — right up until the very end. Just as they crossed the finish of the last event — a coed endurance race powered by two men and two women — the team's canoe sank as did boats from three other schools. Ekenstam and Aaron Comrie, also a senior in civil engineering, worked with their team of 12 students during the last eight months to design and build the concrete canoe, originally named "Arrowlite." The team had struggles all year starting with a small crack in the end of the boat. They added a new mix of concrete, which fixed it temporarily but made it heavier. Eventually, the heaviness of the two ends caused the canoe to break in the middle. "It had several large cracks by the time we got here," said Amanda Bordelon, assistant professor in civil engineering and the team's faculty advisor. "It was on display yesterday. We took it off the stand and walked it to our trailer and put it in the trailer, and it just opened." At that point, the choices were to either See CANOE page 3 •C MARJORIE CLARK/The Daily Utah Chronicle Ti Owens, Jem Locquiao, Derek Hatfield and Taryn Young paddle their concrete canoe despite it starting to sink at Hyrum Dam on April 6. The U encourages women in hard sciences Carolyn Webber STAFF WRITER Utah Women in Chemistry See TUITION page 3 Officer Akop Fermanian, the responding officer, said the man was trying to drive home from a doctor's appointment on Central Campus Drive when he got lost and ended up on the sidewalk while looking for a way out. "The road just kept getting narrower and narrower and he ended up here," Fermanian said. Originally published Nov. 27, 2012 A spokesman for Southern Utah University said Tuesday an investigation is being conducted into allegations of systemic plagiarism in the university's English as a Second Language program. Belinda Frost, a former ESL instructor at the university, brought forward the allegations of plagiarism in student papers to Mark Atkinson, dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Frost said she had seen instances of plagiarism where students copied and pasted English Wikipedia entries into their papers, or where students had used Google Translate to translate words or sentences. The odd diction and sentence structure tipped Frost off. "There's been a problem with plagiarism ... I felt like that was absolutely immoral," Frost said Monday. Frost found a file of student papers from last year that received passing grades but were apparently plagiarized on a shared shelf in her office. Because Frost felt they could be used as evidence of the plagiarism problem, Originally published March 19, 2013 Although the U places an emphasis on the sciences, in many science courses there are only a few women in a sea of men. To address this issue, the U has more than five groups targeted at boosting the participation of women in the hard sciences, such as chemistry, physics and astronomy, biology and mathematics. The ACCESS Program, which began in 1991, has been around the longest and has continuously shown success through increased graduation rates, said Rosemary Gray, director of the program. Emily Frary, a junior in chemistry, was a part of the ACCESS Program her freshman year. As part of the program, she came to the U for a seven-week summer program with 4o other women before starting fall classes, and she learned about the various science options available at the U. The program also gives freshmen the opportunity to conduct research in a lab. Like all ACCESS students, Frary graduated from the program after her first year, but the close friendships and relationships she gained with professors continue. She is now the president of a club that many ACCESS students join called The Organization for Women in Science, which ASUU and the College of Science fund. The organization takes trips to local places like the Tracy Aviary, the Natural History Museum of Utah and The Leonardo to learn from other scientists. The Curie Club, a group for women in the Department of Chemistry, brings in female scientists to speak about women and science from an educational and social standpoint, said Shelley Minteer, professor in the Department of Chemistry. See SCIENCE page 3 |
