Academic integrity, student transportation to the NCAA Tournament and medical amnesty were discussed by committee leaders at the Student Association’s cabinet meeting held Friday.

The meeting began with a short presentation by Gary Pavela, director of Syracuse University’s Academic Integrity Office. Cabinet meetings are held every Friday in the SA office located in the Schine Student Center at 4 p.m.

During his presentation, Pavela advocated student leaders having greater authority in the ruling of academic integrity violations. Two years ago, a clause in SU policy that prohibited the involvement of students entirely in hearings was unanimously removed, he said.

This is something that produces lower rates of cheating, and research from Duke University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology supports this, Pavela said.

‘There’s a sense among the student peer groups that it’s not appropriate,’ Pavela said. ‘If anything, more students would be held accountable with stronger penalties, the more students we have on the board. People don’t believe that. But that’s the way it works.’

He discussed how the administrator versus student approach is ineffective in combating this issue. Academic integrity should not be an adversarial affair, Pavela said. It affects all members of the SU community, who have a mutual interest in curtailing the problem.

‘Academic integrity is not a faculty problem. It’s not an administrator’s problem. It’s all of our problem,’ he said.

Other provisions, such as an annual report on academic integrity by SA to administrators could also help, Pavela said.

But most importantly, students should be more informed on policy to preclude violations before they occur.

‘We have very little interest in dragging somebody through a hearing. We have very little interest in punishing them,’ Pavela said. ‘That’s not the business we’re in. We’re in the prevention business.’

Later in the meeting, the chairs of various committees reported on initiatives they are working on. Student transportation to the Orange’s NCAA Tournament games, medical amnesty and provisions like a voter registration drive were briefly discussed.

PJ Alampi, chair of the Student Life Committee, said the bus to Boston for SU’s game against Wisconsin was unfortunately not very successful, though several students took advantage of the service.

Alampi did not rule out the possibility of transportation to future games. He attributed this low turnout to the $205 price tag of the game tickets, which is nearly the same cost as student season tickets for basketball and football combined, he said.

SA may try to coordinate with SU Athletics and alumni groups to lower the cost of tickets in the future, he said.

‘It will lead to more conversation about how away games are overly expensive,’ he said. ‘There are a lot of factors, but I think that it’s something to discuss, and I think as student leaders this is our opportunity to push it.’

Alampi also discussed how SA is planning on slightly reworking elements of the new medical amnesty policy with SU administrators. For example, the name of the policy will be changed because the terminology is misleading, he said. The term suggests there are no consequences for reporting alcohol-related emergencies, where they do exist to a lesser extent. There will also be a bigger emphasis on relaying information to students.

Said Alampi: ‘SA’s going to take a more active role in education with alcohol consumption on campus.’

dmsegelb@syr.edu 

Published on March 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum