Giving credit where credit is due

The free flow of information can be a double-edged sword at times. While technologies have granted unprecedented access to new ideas and information, the world, especially the educational community, faces the growing danger of plagiarism and academic dishonesty from students with the power of the World Wide Web at their disposal.One of the most fundamental beliefs at UR and other academic institutions is that credit should be given when using outside ideas, and that no one should pass off anyone else’s ideas as their own. In the March 25 issue of the Campus Times, an editorial observer titled “C-SPAN has a place, too” regrettably borrowed much of its tone, language and structure from one that appeared the Baltimore Sun. We at the CT are greatly saddened by this incident and view it as an important learning experience in the continual development and redevelopment of the student newspaper. We not only apologize to the editorial staff at the Baltimore Sun but also offer our deepest apologies to both UR and the Rochester community for our failure to discover that this piece did not confirm to the high standards of quality content that our readers have come to expect over the last 131 years. Certainly the sources referenced in the article needed better attribution from the author of the piece, and, as such, our editors will strive to ensure such a questionable incident does not happen again.With this in mind, we intend to use this as a valuable opportunity – one that will encourage our editors to ask for any possible source material used in an editorial and to actively investigate possible incidents of plagiarism in all sections. Journalistic integrity is an essential principle in a responsible society. It is a measure of a newspaper’s quality in the extent to which it strives to maintain its credibility to the readers to whom it is responsible. The CT pledges to uphold crucial notions of responsible journalism in the future in order to live up to the responsibility we as a student-run university publication have to the community we service. Indeed, an unfortunate incident such as the one that has occurred gives us the opportunity to renew our commitment to these principles and to demonstrate to the UR and Rochester community that the CT plays a vital, useful role in providing an honest and open forum of ideas and a reliable source of news.If you would like to respond or comment on any of the issues surrounding this article, please feel free to contact me at js003k@mail.rochester.edu or call the CT office at x5-5942 during regular business hours so that we can learn more about your views on this matter. Schnee can be reached at cschnee@campustimes.org.