I came home from work in mid-August to find a Daily Trojan-like introductory guide waiting for me in me room. Its purpose: to describe several important and key programs to help facilitate the day when the members of the incoming freshman class were to move into their respective residence halls. On the whole, the newspaper was informative in outlining various activities and procedures for making moving in all that much easier.

That is, until I read the article concerning honesty.

I had never been so insulted in my academic career.

Addressing the policies around and concerning academic honesty is not the problem. I have read the SCampus and have discussed the pricinples of honesty with not only my Orientation Advisor, but with several faculty members in my chosen major. I believe every student should be aware of the policies concerning cheating and/or attempting to turn in late assignments. That is fundamental.

The article, however, in an attempt to make the content palatable with more students, treats the issues at hand in a childish vein. Take this example (paraphrased):

You are taking an exam when you happen to notice that a classmate is looking at your paper and writing your answers on his paper. You forget about it because you are not cheating. Is this wrong?

To which the answer is:

Yes! You need to notify the faculty if you believe anybody is cheating in your class, or you could be implicated as well. Recommendation: F in course and academic probation, possible suspension.

By addressing the question in this manner, it is associating, in my opinion, the student body with a reading and attention span of someone in the fifth or sixth grade. My intelligence was insulted by this piece because it assumes that we are college students who have completed a number of English and Composition courses in high school. We are not treated intellectually. We are viewed as kids.

The article then fails to cite exactly how punishments are administered. “F in course and academic probation, possible suspension”? When I first read that I almost jumped out of my seat, because the mood of the piece changes from something light and fluffy to something very grave and serious in nature, while failing to explain why! The whole process of academic review in Student Conduct should have been covered thoroughly in case we wanted to know just exactly why we were being expelled from the university. If its inclusion in the article was simply impossible, placing another article alongside the honesty article could eliminate much confusion.

At least they tried.

However, by trying to transform the dry legalese of the SCampus into a work that could capture student interest, it manages to insult us by treating us as something other than what we are - college students.