COLLEGE SHORTS

Author: Nicha Rakpanichmanee

Swarthmore Student Confesses to Child Pornography

With a search warrant affidavit, the Delaware County Criminal Investigation Division (CID) investigated network files of a Swarthmore College student who confessed to owning and sending photos of child pornography and having phone sex with a detective who posed as a fifteen-year-old boy.

As of last Thursday, the student's name remains confidential because no charges have been filed against him. Privacy concerns spread amongst Swarthmore students as rumors traveled across campus that the CID copied the entire network directory. However, Director of Information Technology Services Judy Downing said that, although the search warrant allowed access to all servers, the CID downloaded only files pertaining to the student under investigation.

The CID's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force cooperated with the New Hampshire and Swarthmore police in the investigation, which began when parents of a minor in New Hampshire reported receiving child pornographic images over the Internet.

Downing stressed that Swarthmore would not begin to monitor network computer activities although the College policy on electronic use will be reviewed. In the absence of criminal charges, Dean of the College Bob Gross could not comment on whether the student will face internal disciplinary action.

This is the second report of Internet crime at Swarthmore in many College officials' memory. The first occurred in fall 1999, when a student was expelled at the end of that semester for stealing a colleague's credit card number and using it online.

Source: The Swarthmore Phoenix

NYU Dental School Replaces Textbooks with DVD

Beginning this fall, all students and faculty members of New York University College of Dentistry will for the first time use Vital Book, the DVD that replaces all four years worth of curriculum materials.

All students will now be required to pay $1,200 per year for the DVD in addition to buying personal laptops to view the software. They will no longer refer to the 161 textbooks, the clinic manual, course packets and syllabi or other reference materials. Students will be able to update the DVD at no cost through online downloads and twice-a-year exchanges. In addition to discount packages for Dell, IBM and Apple laptops, NYU has organized a week-long technology orientation for incoming students and free training with the DVD company, Vital Source Technology, for all professors.

Several concerns have emerged — academic, financial and technological. Some students say their professors are not all proficient in the pedagogical technology. Others cite missing resources in the DVD, such as lab procedures and video clips. Several students also say they do not want to read textbooks on a computer screen. While the dental school has provided printing resources for million-plus pages, some students have faced printing problems, to which Vital Source responded quickly. Even though several students are concerned that they do not have the option to buy or resell used books, others note that additional expenses are small relative to the total cost of approximately $60,000 for dental school tuition and housing.

Vital Book is a result of collaborative effort of NYU, Boston University, State University of New York at Buffalo, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the University of Colorado at Denver and the University of Texas at San Antonio. All six schools are using their personalized versions of the DVD.

Source: Washington Square News

Duke Students Charged with $100K Theft

Two Duke University undergraduates have confessed to stealing more than $100,000 in equipment from various buildings on the University's campus. They will be formally charged tomorrow. A third student from the University of Maryland at College Park has also been implicated in the scheme.

Senior Charles Jeremy Kelley and junior Susan Webber Stone face interim suspension. According to a Duke University police spokesman, they will be charged with two counts of felony breaking and entering and two counts of felony larceny. The perpetrators were identified as the same people caught on video surveillance stealing $40,000 worth of equipment. Kelley and Stone were also identified on a later surveillance tape stealing $61,000 in equipment from the University's Schaefer Theater.

After The Duke Chronicle printed pictures of the three suspects, the campus police department received several phone calls with information on the thefts. Kelley and Stone later confessed and identified the third suspect as 22-year-old John Jay Alexander, who will be charged with one count of each violation. Kacie Wallace, associate dean for judicial affairs at Duke, said that the two students could ultimately face expulsion. The Undergraduate Judicial Board will decide the outcome of the case.

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education