Sadness at Yale, Jubiliation in Arkansas

Author: Andrea Gissing

Yale Loses Four Students in Car Crash



Four Yale University undergraduates died and five others were injured as a result of a car crash that occurred early Friday morning, Jan. 17. The accident occurred when the sport utility vehicle they were driving collided with a tractortrailer that had jackknifed on Interstate 95 in Fairfield, Conn.

Sophomores Kyle M. Burnat and Andrew Dwyer, and junior Sean Fenton died of massive head injuries the night of the accident. Sophomore Nicholas Grass died the following day in the hospital. Freshmen Cameron Fine and Christopher Gary were discharged from the hospital Sunday, Jan. 19, sophomore Zachary was transferred to the infirmary Jan. 20. Freshman Brett Smith and Senior Eric Wenzel were still in critical condition as of January 23. The occupants of the other three vehicles were not seriously injured. The accident, which involved a total of four vehicles, took place around 5 a.m. The students were returning to Yale after a trip to New York City sponsored by a campus fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon.

University officials, after sending out a campus-wide e-mail notifying all students of the accident, canceled all home athletic events and held a service for the dead and the injured. The accident occurred a week after the beginning of the spring semester.

Source: The New York Times and U-Wire.com

U. of Md. Students Find New Use for Cell Phones


Twelve University of Maryland students are being investigated for allegedly using their cellular phones to share answers during the fall exams. According to campus officials, the students are accused of exchanging text messages containing answers for the exam questions.

Students apparently obtained the answers from friends reading off of answer keys posted outside the professors' offices, or else they downloaded the answers off of answer keys posted online.

This is the first time that the university has been faced with the use of cell phones as a tool for cheating. In response to the accusations, university administrators sent a memo to faculty members advising them to monitor the use of all electronic devices during exams, as well as refraining from posting answer keys until the exam has been completed. The use of cell phones to cheat is the latest step in the conflict between technology and academic honesty, following the use of essays plagiarized from the internet and information stored in high-end calculators.

Rutgers University Professor Donald L. McCabe, who has studied academic dishonesty, said there have been other incidents of students across the country using a cell phone to cheat. "Ten years ago, you'd hear about students using hand signals or tapping with pencils on their desk," McCabe said. "Things like this are displacing that. You don't have more cheaters, just more ways to cheat."



Source: The Washington Post



U. of Arkansas Students Make World-Record Find



Three University of Arkansas students, freshman Sarah Kee, junior Jonathan Gillip and senior Kevin Morgan, found what is believed to be a world-record fossil of an Actinoceratoid nautiloid, an ancient cephalopod related to modern-day squids, octopuses and nautiluses, in a ditch near Interstate 540 in Fayetteville, Ark. The fossil is now in the university museum, where the students and their geology professor, Walter Manger, will perform research before reconstructing the specimen for display.

"This really is a world-class find," said Manger. "These things are really rare, and they really add a lot to our research. Finding this couldn't have been a better deal for us."

The 330 million-year-old fossil, which is nine feet long, is almost a foot longer than the previous world-record specimen, unearthed by UA researchers in 1963.

Finding this second specimen gives researchers hope that more can be found in the Fayetteville area.

The students look forward to comparing the two specimens, one which is believed to be male and the other female, which could provide much information about the lives of the Actinoceratoid nautiloid and the conditions in which they lived during the Paleozoic Era. The students also plan to fit research on the fossil into an undergraduate project for university credit, as well as presenting their findings at several conferences.



Source: U-Wire.com