Letters to the Editor

10/30/08 7:00pm

Critical statistics misreported

To the editor:As the chair of the Honor Council, I am concerned with the Thresher's reporting of the recent article "Faculty Senate to assist overwhelmed Honor Council" (Oct. 3). To correct the record, I must clarify several of the statistics stated in the article that are inaccurate because they were taken from sources outside of the council.

First, the article states that "at its busiest times the council can expect a case per day." Never in my two-year history on the council have we received a case per day. Yes, we can become rather busy after finals, but never have I encountered this volume of cases.

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Secondly, the article reported a "growing number of cases." This year, the number of cases has not been unusually high, for, as evidenced by the case abstracts posted on our Web site, we handled 39 cases in 2007-'08, compared to the 56 cases in 2004-'05.

Thirdly, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Professor Evan Siemann states that it took "eight weeks" for the council to contact a student regarding a pending case. A professor does not have access to the exact date when we contact a student, and, thus, this information cannot be entirely accurate. We e-mail the professor once a case is complete, and the entire case process can occasionally take a couple of weeks, depending on students' schedules. The council has handled 15 cases this semester (most of which were left over from last spring's finals or the summer); the average number of class days to contact students regarding these cases was approximately five class days.

I simply urge the Thresher to be more careful when stating statistics without appropriate sources.

Jackie Ammons

Honor Council Chair

Brown College junior

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