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Open up the doors, GSS
Next Tuesday at a session of the executive committee of the General Student Senate, Sen. Dan O’Brien plans to present his ideas for reform within GSS.
O’Brien, a longtime member of the organization, says his primary goals include lower wages for executives and increased accountability to the student body. Currently, some members of the executive committee make comparatively large salaries while student senators work for free. O’Brien would like to see a more equal distribution of funds, coupled with more required tasks for members of GSS to complete. These are certainly worthy opinions – but will they be heard?
Tuesday’s meeting, as of press time, is scheduled as closed – meaning students and media will not be allowed to attend. Traditionally, one of the biggest problems with the Student Senate, vis–vis the student body, has been general accessibility and visibility. While The Maine Campus certainly does not advocate the executive board opening all of its sessions to the public, on a matter of such obvious importance, we feel GSS would do its constituents a great service by throwing open its doors – if only for one afternoon.
TurnItIn.com lacks code
In recent weeks, a certain level of controversy at the University of Maine has revolved around the computer program TurnItIn, which can be used by professors to monitor the originality of students’ work. While The Maine Campus stands by the stated aim of the software – to promote an honest and open academic environment – we feel UMaine could do better by its students by both opening avenues of discussion on the program and by issuing a statement with formal guidelines for use. As it stands now, the UM community is clearly confused about submission, copyright and students’ rights as they pertain to the software. It is up to the administration to clear the confusion up.
