Letters to the Editor

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Re: Justice for AU – August 11, 2004 – v12 i31
http://www.ausu.org/voice/articles/articledisplay.php?ART=3076

In response to Ron Tebo’s article regarding Ralph Klein’s plagiarism — I too, feel as though Ralph Klein should be held accountable for his actions in blatantly plagiarizing his essay.

I am a B.A. Double Major, and after reviewing Mr. Klein’s essay and Mr. Tebo’s comments about it, I wholeheartedly agree that if any other regular student committed those errors, they would be penalized severely — perhaps even put on Academic Probation or worse. I just transferred to AU from U of A, and I know that the U of A’s guidelines are fairly strict about academic indebtedness. What if the entire student body committed the citing (or lack thereof) errors that Mr. Klein did? Would we all be excused too? I highly doubt it. And while yes, some of our funding does come from the provincial government, we shouldn’t be giving its members any “special treatment.” I mean, they don’t give us any special treatment when it comes to legislation.

I think that what Mr. Klein got away with was disgusting and absolutely lowered the academic credibility of Athabasca University for the rest of us.

Patricia Brisebois