Morning Brew: March 7th, 2008

I hope my flight into YYZ today isn't severely late or canceled :S

News of the Ryerson student broke Wednesday in the two student newspapers at the university, and, since I am a student there myself, I have been thinking about it a lot.

I'm not in the same program, or even the same type of program, but I don't understand how a Facebook group where NO SOLUTIONS WERE ACTUALLY POSTED could possibly be a violation of academic integrity. Solutions could have been exchanged through private messaging, but that's not what's being discussed here.

I really hope that the school has something better on this kid than that he's the administrator of this group. So far, everyone is saying there was no solutions posted. In my opinion, in order to justify expelling and charging him, they would need to prove that he actually took other students' work and handed it in as his own. Otherwise I think the whole community is going to be outraged.

Wow another snow storm..
I like to cook up a big speghetti and meat sauce..have some red wine and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I feel your pain, Jerrod. I'm driving to Buffalo after work today. I hope I make it there in one piece!

Hope your respective trips go well Jerrold and Katie! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Cassandra, how else is the temperature on campus about this development? Are students on campus upset about this, or is it largely unknown by the general student community?

Based on that article and what I've read about the Ryseron incident, if there was definitively no solutions and no discussions/conspiracies of how to cheat or plans to cheat, then I don't understand how it's anything other then what the student claims.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is the result of people who don't entirely understand the web hearing about all the claims of "infringement" that's been going on for the past 5 years, and look at anything online that's unauthorized or unofficial (and run by under 30 people) as being unjust, illegal, or immoral. Afterall, if we're all using the internet to steal music and movies, then if we're hiding away in our 'youth utopia' of Facebook, it must be just as wrong.

Sameer Vasta, I'm a photography student at Ryerson, and there has been a lot of resentment for this from what I've been hearing.

Rob Ford quotes - priceless! I used to get angry at and offended by them, but now I just welcome them as entertainment. If I were in his ward, I might vote for him just to keep the supply of quotes going. :-))) Nah, maybe not...

chephy, the scary thing is, I am in his ward. The people here seem to like him, despite his gaffes in council.

Rob Ford's an asshole.

You know I was just wondering about Rob Ford. With all the gaffes, you would think people would stop voting for him. Then again, though, Washington DC voted Marion Barry back in power.

Isn't Ryerson suppose to be the more technologically advanced campus in Toronto? You would think that the administration would encourage the use of Facebook as a study group tool. Some of the schools I attended in the States utilized Blackboard and we had forums where we could discuss the questions posted in our class.

Damon Kemp wrote:

Isn't Ryerson suppose to be the more technologically advanced campus in Toronto? You would think that the administration would encourage the use of Facebook as a study group tool. Some of the schools I attended in the States utilized Blackboard and we had forums where we could discuss the questions posted in our class.

Maybe that's the problem. Ryerson *does* use Blackboard and they see having a discussion on FaceBook, rather than BB as skirting what is deemed acceptable?