The Dartmouth Observer |
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Commentary on politics, history, culture, and literature by two Dartmouth graduates and their buddies
WHO WE ARE Chien Wen Kung graduated from Dartmouth College in 2004 and majored in History and English. He is currently a civil servant in Singapore. Someday, he hopes to pursue a PhD in History. John Stevenson graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005 with a BA in Government and War and Peace Studies. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in teaching and research. Kwame A. Holmes did not graduate from Dartmouth. However, after graduating from Florida A+M University in 2003, he began a doctorate in history at the University of Illinois--Urbana Champaign. Having moved to Chicago to write a dissertation on Black-Gay-Urban life in Washington D.C., he attached himself to the leg of John Stevenson and is thrilled to sporadically blog on the Dartmouth Observer. Feel free to email him comments, criticisms, spelling/grammar suggestions. BLOGS/WEBSITES WE READ The American Scene Arts & Letters Daily Agenda Gap Stephen Bainbridge Jack Balkin Becker and Posner Belgravia Dispatch Black Prof The Corner Demosthenes Daniel Drezner Five Rupees Free Dartmouth Galley Slaves Instapundit Mickey Kaus The Little Green Blog Left2Right Joe Malchow Josh Marshall OxBlog Bradford Plumer Political Theory Daily Info Andrew Samwick Right Reason Andrew Seal Andrew Sullivan Supreme Court Blog Tapped Tech Central Station UChicago Law Faculty Blog Volokh Conspiracy Washington Monthly Winds of Change Matthew Yglesias ARCHIVES BOOKS WE'RE READING CW's Books John's Books STUFF Site Feed    |
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Unethical people are everywhere How ethical is it for Chien Wen Kung to post the opening paragraph on essay written by fellow Dartmouth student? (I am assuming he didn't have permission, judging by Chien Wen's title). He does keep the person anonymous. Under the circumstances he says he obtained it, I would say this borders on unethical posting. It really undermines trust to have a friend you ask to critique a paper turn it over to someone who posts it on the internet. And this isn't by any poster on The Dartmouth Observer, but by the site co-founder and administrator, no less. I don't think Chien Wen should have put it up for students who could know the writer to see it and possibly recognize it. It was a private communication not relating to anything that really was or should have been public, and from a student on Dartmouth's campus. (Furthermore, as someone in an academic community who often sees drafts that say don't cite or quote without permission, I take this seriously). It's tough to work out where to draw the line, but I think Chien Wen has made a step over it in this case. I question the news value of this, and doing this for the sole (and here unjustified) purpose of ridicule and saying 'Stupid people are everywhere!!!' Incidently, the only sentence that didn't make sense was this one: "Defining legitimacy as truth, accepted (an integer ranging from zero to the entire population of the world), this essay will... " I assume Chien Wen is trying to show that traditional levels of scholarship have declined at Dartmouth with recent academic fads. Too bad it appears that traditional ethical privacy have as well. |