By David Hertz

Vanderbilt UniversityAmerican university officials traveled to Iraq last week to recruit Iraqi students at college fairs in Baghdad and Sulaymaniyah.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office organized the trip as part of his plan to improve Iraqi higher education.

He is pushing an initiative in the Iraqi Congress which would send up to 10,000 students abroad to the US, UK, and Australia over the next five years.

Starting this year, Iraqi students admitted to college in the US will be granted student visas at the US Embassy in Baghdad, allowing them to freely flow in the pipelines of higher education.

“I know from experience how hard the American army has worked over here to try to improve the lives of Iraqis, but their days here are now drawing to a close,” Katherine Blue Carroll, a political scientist from Vanderbilt University, told the Chronicle of Higher Education. “Someone needs to step up to the plate next, and I think American universities should lead the way.”

Southern Illinois University

Plagiarism expert and English professor Gerald Nelms helped redefine Southern Illinois University’s plagiarism policy in 2007 after several administrators were found to have plagiarized earlier works.

Nelm’s new definition of plagiarism is now being examined as a possible case of -plagiarism.

The 139 word definition, part of a 17 page report clarifying Southern Illinois’ plagiarism policy, is almost exactly the same of a definition put forward by Indiana University in 2005. Other passages are slightly paraphrased with a few minor changes.

According to Arthur M. Adkins, the chairman of the committee who wrote the report, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that Nelm’s “most likely” wrote the suspect sections, but maintained that “It could be a coincidence.”

Nelms had a slightly paraphrased response to the allegations. “My suspicion is [the similarities] are coincidental.”

Pamela W. Freeman, an associate dean of students and director of the office of student ethics at Indiana University, has taken part in writing Indiana University’s plagiarism policy for the last 15 years.

Her response to listening to the two definitions read one after the other: “Wow”.

Other plagiarism scandals at Southern Illinois prompted the new report. The chancellor of the Carbondale campus resigned in 2006 after part of his plan for the university was found to be copied from a plan he helped write at another college.

In 2007, it was discovered that the president of the system had plagiarized much of his 1984 dissertation without citation.

The university’s Board of Trustees will review the report next month to decide whether it is plagiarized. Hopefully they cite their sources.

Minnesota schools

And now for some liberal arts news a little closer to home. The Star Tribune reported on the phenomena of disappearing trays from area college dining halls. Seems that Macalester isn’t the only school to be aiming for a more eco-friendly cafeteria. Augsburg College and Winona State have adopted a one day a week tray free policy, like Macalester, the Star Tribune reported.

The policy, designed to reduce food waste by keeping hungry college kids with eyes that are bigger than their stomachs from having the ability to load that fifth slice of pizza on an already packed tray as they find their way back to their table, has spread like rapidfire in the Cities.

For those who hate dealing with scaling hot plates, take a minute to count yourselves as lucky. Macalester, which has instituted Trayless Tuesdays, is put to tree-hugging shame by Hamline, Concordia-St Paul and Southwest Minnesota State in Marshall, which have eliminated trays for good. Think about that next time you burn your mits in Cafe?Mac.