Binghamton University’s newest administrator will arrive on campus next semester, after serving as associate vice president of student affairs at Rutgers University and gaining recognition for heading campus-wide efforts to crack down on plagiarism and cheating.
But while he considers academic honesty to be an important issue at any university, BU’s future Vice President of Student Affairs Brian Rose said he would not necessarily institute the same programs at BU as he did at Rutgers.
‘The strategy adopted to promote [academic honesty] should be customized to the institution,’ he said. ‘I’m not looking to simply take what I may have done at Rutgers and do the same at BU.’
According to The Daily Targum, Rutgers’s campus newspaper, Rose spearheaded the initiative to create an ‘Academic Integrity Committee,’ a group that aimed to establish more specific guidelines on what cheating is, create a system where professors can easily report cheaters and set up a database that could identify frequent cheaters.
‘We wanted to create an environment where it was a desire for people to report these things to some central office so that we would have good information on the extent to which we have an academic integrity problem in our community,’ Rose is quoted as saying in the April 2, 2007 article.
Another goal of the committee was to increase the number of professors using Turnitin.com ‘ a service already frequently used by BU faculty members.
Rose said that his work at Rutgers will factor into his plans for BU, but the creation of a similar committee here is yet to be determined.
‘I’m intending to take the experience I have gained in problem solving at Rutgers and apply it in such a way that student affairs best compliments the mission and goals of Binghamton University,’ he said.
Rose displayed such ‘problem solving’ skills after several Rutgers undergraduates had their Social Security numbers stolen.
According to The Daily Targum, Rose’s office began to offer students help in reclaiming lost funds. Rutgers became the first university in the country to partner with Identity Theft 911, a company that helps people who have had their identities stolen resolve their issues with banks and credit cards.
Additionally, Rose headed Rutgers’s Credit Marketing Committee, an organization that encourages students to properly manage their finances and monitors credit card solicitations on campus. The group also encourages administrators to take an active role in advising students on personal matters.
‘Student affairs offices offer general student advice ‘ including financial ‘ and it’s not out of a dean’s realm of responsibility,’ he said in a Sept. 7, 2007 interview.