Sep 4, 2010
NTU warns students
<!-- by line --> By Bryan Huang
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The blacklist was accompanied by testimonials, allegedly from fellow students. -- PHOTO: THELIBERATINGTRUTH.COM
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NANYANG Technological University (NTU) has warned its students not to make statements or comments about people and organisations based on rumours or face action which includes having their privilege to use the university Internet system withdrawn.
The stern reminder came from Associate Professor Lok Tat Seng, NTU's Dean of Students, after a blogger posted an 'Academic Blacklist' of foreign students, mainly from NTU's School of Computer Engineering, which identified them by their course, years, nationalities and photos.
The blacklist accused the students of not contributing to their group projects and in some cases, copying the work of other students.
Prof Lok, commenting on the story reported in straitstimes.com earlier this week, said on Saturday that students who abuse the Internet may have their privilege of using university computers withdrawn and may also face disciplinary action.
'NTU takes a serious view of this matter. The University regularly reminds our students at the beginning of each semester about the basic 'do's and don'ts' of Internet usage. These guidelines are also posted on NTU's website,' said Prof Lok in a statement to straitstimes.com.
The blacklist, which was posted on The Liberating Truth blog, was also accompanied by testimonials, allegedly from fellow students. The blog has since been removed by the author.
Some readers, in their posts on The Straits Times' online discussion board, defended what the blogger has done.
User WhatOthersSay_2 said: 'I don't see the blogger doing anything wrong... if it is the truth.'
Another, user Someone01 said: 'In every school, primary to universities, and workplaces, there are good and bad people, be it foreigners or locals.'
Added user evelyn09teo: 'Let's hope the blogger would tread carefully lest he be sued for defamation, one-sided testimonies, etc... Let the varsity counsellors do their work with helping those so called 'black-listed' students.'
Asked if NTU would take action against the 'blacklisted' students, Prof Lok said that while NTU appreciates and considers all constructive feedback, the university will not 'act on anonymous feedback and blogs since there is no way we can verify the facts of the matter'.
'We advise all students to be responsible and contribute to their fair share of project work as this is an important aspect of their education and they have a professional ethos to adhere to,' he said.
'At the school level, we are looking into further refining our assessment framework, such as requiring a detailed scope of work for each team member at the start of a project or assignment, and introducing peer assessment, so as to enable professors to differentiate the contributions of the various team members in major group projects,' Prof Lok added.