Student outlines Portis incident
Andrew Zuckerman
Issue date: 9/5/07 Section: News
Terrapin backup quarterback Josh Portis violated the Code of Academic Integrity on a pop quiz in an American Studies class in early April, according to former university student Brandon Bullock, who said Portis copied off his quiz.
Portis has been declared ineligible for the 2007 football season. Bullock, who has since transferred to East Carolina University, said the pop quiz consisting of about 10 short-essay questions was given with about 15 minutes left in class.
Portis was not available for comment.
Bullock said his quiz was returned with a "PLEASE SEE ME" note attached to it from graduate assistant Manouchka Poinson, who taught the AMST212: Diversity in American Culture class.
"When I saw her, she said that she had already spoken to the other person as well," Bullock said in a phone interview yesterday. "She wouldn't say his name. Both of the papers were there in front of me and she covered up the names on the paper, and she had me read a bunch of answers that were similar to each other, and one was word for word."
Poinson did not return phone calls or e-mails from The Diamondback.
This past weekend, Portis admitted to violating the Code, but he never went into specific details about the incident. The Code defines the four categories of academic dishonesty as cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty and plagiarism.
Bullock said he sat in front and "kind of to the right" of Portis. When asked if he could have cheated off of Portis' quiz, Bullock replied "I don't have eyes in the back of my head."
"[The quiz was given] toward the end of the class, it was definitely rushed," Bullock said. "I probably didn't make an assertive effort to like keep my arm over my paper, but we're just kinda scribbling, trying to finish the class, all of us. And every student enrolled in that class can tell you we had only 15 minutes to answer 10 short questions. That's not much.
"I didn't hover over it and look over my shoulder and make sure nobody was looking," Bullock added. "I was just answering the questions."
Portis has been declared ineligible for the 2007 football season. Bullock, who has since transferred to East Carolina University, said the pop quiz consisting of about 10 short-essay questions was given with about 15 minutes left in class.
Portis was not available for comment.
Bullock said his quiz was returned with a "PLEASE SEE ME" note attached to it from graduate assistant Manouchka Poinson, who taught the AMST212: Diversity in American Culture class.
"When I saw her, she said that she had already spoken to the other person as well," Bullock said in a phone interview yesterday. "She wouldn't say his name. Both of the papers were there in front of me and she covered up the names on the paper, and she had me read a bunch of answers that were similar to each other, and one was word for word."
Poinson did not return phone calls or e-mails from The Diamondback.
This past weekend, Portis admitted to violating the Code, but he never went into specific details about the incident. The Code defines the four categories of academic dishonesty as cheating, fabrication, facilitating academic dishonesty and plagiarism.
Bullock said he sat in front and "kind of to the right" of Portis. When asked if he could have cheated off of Portis' quiz, Bullock replied "I don't have eyes in the back of my head."
"[The quiz was given] toward the end of the class, it was definitely rushed," Bullock said. "I probably didn't make an assertive effort to like keep my arm over my paper, but we're just kinda scribbling, trying to finish the class, all of us. And every student enrolled in that class can tell you we had only 15 minutes to answer 10 short questions. That's not much.
"I didn't hover over it and look over my shoulder and make sure nobody was looking," Bullock added. "I was just answering the questions."
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ImJustSayin
posted 9/05/07 @ 8:50 AM EST
C'mon Manouchka! Why not just give the kid a zero? It was only like 5% of the grade or something.
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