By Faith Lee
Flyers that promote cheating are targeting international students around campus.
The flyers are written in Chinese, so no administrators had realized that the flyers violated school rules.
The flyers promote the service’s ability to coach student how to write, but in reality, they write papers for students.
The illegal flyers are located on the bulletin board next to the parking structure, around the E3, E5 and E7 buildings, where many Chinese classes are held.
The headline on the ad says “Writing your essay and don’t know where to start? No worries, (this service) can help you!”
It provides contact information for students to call and find out more about the service.
The flyer also gives the educational backgrounds of the coaches.
One of the coaches graduated from the London School of Economics with a Ph.D.
The coach is a former UCLA professor who used to teach at Santa Monica College.
The flyer goes on about the writing skills of the coaches and how they can help students with their writing problems.
The ad was carefully designed so the school would not recognize its breach of the school rule.
When the listed number was called, a man who speaks fluent English answered the call.
He then passed the phone to a lady when asked if he speaks Cantonese.
A woman answered with an energetic voice.
She first said that they can tutor student’s writing problem for $50 per hour but then later said, “If students were too lazy to write, we could finish the paper for them.”
The service fee is $20 per 300 words or one full page double-spaced.
For example, if students need a paper that is 10 pages, it will cost about $200.
She said she could not guarantee anyone being caught cheating or violating academic integrity, but she hinted the caller to “be smart about it, talk to professors and ask them questions.”
She explained that if students acted interested in the class, professors would not be suspicious about it.
She also reminded that some professors are going to judge if student’s writing skills change drastically in just one paper.
The lady has a Ph.D in psychology and her partner can write papers for many other subjects such as history, English, literature and politics.
Buyers have to meet with the “coach” before requesting for the service, but they did not explain the reason why.
A legal flyer on campus should have a stamp on it saying that it is approved by Student’s Activities Office.
This flyer did not.
The Student Activities office refused to comment on the matter because they did not approve the flyer.
They said that illegal flyers should be removed by Plant Facilities or students can volunteer to tear down the flyers.
“We do not have a designated person to go police the flyers that are around campus,” said Al Mah, Plant Facilities general manager.
“Our rule is maintenance and operation of buildings. We stay away from policing, we stay away from setting policies.
“If it falls around maintenance and operations and the overall safety of the campus then that’s how we are involved,” said Mah.
Plant Facilities is a department that makes sure school buildings run well and that the campus environment is well-maintained.
Custodians take off any flyers that appear in the wrong place, whether they are stamped or not.
Flyers should not be posted anywhere except on the bulletin boards on campus.
Oscar Valeriano, Student Services vice president said that he is going to start an investigation on this issue.
“We take it very seriously… It’s my responsibility to act on it immediately and we’ve got to put a stop to this,” said Valeriano.
He said that this is not something the president wants, and it would create a scandal for the school.
He is going to start an investigation on this flyer.
“You can’t learn anything if you ask someone to write the paper for you,” said Tim Chan, an international student from China.
He said that he goes to school because he wants to learn, and if someone does his homework for him, he can’t learn anything.
“I wouldn’t seek help from them,” said Chan.
Presenting someone elses work as a student’s own is violating college rule punishable with an F on the assignment and a verbal or written warning.
According to the ELAC catalog, the Vice President of Student Services will place documentation of such warnings in a student’s file when there is evidence of academic dishonesty.
Any student concerned about the implementation of this policy should contact the Office of Student Services in E1 to find references to the Student Grievance Procedure and the relevant Board Rules.