An opinion article submitted by Michael Simmons '06 entitled "Potential budget cuts jeopardize student access to higher education" was published in the Nov. 9 issue of The Student. A week later, it came to our attention that portions of Simmons' article were in fact not his own work. Specifically, segments of the article were taken verbatim from sample editorials on the USpirg-affiliated Web site

www.studentaidaction.com as part of a national campaign opposing cuts in federal financial aid for college students.

After being informed of the situation and examining the alleged similarities between Simmons' piece and the articles online, we contacted Simmons in an attempt to get his side of the story. In this vein, we asked him to write a letter explaining the situation, his motivations and actions. His response is below.

As Simmons points out, his article was fact-based, part of a national campaign and drawn from pieces for which he had permission to use. Still, he acknowledges-and we agree-that he should have cited the source of the facts on which his article was based. While the source in this case was withheld in order to maintain the piece's value, we do not condone even this "soft" version of plagiarism.

The Student publishes articles with the tacit trust that writers submit original work. Beyond our own standards, we feel that the College's Honor Code has applications outside the classroom and we regret being the medium for a possible violation.

* * *

I submitted this facts-based piece as part of the national "Stop the Raid on Student Aid" campaign meant to alert students of disastrous cuts in student aid. I obtained all the facts for this article from the "Raid on Student Aid" campaign toolkit and modified it to press the urgency of student action. I apologize that I oversaw annotating the piece to mention this. However, I did receive permission from the campaign to use those hard facts as a chain letter to alert students of the cuts and what they could do. More importantly, I hope students heeded the article and phoned their Representatives. Thank you.

Michael Simmons '06