In an effort to increase ethical awareness, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism will require all new journalism students to sign a pledge stating they understand the code of ethics, but ISU officials said no similar pledge will be instated here.

Dick Schwarzlose, professor at Medill, said the new requirement is not a reaction to any particular case in which a student was caught fabricating or plagiarizing. Instead, he said, it is an extra step to inform students of the school’s ethical expectations.

“We want them to be aware of what the ground rules are here,” Schwarzlose said.

Dick Haws, ISU associate professor of journalism and mass communication, said the pledge requirement may actually be a response to a particular ethics violation at Northwestern.

Haws said Eric Drudis, a Medill graduate student interning with the San Jose Mercury News, was fired for allegedly fabricating quotes and possibly sources in some of his stories. It was later discovered, according to the Daily Northwestern, the school’s student newspaper, that Drudis might have done the same thing while interning at the San Francisco Examiner, the Philadelphia Daily News and while working for Northwestern’s news service.

Haws, who teaches a journalism ethics class, said he does not think signing the pledge is necessary to enforce ethical expectations.

“It does show some distrust on behalf of the administration,” he said.

However, Haws said the pledge has the advantage of providing students with real-life situations in the world of journalism.

“It gives them a taste of that in a rather forceful way,” he said.

Schwarzlose said he has a “hard time understanding what the problem is” with the code, and he also said it gives students a better perspective of the real world.

ISU students are expected to abide by a University Student Code of Conduct, which is distributed to all incoming students at registration, said Grace Weigel, assistant dean of students.

“We make [students] aware of what is provided on campus,” she said. “I hope we don’t have to get down to [a pledge].”

Haws said an alternative to a mandatory pledge is to provide information on issues such as plagiarism in the class syllabus and making examples out of students who violate the code.

He said he has “the same impact from teaching [ethics] from the beginning of class” as signing a pledge would have.

Weigel said the university will work with students who make an innocent mistake when it comes to plagiarizing. If it is a blatant act, “a stiffer sanction will be imposed,” she said.

Haws said professors have a hand in cases when a student is caught plagiarizing.

“We give them an `F,’ and they have to retake the course,” he said. “We put a high priority, a heavy emphasis on plagiarism here.”

Weigel said plagiarism occurs at Iowa State, and it isn’t going away.

“I wish I could say no [it’s not frequent],” she said. “But with technology, I’m afraid it is going to become more frequent.”