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Audit to prof: break business ties

Last fall, botany professor Alfred Loeblich denied his partnership with A+ Review was anything but professional after former Student Government Association President David Rosen alleged Loeblich and two other professors had self-serving textbook practices.

Interviews with a student from Loeblich’s classes and an audit obtained by The Daily Cougar indicate the business has access to and attempts to sell test questions and answers to students.

The A+ Review Web site says it offers test preparation packets, tutoring, reviews, notes and help with essays and papers, and the company offers discounts to students who "bring in old exams, term papers, essays, labs (and) projects" to the business, located on Elgin Street.

Biology senior Arman Jahangiri said when attending Loeblich’s class in Spring 2005, he bought a packet because it was mandatory. He said Loeblich told students the packets contained assignments and a four-digit number used to assign grades.

Jahangiri said A+ Review charged $30 per packet and only accepted cash payments. He also said A+ Review called him before Loeblich’s tests to offer him answers to the questions for money.

Loeblich said in August the packets distributed through A+ Review have individualized questions and serial numbers to prevent cheating.

At the time he said packets weren’t mandatory, but he recommended them to students.

Loeblich did not respond to numerous attempts to contact him by The Daily Cougar for a more recent interview.

Biology and Biochemistry Chair Stuart Dryer said students have raised concerns about Loeblich and A+ Review.

"Students have brought this to my attention. What they were alleging at the time was that Dr. Loeblich requires students to buy required course materials from A+ Review," Dryer told The Daily Cougar in August.

Dryer said Loeblich uses course numbers on the packets to individualize questions and tests to prevent cheating in his classes.

Students alleged after giving A+ Review their phone numbers, which is required to purchase the mandatory packet, they received calls within hours offering to sell answers to Loeblich’s tests, Dryer said.

"Later when the students actually took the exams, some, as many as 48 out of 50 questions, were identical to the ones on the practice exams from which they were able to buy the answers from A+ Review," Dryer said.

Dryer said he wrote a letter to Loeblich asking him to stop using A+ Review for mandatory class materials.

"I also pointed out to him that I was going to bring this matter up before the University Auditor," he said.

In April 2002, Director of Internal Auditing Don Guyton audited Loeblich.

The audit said Dryer and four students in Loeblich’s classes were interviewed and e-mails were exchanged between Dryer and Loeblich.

Guyton’s audit stated Loeblich said students did not need to buy A+ Review packets but most bought it anyway.

A student e-mailed Loeblich about the packet and asked to share with a classmate because he was "tight on money," the audit stated. Loeblich’s response was "everyone needed to get their own course packet as students have their own individual homework assignments," the audit stated.

The questions in the packet were worth 18 percent of grades, and 90 percent of the questions on the practice tests were from exams, according to the audit.

Students interviewed in the audit said A+ Review called them and offered the answers to Loeblich’s exams and would sell answers for $30 per exam.

Loeblich said in the audit A+ Review is the only establishment that "will customize packets and accept the packets back from the students if they purchase the wrong one." He also said no one knows the answers to his tests because he puts them together the night before an exam.

The audit included information about the University Bookstore and the University Copy Center. It said the bookstore will "provide custom publishing services for UHS to include the development of course packs for faculty members, securing the appropriate copyright clearances, printing and binding of course packs through the respective Copy Center and distribution and sale of the course packs in the bookstore."

The audit concluded Loeblich and faculty "should not be affiliated with entities such as A+ Review, as these entities compromise academic integrity by selling answers to exam questions."

Copy Center Manager Roddy Chambless said the center’s main goal is to provide affordable print and copy services.

"This includes custom publishing for professors and departments. Our system is set up to provide Custom Publishing services customized to specific needs," he said.

Chambless said the Copy Center prints packets ranging from "copyrighted packets that can include current events, excerpts from books or journals, out-of-print books and author copyright fees to old tests, notes, PowerPoints and information stored on WebCT."

Biology professor Lawrence Williams said he’s been against A+ Review for the past 20 years.

"(A+ Review) obviously can’t be an upright business because they only deal with cash and they’re so restricted about behavior. I’ve never heard anybody say it was a pleasant experience going there. We don’t really appreciate the appearance this all gives," he said.

Employee Shaik Ahmed said in August he was new at A+ Review and refused to be interviewed unless The Daily Cougar provided a free advertisement worth $80.

"I am like George Washington. I am respected in this community," Ahmed said.

A+ Review has also advertised on campus by posting fliers in classrooms and parking a truck on various parking lots, which is not allowed without obtaining permission from UH, according to the Manual of Administrative of Policies and Procedures and the Student Handbook.

The Faculty Handbook states "no employee… shall solicit, accept, or agree to accept any benefit from a person or entity the employee knows or should know or is likely to become financially interested in such transactions."

Jahangiri said Loeblich now offers the packets free online, but students who want to study must go to A+ Review. Students can’t take packets home and pay a $45 fee that increases each time they go, he said.

"These are commuter students – to base their grades on how much money they spend is ridiculous," Jahangiri said.

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