Reported violations of academic dishonesty have increased 184 percent in the past two years, rising from 57 to 162 incidents, but that isn’t necessarily because more students are cheating, said Director of Student Judicial Affairs Chris Loschiavo.
Professors are just starting to buy into the Student Judicial Affairs process and more accurate records are being taken, he said.
But are professors going overboard about catching cheaters?
Loschiavo said he doesn’t think so.
“From my experience, most professors don’t enjoy dealing with academic dishonesty. They would most rather ignore it,” he said. “When I first got here to the University about six or seven years ago, a lot of faculty would do their own thing. They didn’t use the process.”
Loschiavo established presentations for academic departments to make it clear how professors are supposed to deal with suspected cheaters or plagiarizers. They shouldn’t immediately give the student an “F” because, according to the
University’s official policy on dealing with academic dishonesty, it “violates the student’s guaranteed legal right to due process and leaves the instructor vulnerable to a student grievance.”
The first thing professors should do is call Student Judicial Affairs to find out whether the student has a history of plagiarism. If not, the teacher may hold a one-on-one meeting with the student to determine the grade penalty. If the student does have a record of cheating or denies responsibility, the student can choose an informal or formal trial. The formal trial involves attorneys, and if the student is found guilty, it can lead to the student being suspended; students rarely choose the formal trial option.
The informal option is more of a conversation between Loschiavo and the student to determine whether the student is responsible and whether there will be punishment.
Students are never expelled for plagiarism, said Loschiavo. The most likely punishment is an “F” grade on the assignment and having to attend academic integrity seminars or community service projects. Repeat offenders or serious offenses, such as breaking into the professor’s office to steal test answer keys, can lead to suspension.
Loschiavo is unaware of any cases in which professors have gone too far in fighting plagiarism.
“I can’t say that I’ve had a case where a professor did,” he said. “I couldn’t say ‘no, they’ve never done that’ because I’m sure there’s a professor out there who probably has, (but) usually professors are cautious about reporting cases.”
Loschiavo said if students feel like they are being falsely accused they should go to the Office of Student Life or confront the professor.
Loschiavo said many plagiarism cases occur because students are simply unaware that they are committing plagiarism. He said only 10 to 15 percent of all cases each year involve the student taking an entire paper off the Internet.
Mary Kate Mackey-Edmonston, an adjunct instructor in the School of Journalism, said she sees incidents of plagiarism as opportunities for a learning experience. She has had only one case in which students plagiarized from each other. The students each received an “F” grade. However, she said, she made sure they knew what they did incorrectly.
“Once they did research about plagiarism, they got it.” she said.
John Bonine, a law professor, said plagiarism cases could also be increasing because it’s easy to find things to copy online.
“Students sometimes don’t understand that copying material from the Internet is not doing research, and what is surprising is that they assume that professors don’t know how to go to the Internet and find that something was copied,” Bonine said.
Bonine said “yellow flags” sometimes go up when he’s reading a student’s paper that cause him to investigate for plagiarism by doing a Google search.
“Sometimes the writing style is obviously different than a student paper,” he said. “It is pretty easy to do a quick investigation.”
Loschiavo partially credits the increase in plagiarism cases to heightened professor awareness of student plagiarism, and he stressed that it is important for professors to report cases of academic dishonesty.
“It hurts everyone else if we don’t address it when it’s occurred,” he said.
But if professors are being encouraged to report cases of plagiarism and students are aware of the consequences, why do students still cheat?
Holly Arrow, an associate professor in the psychology department, explained that there are many reasons students will try to cheat, but essentially students will be pressed to cheat if they feel the rewards of cheating outweigh the consequences.
“If the alternative to cheating is bad, cheating will look better by comparison (assuming the person expects to cheat successfully),” she wrote in an e-mail.
Arrow said that even if the student gets away with cheating, whether they cheat again depends on how they feel about the behavior.
“If they personally think they are behaving badly, they may feel guilty. If they think that cheating is acceptable, and it earns them a good grade, they may feel satisfaction,” she wrote.
Loschiavo said he hopes that students get the message that they need to give themselves enough time to write a paper and create a system of writing to keep track of sources. He suggests going to the University’s library Web site about citation.
Whether or not academic dishonesty is being reported, Bonine said he doesn’t like discovering his students are plagiarizing or cheating.
“It hits me in the gut,” he said. “It’s like a punch in the stomach because it breaks the bond of trust in the academic community. It means that they are getting away with not learning.”
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