Last week, I spoke to one of my history professors who I’ve had for many classes. He was telling me about how in the class I had with him last semester, four people turned in plagiarized papers of the blatant sort – they went online, copied, and pasted.
In this professor’s syllabus, he outlines very clearly how he deals with plagiarism: you flunk the course. He attempted to flunk all four of them them, but the students got around it by simply dropping the course, as the withdrawal date had not gone by yet. He went to the dean, hoping to get some support on keeping their grades as Fs; however, the dean ended up backing the students. They were allowed to drop the course and simply get withdrawals on their audits, rather than the Fs. His line of argument was that they were still being punished, as they had to pay for the course anyway, and they’d have to retake the course.
I think such an argument is bogus. Yeah, they had to pay for the course anyway, but shouldn’t there be more punishment than that? Aren’t universities supposed to represent a bit of integrity? Allowing them to drop the course and simply get a “withdrawed” on their degree audit allows them to more or less erase the fact that they tried to cheat. Having an F on their audit wouldn’t broadcast the fact that they tried to cheat, I realize, but at least it would affect their GPA, which in turn might have effects down the road if they wanted to go to graduate school.
How do you all think academic dishonesty should be dealt with? Is receiving an F for the entire course too drastic? Perhaps an F on the assignment would be more suitable, but I think plagiarism (especially of the deliberate sort as described above) is a serious offense, and should be dealt with with a serious response. Admittedly, though, I’m biased – I work my butt off to do well in my classes, and it drives me up the wall to think that people are getting similar grades simply by cheating.
I’ve been a student for quite a while and while I’ve had my fair share of minor plagiarism, in my defence I didn’t know any better being raised in an environment where they spoon feed you information.
These days though I’m pretty tough on plagiarism. I’ve learnt my lesson, but I also feel that teaching a student not to plagiarise in first year (when some students don’t know better) should be different from say enforcing a full punishment if the student plagiarises in their final year (when students should know better).
At which point you should have certain expectations of what a student should know and is capable of doing.
Of course, these days universities do tend to suck up a lot of money. It’s a balance between academic misconduct and how much money a university can earn. That’s a system that can’t be helped at times.
I’m of the opinion that cheaters don’t succeed in life and there’s really no need to punish them at school. School at the undergrad level and even master’s to some extent is not a zero sum game. If a cheater gets good grades it doesn’t necessarily mean you get bad grades, there’s plenty for everyone. At the doctoral level, it’s a different story. They should get canned and quickly. Areas of very specific study only survive because of unique work.
If cheaters don’t bother learning that cheating only hurts them, they’ll quickly learn in the work world by which point it’ll be too late and they’ll be stuck at some bottom rung job forever because their boss quickly learns they cheat and won’t promote them. The work world is a wonderful equalizer in many ways and a place where dedicated individuals can rise more swiftly than the cheaters.
As for institutional integrity… I think that went by the wayside when universities began selling themselves to the highest bidder in the ’40s and ’50s, at least in North America. Can anyone say Bell and DuPont? To touch on a point made by Edrei, they’re in it for the money. These days school ratings are just as important as actual educational quality. If a school is perceived as throwing students out for everything it could quickly become a place to avoid and hence lose funding and tuition money. Unfortunately, now reputation doesn’t relate to quality but to image.
Uhhh, that’s what I think anyway
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@Edrei: Good point about first years vs. seniors. One of the fellows who was caught cheating this last semester was a senior – indeed, in his final semester. I wonder how many times he cheated throughout his 4 years and didn’t get caught?
Also, you’re right about there having to be a balance between academic misconduct and how much money the university earns. Indeed, that was a further aspect of the dean’s defense. He said the university wasn’t in “the business of flunking people”, as it hurt their revenue. That’s life, I guess.
@Tom: Oh, I know it’s not a zero sum game.
I agree that cheaters ultimately get what they deserve – usually. This is particularly true once they reach the work world. However, I guess I take issue with them benefitting from cheating at all.
The senior I mentioned above was supposed to receive an award upon graduation from our history department, due to his GPA. Ultimately, he didn’t get the award, but based on his GPA, he should have. If he’d not been allowed to drop the course – if he’d taken the F, as he knew he should have to based on the syllabus, which is more or less a contract – he wouldn’t have even been in the running for the award. I’m sure awards and other benefits have been given to many cheaters in the past, and that ruffles my feathers a bit.
And regarding institutional integrity… alas! I think you and Edrei are right. While I’d love for universities to represent something “higher”, I guess when you get down to it, they’re just like McDonalds and Kmart – they’re businesses. They’ve got to have a good image to keep getting students, in order to keep getting money.
If I didn’t want others’ opinions, I’d have comments closed.
My school: zero tolerance. You get caught, you get expelled. I totally support that policy, because the whole point of the educational system is to do your *own* work. I was TA last semester, and had a student copy from a professor, if you can believe it. I reported it, and the student was expelled. No sympathy from me. I got through school by doing my own work.
Btw, contra the posters above, I don’t think there should be any difference between freshmen and seniors. Don’t they teach students not to plagiarize well before the university level? Haven’t they already had 12 or so years of education before they’re admitted?
/rant