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NEWS Thursday, May 4, 2000 - Page 7 Plagiarism problems plague English Department conrinuedfrompage 1 apparently so dramatic. He ex- not original, it is not worth putting temptation to make a copy," says least then the teacher is still in- in some ways asking them to act plains that the new Honor Code down, says freshman history ma- Spence, "That's what I would like volved in the learning process. counter culturally in a society that policy puts more responsibility on jor Patrick Dougherty. He feels that to believe." So what can be done to prevent often rewards appearance rather faculty to report violations; there- students who are caught plagiariz- Sophomore English major plagiarism before it happens? Ac- than substance, and achievement fore, the number of recorded cases ing should have the option of fail- Rebecca Carswell agrees that pla- cording to Dr. LeRoy Panek, En- rather than integrity," he said. is growing. ing the assignment or recopying the giarism is not acceptable, but ar- glish department chair, the change However, there may be other "I make the assumption," says entire work they cheated from by gues that plagiarism is not always needs to come from within the stu- ways to reduce the rate of plagia- Reiff, "that cheating is somewhat hand. "If they want to write out of clear-cut. "A lot of times I don't dent body itself. rism, suggests Spence. endemic for college students in a book they should write out of a know whether I'm plagiarizing or "Dishonesty is something, I'm "I suspect it's extremely diffi- general- it's a social phenomenon. book," he concludes with a grin. not," she said, adding, "If they afraid, as old as human kind, and cult to completely prevent plagia- I believe that honor is a sacred trust, Sayre, although emphatic about know they're plagiarizing, they plagiarism is dishonesty," he said, rism, but I think w~ can set up our and that given the opportunity, the severity of plagiarism, is still should be punished harsher [than "Rather than oaths and policing and assignments to make plagiarism people respond to this sacred trust. willing to give most students the if they don't know.]" trials and sanctions, I suspect that more trouble than it's worth," he However, this takes education, it's benefit of the doubt concerning Kachur believes that the temp- the way at least to minimize cheat- said. "That may entail more in- a long-term goal instituting a their motives. tation to plagiarize is probably due ing would be to work to establish class work on writing assignments new Honor Code is not going to A lot of students come here to stress, but says it sometimes the kind of community in which re- or perhaps giving students less free- change a culture overnight. [By from high-school situations where leads to students turning in copied spect for knowledge and the desire dom in selecting topics for papers." doing this] we set ourselves up to plagiarism is not as serious as it is work that is not any good, which, to acquire its benefits were the val- The six cases were scheduled to be an island of honesty in a sea of here, he comments. Combined with even if they're not caught, can re- ues that shaped individuals' behav- be heard by the Honor and Conduct deceit." the pressure ofa deadline and gen- sult in a failing grade. ior ... substantive change happens Board before the end of the semes- The plagiarism violations were eral inexperience, the temptation to It takes almost the same amount because of leadership and vision." ter. discovered by Mr. Bill Spence, a plagiarize can be very strong, he of effort to get the right kind of Kachur agrees, commenting According to an email from senior lecturer in the English de- believes. help, Kachur explains. The key to that the college needs to open a dia- Sayre, three separate cases have partment, and by Dr. Robert "In some cases, a student who all of this is communication. In all logue with the students about the already been heard, and each stu- Kachur, assistant professor of En- is feeling pressured for time might of these cases, I would have wel- importance of honor. "We should dent "admitted the Honor Code glish. All of the discoveries were simply run across a paper on the comed [the students] to come ask admit that, by asking students to violation and was given the follow- due to the teachers' detective work; Internet and not be able to resist the for ideas or extensions or both. At abide by the Honor Code, we are ing sanction: 'F' in the course." there were no cases where students turned in their classmates. Spence says all three of his cases came from the same writing assignment, due the week after spring break, and all involve first- year students. He discovered the first two cases when two students independently submitted the same paper to him. Once he presented them with the evidence, they both confessed to taking the paper off the Internet, and he was able to go online and find the original. He is unable to comment about the discovery of the third case at this time, but it is also an instance where a student has downloaded a paper off the Internet and submit- ted it as their own work, he af- firmed Kachur's story is similar, al- you know that little voice though he is unwilling to tell in which class(es) he is finding pla- giarism. "I want people to under- inside that says "I can't"? stand that as much as we don't want to police our students, we have be- this summer, come newly sensitive to the issue," he said. Because it is an insult to students who are doing their work, [crush it]G we are working very hard to iden- tify and report breeches of the Honor Code to the Honor and Con- duct Board. Bring )'Our "ean.cfo" altitude to Camp Chall"'l!:e. fi.e """,ks 01 pure adrenaline Where According to the new Honor Code policy passed last year by the yW'lIll"t paid (0 r..,,,,, ~"'" 10be«lrM a f!et1er. iltqulre .kjl~ that'lI help )'0" ~ SGA and the faculty, all cases of lhe ch&llftngtJI )10<111foci! as on Army0111_ cr In )'O"t civill ... c_. Mayb...... win suspected plagiarism must be re- ported to the Honor and Conduct . Date Book outlines the penalties for plagiarism, explaining that trial by the Honor and Conduct Board usu- ally results in the student failing the ARMY ROTC UnUke any other eollese lXIU.l"lIeyou can take. course if the plagiarism was inten- tional and committed on a major assignment. However, lesser punishments may be meted out in cases where Visit Gill Gym or Call the plagiarism was minor or unin- 410-857-2720 tentional. Second-time offenders face the penalty of suspension. Some students feel that this, policy may not be severe enough to-get the~!~sage acro.~lI. 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