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Printer-Friendly ModeProfessors respond as cheating evolves
September 21, 2009 —
SVSU tries to ensure that cheaters never prosper.
Christopher Enge, a law and finance adjunct professor, said he has to take a tough stance when it comes to academic integrity because the Internet makes it easy to cheat.
He failed the two students he caught plagiarizing papers and said he wants to impress on students that when they do, they are not just affecting their lives but those around them.
“The danger to the University is that when enough people cheat and the administration is soft on them, the word gets out to employers that SVSU students cheat,” Enge said, “and that reputation devastates the majority of graduates, who don’t cheat.”
Those who try it face many penalties. First-time violators must attend academic integrity workshops and can have University probation for up to two semesters. The second offense may call for a suspension from the University. The third requires expulsion.
Other sanctions may include a letter of apology to the instructor, a written paper on academic integrity and any other measures that have been deemed appropriate by a review board made up of students and faculty.
These, however, are not the only safeguards professors have in place. Since January 2002, about 140 SVSU professors have registered with TurnItIn.com, a Web service that cross-references papers’ words against material posted on the Internet.
The site offers “originality reports,” which provide the professor and student with statistics on how much of a work was plagiarized. It searches billions of Web pages’ worth of content and nearly 85 million student papers.
Last year, a student from an East Coast school submitted a paper to TurnItIn.com that bore a 79% match to a paper turned in by an SVSU student.
The Maryland professor noticed the similarity and called the SVSU faculty to inform them of this, and then searched the Internet to find the source. It was available online for $39.99.
Both students were penalized.
“The saddest thing is when students get so deeply in over their heads that cheating seems to be their only option,” said Diane Boehm, director of the University Writing Program and an educator on campus. “They’re not only shortchanging themselves today, but they’re also denying themselves tools for success in the future.”
SVSU encourages its professors to create unique assignments that would be difficult to find on the Web, and to get involved in the students’ writing process. Faculty often outline what will and won’t be accepted in their classroom in the syllabus and during the first day of class.
At SVSU, students must agree to the terms of student conduct; plagiarism and cheating will not be tolerated.
In 2005, a group of SVSU students decided that they were going to make the SVSU Academic Policy more personal and clear for students. Led by alumna Emily Hammerbacher, they created the Student Honor Code, a pledge to maintain the honor of an SVSU degree by eschewing less-thanhonorable means of success.
They said the new code, fashioned from older values, was necessary to combat the expansion of online source materials. Universities across the nation have for years faced problems with Web material winding up in students’ papers – papers they submit as their own work.
SVSU’s Board of Control went a step further June 12, 2006. Its members unanimously amended the Student Code of Conduct and instated the Academic Integrity Board and hearing panel.
But many professors try to appeal to their students’ common sense. In Boehm’s English 111 class, she informs her students that she has done the calculations.
They are paying $708 to learn from her, so they ought to do their best to do so.