The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Figures released last week at the University of Saskatchewan indicate that faculty are finding it easier to catch students who are dishonest. While tools like the Internet are making it easier for students to plagiarize, these same tools are helping faculty identify cases. Gordon Barnhart, University Secretary, released a report indicating that from July 2002 Ð June 2003, the University had 79 cases of dishonesty heard by college and university panels. Of these, 67 students were found to be guilty. Statistics from the previous year indicate approximately 60 students were found guilty. Statistics for other universities have not been gathered in detail, but news accounts indicate that most other universities comparable to the U of S in size penalize between 80 and 100 students a year. "Academic dishonesty includes both plagiarism, which is the use of other people's ideas or writing without credit, and other forms of cheating, such as passing notes in an exam," said Barnhart. Faculty are finding it easier to identify potential cases of plagiarism because they come to know their students' writing abilities through in-class assignments, exams and reports. Phrases or passages, which appear too different or sophisticated, can be entered as exact-word phrases in search engines such as Google. At the U of S, the policy regarding academic dishonesty requires that faculty committees at the College level deal with accusations of cheating. Penalties are not prescribed in the policy but are dealt with at the discretion of the committee. This year, it was noted that the penalties for dishonesty were increasingly severe. "Colleges now feel that students who cheat should receive a much greater penalty than students who simply do not turn in an assignment. Therefore, many cases of plagiarized essays received a mark of zero on the assignment plus an additional percentage off their final grade in the course," said Barnhart. Penalties in professional colleges are often even more severe on first offenses since professional certification/accreditation is required.
