Fake interview
A first-year communication major was referred to Student Judicial Affairs (SJA) for plagiarism in an interview assignment for a lower division communication class. The student had taken the class fall quarter and has a friend who is struggling with it this quarter. To help her struggling friend, she gave the friend her interview assignment so that he could modify it to seem like he had done the assignment himself. When meeting with a judicial officer, the student admitted to giving her friend the paper and stated that she was only trying to do her friend a favor. Because this was her first referral, she was offered and agreed to the sanction of a censure. A censure is a written notice that the student violated a university policy and that, if repeated, further disciplinary action will be taken.
Cite and cite until you succeed
A first-year agreed to the sanction of disciplinary probation until winter 2012 due to his plagiarism in a technocultural studies assignment. A disciplinary probation does not affect a student’s class standing but means that if the student is again found in violation for academic misconduct or dishonesty, the student will likely be suspended or dismissed. The professor referred the student to SJA after finding that he had copied and pasted passages directly from Wikipedia in an assignment. The professor stated in his referral that he allowed students to use quotes with the proper citations, but this student did not put verbatim passages in quotation marks and did not cite anything. The professor also stated that when he went back to check the authenticity of the student’s previous assignments, he noticed that the student’s plagiarism increased with the quarter. When meeting with a judicial officer, the student was apologetic and admitted to the misconduct. He stated that he had often copied in high school and did not think that it was wrong since he never got into trouble. In addition to agreeing to disciplinary probation for a year, the student also agreed to complete a writing assignment, get help from the Student Academic Success Center (formerly the Learning Skills Center) and complete 15 hours of community service.
Eight pages courtesy of Google
A professor reported an upperclassman to SJA for plagiarism in an upper division sociology class. The professor stated that the paper the student submitted was much more sophisticated than her previous work, so he Googled some phrases from the student’s paper and found that eight pages were copied almost directly from five different sources without quotation marks or citations. In addition, the professor stated that the student’s in-text citations did not match up with the sources listed on her bibliography. During the informal hearing with a judicial officer, the student admitted to copying from the Internet. She also stated that her actions were due to health issues and personal family problems as well as procrastination. With no previous referrals to SJA, this student agreed to deferred separation until graduation, completion of a writing assignment and an online plagiarism exercise and help from the Student Academic Success Center. In addition, the student was referred to Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS). The sanction of deferred separation allows the student to continue taking classes until referred to SJA for another act of dishonesty or academic misconduct. If referred to SJA again, the student has waived her right to a formal hearing and if found in violation at an informal hearing with a judicial officer, she will likely be suspended or dismissed from the university.
CAMPUS JUDICIAL REPORTS are compiled by members of Student Judicial Affairs.
