Some graduating fourth-year students may be squirming in their Lawn seats tomorrow as the fate of their diplomas hangs in the balance, pending honor charge investigations.
Throughout May, 122 current and former students - including some graduating fourth-years - were implicated in honor charges brought by Physics Prof. Louis Bloomfield.
Bloomfield, who teaches Physics 105 and 106, How Things Work, developed a computer program in April to catch students who plagiarized large portions of their final papers for the class.
Students in Bloomfield's classes have been required to submit their assignments and papers electronically since spring 1999, though originally the e-mail method was used to reduce paper clutter.
"I never had any intention of checking for plagiarism," Bloomfield said. "It was just something to make the class run smoother."
But after hearing rumors of possible cheating offenses, Bloomfield said he decided to use the database for a different reason. It allowed him to compare papers that spanned across five semesters.
The computer program compared every paper in the database for strings of six-word phrases that were exactly alike. Once found, the offending papers were printed out and the questionable portions underlined.
As each of the papers with the six-word matches were reviewed, Bloomfield found that sometimes whole paragraphs were duplicated.
Bloomfield said he initiated honor charges against every student whose paper had similarities to another of "at least 500 matching words in phases of at least six consecutive words." In the end, 122 students were charged.
"Papers with minor charges were ignored," he said.
With this large number of cases falling at the end of the academic session, some in the University community questioned the Honor Committee's ability to process the charges efficiently.
However, Committee Chairman Thomas Hall said, "There is no truth that the Honor Committee is going to cut corners."
Hall said he has set an optimistic goal for completing all of the investigations and trials in late October or early November. Committee members and support officers will work this summer to try to achieve this goal.
"We are treating every case individually," he said. "We are not sacrificing fairness in place of efficiency."
The Committee already has processed a quarter of the cases and has assigned investigators, he added.
Since some of the students involved are recent graduates, the Committee may be forced to revoke their diplomas.
But there is a two-year statute of limitations regarding graduates, Hall said. This means that students who have graduated more than two years ago are exempt from the honor charges.
Even though the charges were brought up on 122 students, it is doubtful that all are guilty of an honor offense, Faculty Senate Chairwoman Patricia H. Werhane said.
"There have to be some original papers somewhere," Werhane said.
The initiation of these honor charges has brought a storm of national media attention to the University community, and some have called the strength of the honor system into question.
But many community members said they believe the 122 charges do not place the system in a negative light.
"I think this is going to strengthen the honor system," Werhane said, adding that the University must ensure that students are properly educated about the honor system.
"The honor system continues to be effective and deter cheating," Hall added.
Bloomfield had another spin: Students should realize that "intellectual property is just as valuable as physical property"
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