News
By Sarah Salwen
|
November 30, 2001
Physics Professor Louis Bloomfield's 149 honor cases have presented a major
challenge to the University's Honor Committee over the last eight months, but,
they could be symptoms of an even more serious epidemic.
According to information obtained by The Cavalier Daily from the Honor
Committee, Bloomfield's computer program, which checks for matching strings of
words in students' papers, could have found 238 more cases of cheating under
different standards.
Bloomfield's program, which he wrote himself, locates strings of six words or
more that are exactly alike among in students' papers turned in over the last
six semesters.
His data indicate that he found 78 pairs of papers with 100-199 matching words,
18 pairs with 200-299 matching words, 11 pairs with 300-399 matching words and
12 pairs with 400-499 words.
The new numbers of implicated papers have raised some eyebrows among Honor
officials.
"I'm concerned about how Louis Bloomfield is handling the information he has,"
said fourth-year Honor counsel David Metcalf in an e-mail.