Writing a term paper usually involves jamming a semester's worth of research
into one week, writing 15 pages in a night and emerging from a computer lab
with bloodshot eyes and a stack of empty coffee cups.
But for a few students, the task is hardly this draining. All it takes is a click of the
mouse.
Downloading papers from the Internet, combined with the upsurge of other
incidents of cheating, has been a growing concern for the future of academic
integrity in higher education.
"It's easy, and it's quick, and it's better than spending six hours writing a paper
for some general requirement class that I didn't care about to begin with," said
one College senior who asked to remain anonymous.
These students aren't the only ones who have opted out of conventional
research and turned to online paper banks, amid the "cut and paste plagiarism"
trend at universities nationwide.
According to a 1999 survey conducted by Donald McCabe, a Rutgers
University professor and the founder of the Center for Academic Integrity at
Duke University, more than 75 percent of college students admit to some form of
cheating. About one third of the 2,100 participating students admitted to serious
test cheating, and half admitted to one or more instances of serious cheating on
written assignments.
The pattern for high school students, the next generation of college-goers, is
disturbingly similar.
Eighty-four percent of the students surveyed last year by Who's Who Among
American High School Students said that cheating was common among their
high-achieving peers. Moreover, studies conducted by the Josephson Institute
of Ethics show that the percentage of students who admitted to cheating on a
test has risen from 61 percent in 1992 to 71 percent in 2000. Research
conducted by the Educational Testing Services suggests that this jump is
partially due to the pressure cooker environment of high schools.
Michele Goldfarb, the director of Penn's Office of Student Conduct, said that
these nationwide findings correlate with the situation at Penn.
"The figures that we've heard nationally are true here as well," Goldfarb said.
"You'd like to think that that wasn't the case, but that's probably wishful
thinking."
In the spring of 1999, a University Honor Council survey found that only 54
percent of Penn students considered copying homework to be cheating.
Moreover, 61 percent of the students indicated that they would not report a case
of cheating to the Office of Student Conduct.
National findings about cheating its implications at Penn are pretty clear: acts of
academic dishonesty are on the rise at universities and Internet plagiarism is
"in." Judging from the incoming wave of technology-savvy high school students,
breaches of academic integrity aren't abating.
"Students are growing up with technology that makes Internet plagiarism
simple. It is easy to use, and almost all written sources are available on the
Internet," McCabe said. "The numbers are creeping up, and I would expect them
to increase significantly as time goes by."
The technology is indeed simple -- just typing a topic name into a search
engine can result in vast amounts of information. And the hundreds of term
paper banks online -- from superior-termpapers.com to geniuspapers.com --
make it even easier.
To top it off, many students don't consider what they're doing unethical.
"Some students actually believe that they're not doing anything wrong,"
McCabe said. "They have this attitude that they're doing research. They don't
think that they need to cite because everything on the Internet is public
information."
These days, universities across the nation are struggling to confront and
combat this new form of plagiarism. While part of the solution lies in redefining
the concept of academic integrity, a lot of it involves preventing "cut and paste
plagiarism" before it occurs.
Developing an honor code that clearly lays out a university's standards for
honesty and the consequences for violating these rules has been a good
starting point, according to McCabe.
His research shows that academic honor codes effectively reduce cheating. In
several university surveys over the past decade, McCabe concluded that
serious test cheating on campuses with honor codes is typically one-third to
one-half lower than on campuses that do not have honor codes.
"I really think it matters what sort of community you create on your campus and
how students perceive the issue," McCabe said. "What an honor code does is to
transfer the issue to the responsibility to the students. Honor codes have
students thinking about the issue and struggling with the issue. They get some
moral education."
Having an honor code is one thing -- upholding it is a completely different
story.
At Penn, for example, the Code of Academic Integrity defines seven acts --
ranging from plagiarism to multiple submissions of a single paper -- that
interfere with the pursuit of knowledge. Yet a 2000 University Honor Council
survey showed that only 6 percent of students were aware of the official rules.
Forty-five percent of the students said that they never even read the code.
As a result, the 24-member organization has been making more concentrated
efforts over the past year and a half to educate the student body. The council
declares an "Academic Integrity Week" every fall and lets incoming students see
the Code of Academic Integrity when they sign a "pledge card" promising not to
cheat.
"As an academic institution, academic integrity is one of the pinnacles of a
place that makes Penn Penn," said Wharton and College senior Alan Bell,
co-chairman of the University Honor Council. "My interest is getting the message
out. I'd rather do the prevention so people don't get into jams."
While some have celebrated the council's efforts, others feel as though Penn's
administration could be doing a better job addressing this issue.
"The problem lies on the enforcement side," said Rebecca Kowal, a political
science teaching assistant. "The cases are detected, and Penn does not seem
to punish offenders of plagiarism very strongly, so you have cases where the
offender has plagiarized multiple times and is still not expelled."
Many believe that it will take more than a code, signed or unsigned, to contend
with the surge in plagiarism.
Diane Waryold, executive director of the Center for Academic Integrity,
suggests that university professors need to openly address the issue of
plagiarism with their students.
"They're the folks who can create climates in their classrooms that can get it on
the radar screen," Waryold said. "If they talk about it and build relationships with
their students, then people won't cheat."
Sociology Professor Nathan Sivin, for instance, passes out a style guide to
students, detailing how to acknowledge sources. As a result, according to Sivin,
students have no excuse for not citing their research properly.
"In large lecture courses, I have to remind students that they can do themselves
irreparable harm by giving in to temptation, and that it is very likely that they will
be caught," he said. "In seminars, when we discuss research use of the Web, I
take care to mention that if a student can find something to copy, an instructor
can find it even quicker."
Choosing not to rely solely on their professors, many universities have invested
in high-tech tools that detect plagiarism. Over the past year, a growing number
of institutions have signed up for a service called turnitin.com, which scans
student papers to see if material has been copied from the Internet or from other
papers in its database.
While this software has proved very effective at some universities, there is some
concern at Penn.
"There's a possibility that it would send a message to our students that we're not
trusting," Goldfarb said. "Plus, there's a potential for inconsistency. Unless you
make it mandatory, which is unlikely at a school like ours, what you've got is an
opportunity for real disparities in treatment."
Currently, Penn does not subscribe to turnitin.com or any other plagiarism
detection service, although the subject is still under discussion.
The increases in reported plagiarism at Penn might demonstrate a need for
such technology. A 1999 survey conducted by the Honor Council reveals that
the number of students accused of academic integrity violations had nearly
doubled over the course of a year, but both professors and students alike are
aware that plagiarism occurs -- probably much more than it should.
"I have run fairly regularly into plagiarism, and even more often into cases
where I could tell it had taken place but couldn't make an airtight case," Sivin
said.
A professor who asked to remain anonymous has observed a lapse of
academic integrity among students, as well.
"How much cheating and plagiarism occurs today I don't know, but I do know
the opportunities to cheat and plagiarize have been on the rise over the past 20
years," the professor said.
A student, who also wished to withhold his name, said that it was easy to get
away with cheating at Penn, especially in large classes.
"When you have an exam in a big lecture hall, it's not too hard to position
yourself with a good view of another person's test," he said. "I've done it before. I
think a lot of people have."
Apathy toward cheating -- and the notion of integrity in general -- has left many
wondering whether it is the values of college students that should be
challenged.
"Many people treat academic integrity as being very trivial," said Education
Professor Joan Goodman, who co-teaches a freshman seminar on integrity. "If
you're willing to cheat, then you're going to find a lot of other offenses that you're
comfortable doing. It's unfortunate to reduce academic cheating to a petty
unimportant offense equivalent to jaywalking in the streets."
Philosophy Professor Rahul Kumar expressed his frustration with this casual
attitude.
"I have had to deal with cases of cheating and am always disturbed by how
unrepentant students have been," Kumar said. "Aside from the usual pro forma
apologies, students exposed of cheating usually behave like children who have
been caught with a hand in the cookie jar."
A teaching assistant who asked to remain anonymous said she attributes
students' lapses in academic integrity to their outlook on learning.
"I have noticed that students at Penn are more interested in doing well than
learning a subject," she said. "Given their goals, I think students weigh their
ability to 'get away with it' over any moral objections they might have to being
dishonest."
At any rate, sooner or later students will have to move on into a world where
they won't be coddled.
"The University is a very protected environment in which to learn how to live in
the world," Sivin said. "Of those who don't get caught cheating here, many will
get caught later, and that will be the end of promising or successful careers."
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