Handling plagiarism at Indiana University

In an article titled Cheating a problem during finals week, the Indiana Daily Student quotes Pam Freeman, Associate Dean of Students at IU:

“When I meet with students, they say they knew it was wrong, they knew not to do it, but they just weren’t thinking, They were so stressed out that they took a chance, and they are regretful now that they had.”

IPBiz notes that this assessment of academic cheating is likely far more accurate than the inadvertent/unintentional plagiarism concoctions cooked up at Southern Illinois University (SIU).

Of plagiarism, at IU: The most frequently appearing form of violation is plagiarism. In the 2007-2008 academic year, IU saw 172 incidents of plagiarism and 111 instances of general cheating, according to the 2007-2008 Academic Misconduct Comparative Report.

Of punishment (which has some relevance to the flap in Texas over "outing" student plagiarists on the internet):

Expulsion, which permanently removes a student from all IU schools, is another option for administrators. Expulsion is used when administrators believe students won’t learn from their mistakes, Freeman said. The student ethics office, though, hands out more suspensions. Freeman said giving students the chance to learn from their mistakes is very important, but understanding that cheating is wrong is essential, too.

“If we want everyone’s transcript to be meaningful,” she said, “we have to push those standards.”

**Separately, note the matter involving Michael Pyshnov and the University of Toronto