A student in Donna Knaff's class plagiarized a paper.
As part of his punishment, he was supposed to attend a panel discussion about plagiarism with her on Wednesday. The student didn't show.
"I have never in my career seen so many students not willing to come meet with us," said Dean of Students Randy Boeglin, a panelist.
The Center for the Advancement of Scholarship in Teaching and Learning, a faculty group at UNM, presented the panel, "Student Plagiarism in the Online World," in Dane Smith Hall.
"It's a moving target," said Susan Romano, a professor in the English Department.
The creative possibilities for plagiarism are endless, she said.
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Susan Deese-Roberts, CASTL director, said plagiarism incidents have increased due to the accessibility of electronic resources such as full-text articles on scholarly databases and online sites that sell pre-written papers.
Presently, Romano said, faculty look at plagiarism in a system of transgression and punishment. A student plagiarizes, and the instructor figures which punishment is suitable.
"We don't think of it as an ongoing teaching project," she said.
Students often don't know how to cite things correctly, she said, or they don't realize that if the majority of the argument is not theirs, that's plagiarism.
She said plagiarism is often the result of carelessness or lack of practice.
"We can't do it all," she said. "There isn't a definitive way of teaching students not to plagiarize."
Instead, Romano emphasized what she called "teachable moments," times when a disaster can turn into a productive experience for a student.
"I want educational moments, too," Boeglin said. "But I see lots of students that need work. We tell them there are consequences, but they never receive them."
Boeglin encouraged instructors in the audience to report plagiarism and cheating to the Dean of Students office, even if they don't want the office to get involved in disciplinary action. That way, Boeglin said, a record can be kept. Some instructors might change their minds about the severity of penalties they plan to enforce once they hear a student has been reported three or four times, he said.
Instructors should have someone besides themselves and the student present when a student is confronted about plagiarism, Boeglin said. An extra witness could prevent later accusations from an angered student about what happened at that meeting, he said.
"Students are more willing to lie," he warned. "We live in a different world nowadays."
Kathleen Keatiny said the two incidents of plagiarism she's decided to take to the Dean of Students office were the result of students panicking late in the semester. She flunked the students but allowed them to make up the grade by rewriting a paper and turning it in within 30 days after the semester was over, she said.
Instructors should make their assignments as specific as possible and look at multiple drafts of an essay before it is due to prevent plagiarism, she said.
Knaff said she had done that, but her no-show student found a way around it.
"I tried to tell him all we have is our academic honesty," she said.
