The Honor Code was put in place to deter cheating, but violators may receive different punishments depending on their class status.
“The Honor Code was designed to prevent students from taking unfair advantage and to help ensure scholarship,” said Tim Rogers, vice provost for student affairs.
Freshmen, however, may receive more leniency for the first offense in a judicial review hearing.
“The punishment depends on classification,” Rogers said. “Failing to site a source appropriately by a first year would not be viewed as harshly as if a graduate student committed the offense.
“Every case is unique and is reviewed independently,” he continued. “The student faces a review board made up of three students and three faculty advisers. The board is generally more understanding for a freshman than an upper classman.”
According to Bryan Coker, the director of student judicial affairs, students have the option to have their case viewed individually by the board, which judges by the situation not the student’s class.
“Individual students have the option of appearing before the Student Disciplinary Board for non-academic misconduct and the Academic Review Board for academic misconduct,” Coker said. As with every case in student judicial affairs, we consider each student’s situation individually. Thus, I would not say that the board is more lenient with freshmen.
“However, I think that boards recognize that freshmen and seniors are typically at different stages developmentally and in their respective college experiences, and factors such as this may be considered,” he said.
Faculty members also take the situation into consideration when deciding to punish students for Honor Code offenses.
“If it is unintentional, such as the class is learning how to properly document research, then yes, I am more lenient because that is a consequence of learning: mistakes,” said Beth Meredith, a lecturer in the English department. “Upper classmen should know better. If it is blatant – large chunks of word for word – with no attempt to give credit to the author or a recycled paper, then I don’t care if you’re an upper classman. The intent is obviously to cheat and not out of ignorance.”
The Honor Code clearly defines plagiarism in Hilltopics: “Plagiarism is using the intellectual property or product of someone else without giving proper credit.”
It goes on to give specific examples such as using a quote, summarizing, borrowing facts or submitting work created by another person without citing.
According to the code, taking a paper off the Internet would be a violation, even if you change a couple of words around. Furthermore, doing something that may seem small such as using a complete sentence without quotations or citation would also be a violation. In other words if you didn’t create it, you must give credit to the person that did, according to Meredith.
The English department is beginning to notice more upper classmen plagiarizing.
“I just received a memo from the English department about an inordinate amount of plagiarism in 200, 300 and 400 level English classes, not 100s as one might expect,” Meredith said.
The Office of Student Judicial Affairs sees about 1,500 total cases each year and the punishments range from sanctions to dismissal, Coker said.
“Flagrant abuses can lead to permanent dismissal, but we haven’t had that happen yet,” Rogers said. “Students have been indefinitely suspended for repeated abuses.”
With new technology, faculty members have access to a database to help them in the process of deciding if the paper has been lifted from the Internet, but they also use their own knowledge of the student’s capabilities.
“It could be a gut feeling sometimes, particularly if the student’s paper exceeds the standards of his previous papers,” Meredith said. “I also believe in educating myself as to what is out there on the Internet.
“Our department has access to a Web site designed to locate plagiarized material from the Internet,” she said. “We can simply upload the paper, and within 24 hours, if it’s on the Internet, it will find it. The results will highlight the plagiarized material and give links to the specific Web sites. I’ve caught about a half dozen students this way.”
On the other hand, students don’t believe the Honor Code is an effective means of deterring cheating, because students still cheat.
“The Honor Code isn’t effective,” said Suzann Hollingsworth, a sophomore in public relations. “I didn’t even know I had signed it until a teacher told our class on the first day that everybody signs it before entering the university.
“Everybody I know has at least glanced for an answer during a test, especially in really big classes that UT is famous for where students sit side-by-side,” she continued. “It’s not hard to see what another student has put for an answer in these classes.”
