campus: Cheaters punished
Stephen Thomson, Staff Writer

Forty-four SFU students who committed plagiarism are now receiving punishment almost one year after being caught.

Students from a business and economics class held last fall have been suspended for up to four semesters on the recommendation of the University Board on Student Discipline. Currently, five students are appealing the decision to the senate committee on disciplinary appeals.

This began last year when the SFU economics department received a warning to keep their eyes open for similar-looking projects for a BUEC 333 course. The tip came from a faculty member at the University College of the Fraser Valley who became concerned when he discovered versions of the completed project on an employee's computer.

After a large number of suspiciously similar projects were submitted for grading, an intensive investigation began that involved 47 students, one of whom has since been exonerated.

The accusations of plagiarism caught a lot of local and national media attention. At SFU, the administration became extremely concerned.

"A couple of things happened as a result of this episode," Roger Blackman, acting dean of arts said. "One [of which] was a renewed attention to the issue of academic dishonesty in courses."

A task force was established by the administration to examine the issue of academic honesty and integrity and how to further educate students to avoid cheating. A report is due this semester.

"That report will help guide us in ways in which we can take a more concerted approach...and reduce the incidents of academic dishonesty," Blackman said.

Another result of the BUEC 333 case was renewed interest in SFU subscribing to a web-based service called Turnitin.com. The service detects plagiarism by comparing students' assignments and projects to sources on the Internet and in its database.

Since SFU's subscription to Turnitin.com began in the summer, it has only been used in a few classes. In each case, students have been alerted to its use in hopes of deterring plagiarism.

"I think if students know that their work is going to be submitted to Turnitin or a service like that, they are much less likely to succumb to the temptation to plagiarise," Blackman said. However, it is yet to be seen if Turnitin.com will catch on.

Computing science instructor Russ Tront has used Turnitin.com in his classes. "I find it disappointing that even in fourth-year courses people are sometimes caught cheating," Tront said.

He calls the software a deterrent and screening mechanism. It is a deterrent because students are supposed to be informed on the course outline or in the first week of classes that the service will be used. However, the instructor maintains that it is not a silver bullet solution to the problem as it will not catch all kinds of plagiarism. And even with students detected by the service, Tront stressed that teachers must still investigate each individual case for validity.

Although worries about academic dishonesty continue, the situation with the BUEC 333 students has been resolved.

The hope is that this situation will give students the message that there is zero tolerance for academic dishonesty, but also that "they will take some support from this strong action because it must be extremely frustrating for those honest students to see a small number of fellow students taking an unfair academic advantage," Blackman said.

With files from Josh Devins

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