The Iowa State Office of
Judicial Affairs
adjudicated 143 cases
of
academic dishonesty with 11 cases still
pending, during the
2003-2004 fiscal year,
and 113 cases in
2002-2003. Most of these
cases involved some form
of plagiarism, Dean of
Students Peter Englin
said. Most of the
students faced an
administrative hearing
and admitted their
responsibility. Most
students with first-time
offenses faced sanctions
of conduct probation.
Here's a breakdown of
the 2003-2004 cases:
By
college:
LAS--104
Engineering--15
Business--12
Design--5
FCS--10
Agriculture--5
Study Abroad--3
By class status:
Freshman--20
Sophomore--22
Junior--44
Senior--56
Graduate--11
Special--1
By gender:
Female--54
Male--100
Englin said students
most frequently
plagiarize by cutting
and pasting information
from the Internet
without properly citing
their sources. Other
forms of plagiarism
include students
presenting other
students' papers as
their own, and in a few
cases, buying papers
from Internet sources.
Professors often detect
plagiarism by
recognizing papers
they've seen before,
identifying work that is
too sophisticated for
the student, and/or
using the Internet to
track down the
plagiarized passages.
The
next step
Iowa State University
has a procedure for
faculty to deal with
suspected plagiarism and
other issues of academic
dishonesty. This
procedure is also
available in the
Student Information
Handbook.
Because academic
dishonesty is a student
conduct violation,
instructors must report
such incidents in
writing to the Dean of Students. Faculty should
not be deterred from
reporting cases of
plagiarism for fear of
being involved in
time-consuming All
University Judiciary
hearings. In 2001, the
Dean of Students Office
changed its academic
dishonesty policy to
allow for administrative
hearings for cases
involving undergraduate
students in place of AUJ
hearings. To report a
case of academic
misconduct or learn more
about ISU's policies and
procedures regarding
plagiarism, contact Dean
of Students Peter Englin
at 294-1022 or
penglin@iastate.edu
