Plagarism is ‘a fairly significant problem’ at USU

As the stresses of midterms lessen and the worries of finals begin, plagiarism may be more prevalent among Utah State University students than expected.

“It’s hard to measure, but it’s a fairly significant problem,” Campus Judicial Officer Dallin Phillips said.

According to the USU Honor System, plagiarism is defined as “representing, by paraphrase or direct quotation, the published or unpublished work of another person as one’s own in any academic exercise or activity without full and clear acknowledgment.”

“It also includes the unacknowledged use of using materials prepared by another person or by an agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic materials.”

During the 2004-05 academic school year, there were between 40 and 50 cases of plagiarism that reached the campus judicial arena, Phillips said.

Many times however, plagiarism is not discovered and if it is, the only other person that may find out is the professor, said Penny Byrne, journalism and communication department associate professor and assistant department head.

“If I have a student who I discover in reading a paper, has lifted a paragraph and put it in a paper without attributing it, I may fail the paper after talking to the student,” Byrne said.

Last year, Byrne received two papers that were essentially the same paper. She reported the incident to the department head, who resolved the problem without causing any further concern.

Each department determines how they deal with plagiarism, but most follow the university’s policy, Jeffrey Smitten, English department head, said.

“In general, it’s resolved within the department,” he said.

However, according to the Honor System, severe cases are referred to Juan Franco, vice president for student services, who either resolves the case or turns it over to the Student Honor Board.

“[Consequences] vary in discipline and depend on the extent of the plagiarism,” Franco said.

In years past, some cases were so severe that the university revoked a student’s degree, Phillips said.

Kai Steimle, a graduate student in aquatic, watershed and Earth resources, said she thinks plagiarism is a big problem on campus that goes unnoticed too often.

“Sometimes on this campus, people don’t understand that it’s stealing someone else’s idea,” Steimle said. “It may seem really innocent, but I don’t think everyone realizes how much everyone else does it.”

Many times, students are not aware of what they are doing when they take information from another source without attributing it, Steimle said.

“I think, probably, there are some cases that are a combination of ignorance or stupidity on their part,” Byrne said.

Many professors agree that one major pitfall is the Internet because of its growing popularity and vast amount of information.

“My general caution is to be very careful with the Internet; it’s so easy to find things on the Internet that will serve your purpose,” Smitten said. “Just be exceptionally careful.”

Phillips also encourages students to talk to their professors when they are stressed out about a paper instead of resorting to stealing someone else’s information.

Although no major cases of plagiarism have been reported to the university this year, students are still urged to be careful and remain aware of the university’s policy on the matter.

-mmackay@cc.usu.edu