According to The Associated Press, in the past several months it has become abundantly clear that our country is beginning to suffer from a severe "loss of integrity."
The AP points out that executives at Enron have deliberately lied to investors and employees. Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose has admitted to assert other people's work as his own, while Pulitzer Prize winning author Joseph Ellis blatantly lied to his students regarding service in the military. The list goes on and on. And unfortunately, this loss of integrity is not only limited to high profile individuals, it is also happening with today's youth.
A recent CNN report out of Piper, Kansas, detailed the ethical struggle faced by a high school biology teacher when she discovered that over 20% of her class had plagiarized their work. After closely examining her students' work, Christine Pelton realized that a substantial portion of her class had unethically used material from the Internet for their final semester project. Pelton's immediate action was to notify her supervising principal and the superintendent of the school district. Both individuals not only agreed with Pelton's charge of plagiarism against her students, but they also supported her decision that the students should fail the assignment.
However, after receiving numerous complaints from parents of these students, the district ordered her to be "easier on the guilty." Pelton did not agree with this perspective and in protest, resigned from her position.
The Kansas district's lack of strict discipline towards dishonesty in education serves as metaphor for all the policy makers, instructors, and other individuals who turn away when issues of academic dishonesty present themselves.
In many cases, these individuals look the other way due to uncertainty, department pressure or fear of legal action from the student. While these are valid and somewhat understandable reasons, by not taking action against students who are dishonest, we are only increasing the loss of integrity in our country.
Many argue that student's who plagiarize are unaware that they are doing so or do so out of fear of failure. These arguments are valid but somewhat futile. If the word "copy" comes up in any part of a student's writing process — whether it be a computer action or by hand and without any intention of citing the source, then it is an act of plagiarism. And a student who does so out of fear of failure needs to either seek professional help for personal issues or speak to their instructor about their academic concerns.
As a student, I find plagiarism pathetic. As an instructor, I find plagiarism intolerable and unforgivable. I cannot validate a student's progress towards some higher academic or personal goal, when it is clear that they have not done the work to get there. Furthermore, I believe that all of us have an ethical obligation to report and discipline acts of plagiarism.
Why? Because students who plagiarize will be out in the world some day in various professions — and that impacts us all.
While I was in graduate school in New Jersey, a classmate of mine deliberately took portions of another student's term paper and claimed it for his own. He proudly admitted it to several students on the day the paper was due. Several tenured faculty members were made aware of the situation, but took no action. Instead the student received an "A" on the paper. Why should we care? This same student graduated with a 4.0 and a degree in marriage and family therapy. A student who was repeatedly dishonest in his academic work is now entrusted with the care of broken families and foster children. That's why we should care.
For the most part, I am liberal in my views; however, when it comes to issues of academic dishonesty, I have no tolerance. Education has the special power to open people's eyes and to help guide them towards a good and honest future. If all of us (students and instructors alike) commit to the strict idea of punishing academic honesty, perhaps we can help build a more stable foundation of integrity in our country.
Karen Engler is a graduate student in literature. Reach her at
karen.engler@asu.edu.