Vindauga

As you well know, I hate plagiarism.

I’ve had many instances of plagiarism in my classes. Student responses to being caught run the gambit from outright denial to full-on apologies. But my friend Tom just told me about the worst case I have ever heard. By ‘worst’ I don’t mean ‘most plagiarism’; I’ve gotten papers that have no original words in them. The worst in this case refers to the student’s response. This is amazing.

It starts out simply enough. Tom finds large pieces of the paper (if not the whole thing) online. BUSTED. Tom however, unlike me, is actually quite easy going with this kind of thing. All he wants is for the student to admit to the plagiarism and then he will just fail her for the paper (whereas I would fail her for the course). Now, it might be important to point out here that the course is an honors course, a mandatory course for those in the honors college. So, this student is an honors student (as the university is fond of reminding us: one of the best and the brightest).

As expected the student denies the plagiarism outright. Tom reveals the website. The student sticks to the party line. Up until this point, its pretty much the standard response. Tom is getting frustrated though; he doesn’t understand how someone can deny the evidence placed before them. He becomes more adamant about it. The student continues to deny it and now suggests that maybe the website stole her work. [I had a student tell me this once, I couldn't stop myself from laughing]. Tom has been trying to get the most amenable response possible; failing the student for the course gets her kicked out of the honors college. But all this evasion has worn on his nerves. He has all the evidence he needs to pursue the harshest possible penalty (an FF, which does not allow for “grade redemption”) and he informs the student and the dean of the honors college about the event.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, to last Friday. In Tom’s email box is a forwarded exchange between the student and the author of the website in question. The student was soliciting the author in order to get help with her plagiarism scandal; the student is hoping to show that she didn’t plagiarize. Tom isn’t convinced by this exchange so he begins to investigate. He discovers that the email address of the author in the forwarded message is close but not the email listed on the website. Tom sends an email to that address. Then, for fun, he tries to guess the login for the email that was listed in the forward. Amazingly he manages it. In the inbox are the emails for the forward and a message from someone in the IT department at the author’s web address. The person whose email address Tom has logged into had contacted the IT department in order to gain access to the author’s email address. The IT guy responded that he would have to confirm the identity before he could release the password.

Let me recap, it might be confusing.

Student plagiarized. Tom busted student. Student denied it. Tom presented evidence. Student claimed it was her work that was stolen. Tom gave up on student. Student provided evidence that she didn’t plagiarize (a conversation with the supposed author of the website). Tom suspected that the email was bogus. Tom contacted the real author. Tom gained access to the questionable email and found that someone (presumably the student) was trying to gain access to the author’s email. Tom contacted the IT department and made them aware of the situation.

The student is in serious trouble now. Plagiarism is bad but the instructor has a number of lesser punishments available. The student has moved on to forgery (faking the conversation) and fraud (pretending to be the author in order to gain access to her email). The Dean of the Honors College is now considering getting the university’s general consul involved. What had been an infraction that would have gotten the student a failing grade on a paper is now going to get her expelled and she could be subject to criminal action.

damn.