Statistics released by the Dean of Student’s office show some surprising numbers: While the number of punished cases of academic dishonesty is going down, the number of unpunished cases is going up.
From 2000 to 2005, a student faced disciplinary action in only slightly more than 10 cases per year on average.
Since then, the number has not gone above 10 per year, and last academic year there were only four adjudicated cases.
This decrease in adjudicated cases has coincided with an increase in the number of overall cases reported. In 2005, the Dean of Students office first started recording reports of academic dishonesty where no disciplinary action was taken. That year, 15 instances occurred where no disciplinary action was taken, in contrast to 27 last year.
Robert Burford, a judicial specialist in the Dean of Student’s office, said professors have become more conscientious of potential cheating, which might explain the discrepancy between reports and disciplinary action.
He said professors can make referrals to the Dean’s office, and referrals do not go on transcripts or any other permanent record. The office keeps a record on file for 10 years, should the student be referred again.
“Our office has done a better job of getting the word out that (referral) is an option for faculty, so that they can report it to our office without another level of involvement,” he said. “The faculty really try to handle these situations within the classroom, unless there is a habitual problem or it is a very serious case of academic dishonesty.”
Burford gives class presentations about how to avoid plagiarism, the most common offense he deals with. He said that teachers’ punishments are often severe enough that he doesn’t have to intercede.
“Faculty at UNM typically give either a failing grade on the assignment, where there was an issue of academic dishonesty, or completely fail them out of their class,” Burford said. “I feel these are certainly heavy penalties for the students, particularly because they may have to retake the course again if it is needed for their major, or they could face the possibility of having lost their scholarship should they be dropped from a course with an ‘F’.”
Ryan Goodman, a sociology professor, said he has dealt with academic dishonesty in his classroom and referred cases to the Dean’s office, where they were dealt with “appropriately.”
“A lack of enforcement would seem to tie our hands,” he said. “It minimizes our ability to try and stop academic dishonesty.”
Punishment ranges from warnings to expulsion, depending on the severity of the case and how remorseful the student is, Burford said.
Student Joshua Chappell said he supports some form of punishment for academic dishonesty.
“It’s more of a student culture thing that needs to be dealt with indirectly than through formal reprimands,” he said. “I think people should be failed for that particular assignment, not necessarily from the class. That should make enough of a dent in peoples’ GPAs to motivate them to not do that.”
Chappell said a three strikes policy might work, but he expects that most students who rely on plagiarism tend to fail in the university setting, anyway.
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“I’m a big fan of three-strikes-you’re-out policies. If they catch you doing it more than once, it should definitely result in suspension or expulsion,” Chappell said. “But people who tend to rely on things other than their own intelligence tend to crash and burn within the first two years.” .anyway.”
