as evidence and allows faculty to take fewer risks in pursuing plagiarism", explains Eodice, also the University's turnitin.com systems administrator.
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Used by KU since 2002, turnitin.com is a subscription-based search engine with more than 4.5 billion pages of text in its database. Faculty members who choose to submit their students' papers, which the system then compares to the others already in the database, searching for similarities. When similar passages or sentences are found, they are highlighted using a color-coded system. But because turnitin.com highlights both cited and uncited similarities, it is up to the professor or instructor to determine whether plagiarism has occurred. The system retains every submitted paper for future use.
"I'm a firm believer that we can deter plagiarism at the front end, without policing it at the back end" she says.
But though she plays a central role in the University's use of turnitin.com, Oedice prefers prevention to punishment.
Because most plagiarism is the result of procrastination, Eodice thinks it can best be avoided through a more active and involved writing process, one that includes both students and professors. If a high level of professor involvement is impracticable, Eodice urges students who struggle with writing to visit the KU Writing Center for help. Students who do visit the center don't need to engage in plagiarism, she says, because they
have instead engaged in a process.
A similar measure that can be taken to prevent plagiarism and cheating is the implementation of an honor code. These codes are often statements signed by students that promise honest work and acknowledge the jurisdiction of a governing body in cases that violate the code. Because cheating has become such a large problem nationwide, more and more universities are employing honor codes to promote academic integrity and, by default, prevent cheating. They are also having success in doing so. McCabe's study found universities that employ honor codes generally have a level of cheating between one-third to one-half lower than that of universities that do not employ the codes.
KU lacks a university-wide honor code
"I wouldn't have any objection to an honor code," Shulenburger says, "but it would have to start with students. You can't force an honor code on a group of people."
eling those already employed by other universities as models. Ultimately, however, the code never materialized. According to the recorded minutes of a Feb. 3, 2004 Student Senate Executive Committee meeting, a committee member "suggested that it might be beneficial for a new Honor Code to be initiated by students rather than imposed on students by Governance."
Steps were taken, though, in late 2003 and early 2004 that could have led to the establishment of such a university-wide honor code. Based on a recommendation from the University Council's Academic Procedures and Policies Committee, the Student Senate's Executive Committee sought to establish a task force that would oversee the development of an honor code by mod-
Honor codes do tend to be more effective when they are student-initiated and enforced by peers, says Callahan, author of The Cheating Culture.
"It's different if it's imposed from above," he says. "An honor code needs to be more than rules in a handbook - it should be a social contract."
Even though the University doesn't have such a code, the KU School of Business employs their own unique honor codes.
Established in the late 1990s, the business school's code requires its students, both majors and non-majors, to sign an honor statement before each exam. The statement is a promise that the student has not received any unauthorized aid on the exam nor is aware of any other students receiving unauthorized aid.
In addition to the honor statement, the school also established two separate governing bodies to enforce the code. Comprised of students and three faculty members, the school's honor council is an advisory and legislative body that produces and modifies the code's policies and procedures.The school's honor
court, meanwhile, enforces these policies. Composed of student jurors and a faculty judge, the court hears cases of academic misconduct that occur within the school and, when necessary, metes out punishment.
But because there are punitive and authoritative elements, it is not purely an honor code, says Murray Levin, professor of business.
"In a true honor code," he says, "every member of that community is dutybound to shout about infractions and declare they won't tolerate it," as per the rules of a self-governing social contract. A code is not truly one of honor, Levin says, unless all community members are of equal status and united in a desire to uphold their collective ideals.
Learn for yourself
As is often the case, I wasn't caught when I cheated in my political science class. And, aided by the few illicitly acquired answers, I got an A on the test and, ultimately, an A in the class. In the end, though, it's not about the grades you take away from your time in college — it's what you've learned that's important. No one forced us to come to KU; we can stay or leave if we choose to. But while we're here, we may as well take advantage of the opportunity and learn something.
"If you're learning as an end," asks Callahan, "what's the point of cheating?"