Student appeals to Board
English Department's plagiarism policy queried
By JIM CZUPOR Kansan Staff Writer
Plagiarism at the University of Kansas can warrant any one or all three possible penalties of; failure in the course, suspension from the university and expulsion.
Despite the fact that a working definition of plagiarism constantly remains in limbo, the chance of severe penalties that can be inflicted upon a student for committing such an act is not nullified.
At this moment a case is being appealed to the Board of Disciplinary Appeals by a student (who wishes to remain anonymous) because he plagiarized a theme and received an "F" from the English I course. He now has an incomplete until his appeal is once again heard.
"I just looked through Cliff's Notes," he admitted, "to get some ideas and ended up copying directly from the notes, which he (the teacher) later told me was about 80 per cent of the paper. I wasn't thinking about what I was doing."
After making an appointment with Donald Warders, acting assistant professor of English and Thurston Moore, director of the freshman / sophomore English department, he learned he would fail the course. Moore said he would fail because he had plagiarized on a theme and he did so on an in-class theme, which Moore said is more severe than plagiarizing on out - of - class themes.
Moore advised the student of his right to appeal the decision and he did to Donald K. Alderson,
10 KANSAN Feb.13 1970
dean of men and to the University Disciplinary Board (UDB).
Peter George, Tuckahoe, N.Y., law student has elected to defend the student in question. George said, "I want to make all University regulations consistent and most important I want to get this fellow a grade from the course with the exception of an "F." He didn't deserve an "F."
George says he feels the consistency lacking stretches back and forth between University regulations and the regulations of the English department.
"Now maximum penalty as the University states," George said, "implies a minimum penalty also exists, just as you write down the number one, you expect the number two to follow. But the minimum penalty as such is left up to the English department."
The English department has recorded in its freshman syllabus a maximum and minimum penalty for plagiarism. The minimum is receiving an "F" in the course. The maximum is expulsion from the University. "This," George says, "is directly contrary to the University regulations."
Moore of the English department disagrees with George. The
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partment is rewarding competent cheaters and not the others. The regulations should be applied uniformly or not at all."
Moore defended the English departments' right to give an "F" in the course because it would be unfair to give the cheating student a "C" or "D", he said, when the honest student struggles through the semester unaided to earn a "C."
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As the involved student admits, "I know a lot of people who have plagiarized on out-of-class themes and flunked the theme but got the chance to write it over again.
The student in this case finished with a "C" grade but now has an incomplete. "I don't see any educational value in taking the course over again," he said, "if I already got a "C" out of it."
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glish department makes an arbitrary distinction between more and lesser acts of cheating. In this case the student received a punitive "F."
maximum and minimum penalty, he said, was placed in the syllabus merely as a warning to the student to draw his attention to University regulations.
"Another guy in my house wrote a paper from "Cliff's Notes" and got an "A" on the paper. A friend of his copied the paper and got an "F"; but got the chance to rewrite it. He then got a "C." I don't think the English department is being very consistent."
"There doesn't seem to me to be any discrepancy since the UDB upheld our decision," he said.
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George said the English department admits having several cases of plagiarism a year but only a very few have received a grade of "F."
On the other hand, Moore said he thought perhaps 10 cases of plagiarism occur every semester and each was handled with a different degree of punishment.
George said, "The English de-
George said he feels, "The En-
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