Well, the verdict is in on the plagiarism case that I wrote about on Monday. I called the student into my office yesterday after the final exam and asked him one last time if he had come up with this elaborate experiment prior to turning in his paper on labeling theory. He looked me square in the eye and said that he had. I looked him back in the eye and told him that I didn't believe him.
I laid out the evidence, and my theory about what really had happened (that he had thought of this after the fact to cover his butt), and told him that in my view this constituted a second act of academic misconduct in the same class. Because of that, I told him, I was going to move forward with failing him for the course instead of just for the assignment. I informed him that he had the right to a hearing with the University to plead his case, but that I just didn't believe that he would risk his entire academic career for one paper in one class.
He dropped his head and said "You are exactly right. I made this up after the fact. I admit it. I was scared and panicked and didn't know what to do. I knew when I left your office that there was no way you were going to believe me. I wanted to turn around and fess up, but I couldn't. I screwed up."
So I read him the riot act for the second time in less than a week. I talked about how he tried to dig himself out a pretty deep hole by digging it deeper. I explained that ethics, integrity, honesty, and all of those things are so important in criminal justice, and in life. I told him that I would be failing him for the class (even though he got an A on the final exam), but he would be welcome to take it again in the spring. I said that he had a lot of proving to do - to me and to himself that this behavior didn't reflect the kind of person he was. I tried to condemn the behavior while at the same time let him know that everyone makes mistakes (a la bleeding heart Scooby P...). Now was the time to move forward with his life.
I do believe that students can bounce back from these kinds of incidents. Granted - this one was a bit more egregious than others - but still there is something that can be learned and life can go on. We'll see whether this student is able to respond - right now it is just too early to tell. At this point the only thing I do know is to expect the unexpected with students. Let's hope for a quieter spring semester...
6 comments:
For what it's worth, I think you absolutely made the right decision. I can't believe that rather than just admit that he'd cheated, he concocted a crazy-ass story and hoped you'd swallow it -- talk about compounding lies. It's sad, really: fear of facing the consequences of his actions only brought about more severe consequences. Hopefully he listened to what you were saying and learned his lesson.
I also think you made the right decision with respect to this case. However, I don't think it's appropriate to post all the details, including quotes from the paper in question, while the issue is ongoing. This may violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. If I were you, I'd delete these posts before your resourceful cheater finds them.
I support your decision. I recently had a very similar incident with a student - the sad part for me is that I work soley with adult learners; this person was already employed by the criminal justice system. When I find plagarism, it is an automatic F on that assignment; however, when I counsel the student I will allow a re-write, taking the penalty for late. A second instance and they fail the course; and I have a discussion with their academic advisor. Finally, ALL of my syllabi and during the first class meeting I am very clear about expectations.
Dr. Warning - thanks for the comment and I certainly appreciate your concern for the FERPA rights of the student. Given that I have not revealed any personally identifying information, and that there is no obvious way to connect any of my students to this posting, I feel that I am protecting the privacy interests of the student in this case. I think this is a very interesting question, though, and would appreciate anyone else's thoughts on this...
Interesting discussion. It sounds as if you were more than fair to the student. My wife is a faculty member, and has been more proactively lately to slow the cheating.
Also, I just finished an MS in CJ where several of the professors used one of the electronic paper comparison engines and simply the threat of it seemed to work well with the masses.
tough but fair decision. Perhaps the criminal justice system could learn from your approach...
Post a Comment