Texas A&M Laredo fires teacher for blogging names of plagiarisers

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/topstories...r_for_blog_post

Texas A&M International fires teacher for blog post

University dismisses faculty member for releasing students’ names, grades

Clay Sampson

Published: Monday, November 17, 2008

Updated: Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Texas A&M International University in Laredo fired a professor for publishing the names of students accused of plagiarism.

In his syllabus, professor Loye Young wrote that he would “promptly and publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating or stealing.” After he discovered six students had plagiarized on an essay, Young posted their names on his blog, resulting in his firing last week.

“It’s really the only way to teach the students that it’s inappropriate,” he said.

Young, a former adjunct professor of management information systems, said he believes he made the right move. He said trials are public for a reason, and plagiarism should be treated the same way. He added that exposing cheaters is an effective deterrent.

“They were told the consequences in the syllabus,” he said. “They didn’t believe it.”

The six students received F’s and were reported to the school, but their grades may not stand because of Young’s blog post, according to insidehighered.com.

Young, who also operates a computer business in Laredo, was terminated for violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that prohibits the release of students’ educational records without consent. But he said he does not believe he infringed on anyone’s privacy.

“You have to hold them accountable,” he said. “If you don’t, you hold a grave danger of having an illiterate society.”

Renita Coleman, a UT assistant professor who taught a journalism course on ethics in the spring, said there are better ways to handle plagiarism.

“I don’t think that it serves anybody well to publicly humiliate them,” she said. “It doesn’t teach anybody that it’s wrong.”

Coleman said each university has specific guidelines for dealing with cheating, and situational factors should be taken into account. She said she has dealt with repentant plagiarists who weren’t punished severely since they said they learned a lesson.

“Admitting your mistake and making an effort to fix it goes a long way,” she said. “Motivations matter.”

Coleman added that privacy should be considered in the instance of plagiarism.

“It’s not the same violation as, say, robbing a house,” she said. “It’s not something that’s an illegal act.”

While Coleman stressed that a university is a learning environment, Young said students who plagiarize should be publicly responsible.

“I think we went wrong when we, leaders, decided better self-esteem meant better learning,” he said. “But in fact, it’s the opposite.”

Young's move was analogous to that of a CBC cameraman who in September 1985 took a video while walking backwards through Pearson Airport International Arrivals area, from (post-customs) baggage-clearance to the boarding gate.

As the Canadian government (owner of CBC as well as the airport) then wasn't too thrilled at having the security lapse revealed, so the chopf##ks who administer TX A&M!

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Students' names are indeed protected by FERPA, and those regulations are ferocious. If they selected their names NOT to be released from the university's central database, the prof totally fvcked up. Idiot. You can't even post grades outside your office with students' names.

Although when it comes to plagiarism; I am quite extreme. FAIL. You steal a piece, you fail the course. Pretty effing simple. And you get routed to the University's Ethics council or whichever similar body. And if you get kicked out, I won't cry one tear.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Students' names are indeed protected by FERPA, and those regulations are ferocious. If they selected their names NOT to be released from the university's central database, the prof totally fvcked up. Idiot. You can't even post grades outside your office with students' names.

Although when it comes to plagiarism; I am quite extreme. FAIL. You steal a piece, you fail the course. Pretty effing simple. And you get routed to the University's Ethics council or whichever similar body. And if you get kicked out, I won't cry one tear.

Sister Len means business

God help us if she is given a position in the Obama Administration

[HAL 9000 96]

Students' names are indeed protected by FERPA, and those regulations are ferocious. If they selected their names NOT to be released from the university's central database, the prof totally fvcked up. Idiot. You can't even post grades outside your office with students' names.

Although when it comes to plagiarism; I am quite extreme. FAIL. You steal a piece, you fail the course. Pretty effing simple. And you get routed to the University's Ethics council or whichever similar body. And if you get kicked out, I won't cry one tear.

HAL 9000 always challenges his undergrads. If they are smart enough to get away with plagiarism, then they earn their grade. Either way.

[Niels Bohr 72]

Plagerism, well, it's hard not to plagerise nowadays. And, it's also becoming increasingly difficult to think of something that nobody thought of before. So, there has to be steps that needs to be taken before something devastating that could happen to a student.

However, it is a wrong approach to publish a name to the public who plagerised.

Edited November 19, 2008 by Niels Bohr

[peejay 327]

Although when it comes to plagiarism; I am quite extreme. FAIL. You steal a piece, you fail the course. Pretty effing simple. And you get routed to the University's Ethics council or whichever similar body. And if you get kicked out, I won't cry one tear.

So then...why will Joe Biden be our next VP of the USA? He has had big issues with plagerism in his political career and it hasn't seemed to hurt him. It goes to show ya that even cheats can make it big in America. So much for standards?

[HAL 9000 96]

Because Len was Joe Biden's professor.

[jundp 191]

Plagerism, well, it's hard not to plagerise nowadays. And, it's also becoming increasingly difficult to think of something that nobody thought of before. So, there has to be steps that needs to be taken before something devastating that could happen to a student.

However, it is a wrong approach to publish a name to the public who plagerised.

It is not hard to NOT plagiarize. It is incredibly easy, intelligent, wise, and necessary to give credit to one's source. There is a difference between claiming someone's work as your own, and using someone's words WITH PROPER CITATION in your own work.

There are steps taken to "prevent something devastating" from happening to a student. It's called teaching them how to cite sources, how to paraphrases and cite sources, how to critically think for themselves, and how to have honor and integrity.

My policy is easily spelled out for my students: if you plagiarize you will fail the semester. No questions asked.

Many h.s. students today don't understand that copy work and sharing answers is also plagiarism. UW loves my English department because we really REALLY stress proper citation and we do have severe consequences for plagiarism.

That being said, yeah, publishing the students' names was stupid.

[Niels Bohr 72]

jundp,

Obviously there are ways to cite the sources. However, there are so much detail now to write a simple paper. Every sentence that's written has to be scanned. If the paper consists of 100 pages, imagine the length of time we need to finish the paper.

It's not so simple to just NOT plagerize. Almost everything you say is plagerism if you're writing a synopsis, definition, technical paper, opinions on a story, etc...

Edited November 19, 2008 by Niels Bohr

[HAL 9000 96]

That's why footnotes help in those cases, Dr. Bohr. Specific information doesn't need to be cited to the dot on the 'i' but can be sourced in an organized manner. There's plenty of resources and methods available to not pass oneself off as a cheat.

[Niels Bohr 72]

I hear ya, Hal9000. I was trying to make a point that common knowledge easy to adapt as your own ideas such as when you're deriving a formula that you have done on your own, but, then someone before you have done it already and they called it differently. It's difficult to draw the line on this.

[jundp 191]

I don't know if this works for unis or not, but I use a resource called www.turnitin.com in which the student submits his paper electronically and the site scans for plagiarism. It's worked wonders to cut down plagiarism in my department.

Of course, I'm talking about English/History/Liberal Arts papers. I imagine it might be more difficult for science or math.

[HAL 9000 96]

I don't know if this works for unis or not, but I use a resource called www.turnitin.com in which the student submits his paper electronically and the site scans for plagiarism. It's worked wonders to cut down plagiarism in my department.

Of course, I'm talking about English/History/Liberal Arts papers. I imagine it might be more difficult for science or math.

Yeah at least for actual science publications its pretty hard to get away with flasely-claimed data since many readers already have a historical idea of who first addressed what experiments. Course papers are also fairly easy to spot for plaigarism since most are responses to specific questions based on established literature.

[Chica Yeyé 41]

Although when it comes to plagiarism; I am quite extreme. FAIL. You steal a piece, you fail the course. Pretty effing simple. And you get routed to the University's Ethics council or whichever similar body. And if you get kicked out, I won't cry one tear.

So then...why will Joe Biden be our next VP of the USA? He has had big issues with plagerism in his political career and it hasn't seemed to hurt him. It goes to show ya that even cheats can make it big in America. So much for standards?

Back to topic -- I am with jundp and HAL9000 at the same time. If a student quotes, footnotes, and references properly; things are different. There are ways to spot a cheater for God's sake. And yes, they should be failed from courses.

And turnitin.com is a great resource indeed. I used it in Canada back when I was young and restless.

p.s. UW does not love jundp's department... they pay us to say so

Edited November 19, 2008 by *Len*

[IAMX 3,055]

Last I checked, plagiarism gets you tossed from school, at very least.

I think humiliation and keeping the ability to continue school is a better option, and lesson.

Edited November 19, 2008 by SRVT