Once again I am left speechless. A principal plagiarizing in a graduation speech? Holy moly. I am ready to go out and protest!

There's another sad arena in all this, and that is those who create original works for sale. I was approached by a doctoral student in my office to write his dissertation for him! He offered me $5k! Worse, he was in a management tier above me. It was quite an ethical dilemma for me— report him, and to whom? His academic advisor? The president of my company?

I won't lie, it was tempting. I resolved it for myself by offering my guidance and to help do the rest of his research compilation. I stipulated in no uncertain terms that if I thought ANY of his work was plagiarized, I would go full force into reporting him, all the way back to the original authors and publishers. He took my offer and I only charged him $2k. I still often wonder if I did the right thing. I didn't do the write thing.

To this day I think of it as our dissertation.

I'm not a mother or a teacher, but my sister is both. She said it's unbelieveable how many students turn in papers/reports that actually have text message abbreviations in them. They aren't learning correct grammar and they write the way they talk...er, text, actually! My opinion of the effects of technology on our youth changes everyday........it's a double edged sword in so many ways. LOL What is to become of us?? HeeHee

Maybe I am old...and the academia that I knew was not impacted by the legal system as described. Heck, back then, students were always made to pay for their foolishness...and their parents participated in the punishment as it was a reflection on them.

Based on the "new" rules, I have therefore broken the law,..., but I would do it again immediately, without concern for the offender or the potential legal issues.

Academic integrity must be upheld.

Doing what is right is not always easy.

I do, however, understand your concern.

I just believe in and have always been taught to enforce academic integrity.

I agree that students who cheat are beyond scum.

-Vic

Yeah only now the parents are the ones calling their lawyers. A few years ago I successfully talked my way into a statistics class that I didn't have the required pre-reqs for by saying to the Professor, "look I'm a great student and I'm old so if you have to fail me my parents won't be calling you".

From a different point of view.............

I had a lecturer write to me when I did my Bachelor Degree. Said lecturer returned my marked assignment with a note to say she had kept a copy of my paper to use as a teaching tool.

I flipped! How dare she do that without my permission? I assure you I soon let her know. I was very angry and demanded that she destroy, or post back to me, the copy that she'd made.

Of course I never knew for sure whether she in fact did keep a copy or not, and I guess there's no way I could ever find that out.

Vic, You would not even believe these days how much people get away with. I think it might also depend on the school but at my university the administration is scared to death to kick someone out of a program even if they plagiarize. And there are lots of other outrageous stories I could tell you. The administration has no backbone whatsoever. I find it appalling to be honest with you. But I have to cover myself by following the strict rules because I don't have tenure yet.

To everyone -- thanks again for listening to me vent! What makes it worse is that I went out of my way several times this semester to help the student out. Anyhow, I'll keep you posted on what happens. My hunch is the student will be given a zero on the assignment (pretty wimpy) but it will still give her an F in the course. I will feel delighted to give her the F!!!

Hey JessieSue, that's another pet peeve of mine!! Hard to believe that a student would turn in a paper with text abbreviations. I will often get emails from them written in bizarro shorthand. Then I start thinking -- have I turned into an old fogie??? Am I one of those people I hated when I was younger? the kind that would say "well, when we were growing up they used to do it this way."

natalie,

try being in a room with a buch of 14- 15 yr old girls. it's nuts! they really do speak in text!

That's true! My neighbors' kids come down to visit me a lot and they know that I have a rule: English Only! I kick them out if they do go into "textese" and they have embraced the challenge in my presence. Holding people to higher standards, students in particular, is our responsibility to the world!