It’s 2 a.m. and a student is typing up one of the last research papers of the semester. The student realizes that time is running out and the paper is due at 8 a.m. More information is needed to complete it, so the student cuts and pastes information from the Internet into the paper without realizing the consequences of his actions.
Because of scenarios like this, Judicial Affairs at Cal State Long Beach deals with cheating and plagiarism issues on campus and encourages students to do their own work.
Mike Hostetler, the associate vice president for student services and the dean of students, handles student honesty issues.
“I am quite aware that we do have cases of student dishonesty as far as cheating and plagiarism,” Hostetler said. “On an average per year, based on cases that were reported to our office, there are five plagiarism cases and five cheating cases.”
When it comes to the problem of student honesty at CSULB, Hostetler said, “I think every college and university does. Whenever there is a complaint against a student about anything, sooner or later, because I am the dean of students which is a part of Judicial Affairs office, I will hear about it.”
He added, “If a faculty member feels that they have caught a student cheating in their class or plagiarizing in their class, they can confront the student and if they feel the student did it, they can go ahead and impose a reasonable academic penalty on that student. For example, they can give an ‘F’ on the paper for plagiarism or they can choose to lower a student’s grade for cheating.”
Assistant journalism professor Christopher Karadjov explained how he had a student plagiarize in his class at CSULB and several students at the State University of New York at Oswego, where he used to teach.
He said one student took information from the Internet and used it without proper citation.
“The student was very repentant and they said they didn’t have the time and fell into temptation, claming they didn’t know they had to give proper attribution,” Karadjov said. “That still is not an excuse. The student was able to recover from receiving a fail on the assignment, and was still able to pass the class.”
He said he would not like to see the student kicked out of college just for one situation.
Black studies professor Bede Ssensalo, on the other hand, elaborated on his experience with students cheating.
“It takes two,” Ssensalo said. “If an instructor can prove that a student was aware that another student was cheating from them and they allow it, the other student that allowed [the cheating] is just as guilty.
“If a faculty member wants to, but they don’t have to, they can decide to go along with imposing their own academic penalty. [They] can also elect to file a complaint with the Judicial Affairs and Dean of Students Office. They may file the complaint against the student under the Student Code of Conduct, which is pertained in the in the university regulations. “
The university regulations can be found at www.csulb.edu/regs.
A formal complaint can also be filed and must be put in writing. The student then will have the opportunity to defend him or herself, Hostetler said.
“Furthermore, the process will continue with my judicial officer and me deciding how to handle the situation according to each individual student’s case,” Hostetler said.
He said a student’s first offense typically would put the student on probation with a warning that he or she has broken the Student Code of Conduct.
A second offense, however, Hostetler said, “There will be a problem.”
