As a newspaper, The Mirror treats issues of plagiarism and dishonesty with the utmost importance. It is time for students, faculty and administration at Fairfield to do the same.
A report which will be presented to faculty tomorrow criticizes this university for the relatively poor way the school handles matters of plagiarism and academic dishonesty when compared to schools like Villanova, Fordham and Princeton. In fact, before the creation of the report, said Dr. Ed Dew of the politics department, “virtually nothing was being done to combat the problem.” Dew stressed that “We can’t mislead the student so they are unaware exactly what the policy is” and also criticized the school for not being “in a strong place legally” on the issue.
This situation is unacceptable. Fairfield must make more of an effort to clearly define the definitions and standards of plagiarism and academic dishonesty, and do it in such a way that every student going here understands the rules. Already we have seen the effects of Fairfield’s lax attitude with respect to this issue in the controversy surrounding Dr. Curtis Naser of the philosophy department failing six students for plagiarism. Four of the students accused of plagiarism strongly deny the claims, yet Naser also defends his decision. Without explicit policies on the issue clearly stated to every student, situations like this will inevitably happen more frequently.
Still, this problem is not just for the administration to deal with. The report states that “most professors do not follow rules, as stipulated in the university catalog,” which mandates that professors contact the appropriate dean whenever an academic dishonesty charge is raised. As a result of this, students can commit numerous offenses of academic dishonesty with different professors and conceivably not have any of them reported to the dean. In order for any new plan with respect to these issues to work, faculty must do their jobs and contact the dean when instances of plagiarism and academic dishonesty arise.
In the same vein, students must also do more to combat this problem. When one student in a class cheats or plagiarizes material, it cheapens the real achievement of everyone else. Students should be more aggressive in policing themselves and trying to ensure that instances of plagiarism and academic dishonesty do not happen.
In order for Fairfield to continue its progress as an institution of higher learning, all segments of the university community must unite to combat plagiarism and academic dishonesty. If this is not done, these issues will continue to plague the university, hurt our reputation and cheapen our hard-earned diplomas.
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