A student frantically looks around their dormitory late at night looking for a classmate. A paper is due in the mailbox of a teacher at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. But one classmate is out at the bar while another has handed it in early and has head home. What is left for this student to do?

CourseHero.com has created a web space for students to submit former assignments and has categorized it by the schools, subjects, and then teachers. Fairfield’s page has papers from over 40 different departments ranging from communications to economics to biology.

Because the site has claimed to have no intention of students handing in the work post, and claims to provide study material only, it is unclear as to whether they are in violation of anything. The University has not found that any of the papers taken from the site have been handed in, but has launched a University-wide investigation, with members of Student Affairs and Academics participating together.

The Mirror was notified of the issue when a member of the Visual and Performing Arts Department located papers submitted by a past student, Jessica Parnell, who has since transferred out of the University.

Thomas Pellegrino, dean of students, was originally notified of this occurrence.

“Our policies on academic honesty both as contained in our manuals and in course syllabi are clear that students may not appropriate information, ideas or the language of other people and submit it as their own,” he said.

Professor of Art History Phillip Eliasoph was notified by fellow professor that one of his classes featured a paper posted by Parnell.

“The notion that a student’s independent, original research is fueled  by external papers, class notes, or even exams published on-line, shakes to the very core the entire academic enterprise of original scholarship,” said Eliasoph.

“Truthfully, I find this to be an appalling new twist on the traditional plagues of plagiarism and academic theft.”

Pellegrino agreed by saying, “We are now seeing a new form of plagiarism.”

Eliasoph said as to the matter of disciplinary action that is up for the Dean’s office to decide “but he feels confident none of this would possibly pass a ‘smell test.’”

As for CourseHero.com, the Web site states its position as the number one study-help material destination on the Internet with over 500,000 courses and five million papers. The University is looking into the matter of the students who have posted content on the Fairfield page.