A history of science professor charged 16 students this week with plagiarism on a final exam after several students copied essays from the Internet, Professor Katherine Tredwell said.

She said the class, History of Science Since the 17th Century, only has juniors and seniors.

"That's another reason of why it's alarming," Tredwell said. "They know better."

Some of the accounts are marginal but many were blatant acts of academic misconduct, Tredwell said.

"I've never had anything like this," Tredwell said. "This is an anomaly."

Tredwell said the charges are against a take-home final that had two essays.

"I told them that they could use outside sources as long as they cited it," Tredwell said.

Many students used the user-edited Wikipedia Web site to copy and paste entire essays, Tredwell said.

"After the first couple, it was very easy for us to spot," Tredwell said.

Hakeem Shakir, UOSA Honor Council chairperson, said these cases of plagiarism are obviously something negative that needs to be fixed.

The Honor Council's job is to promote academic integrity and to counsel administrators on policy changes.

"This case is a clear indicator of changes that need to be made," Shakir said.

Misconduct at OUo 16 students charged with plagiarism academic misconduct charges.o 191 cases of academic misconduct filed in the 2005-2006 academic year.o The incidences of academic misconduct occurred during finals week of the Spring semester.

Some students are not used to writing many papers and sometimes need a writing refresher course, Shakir said.

"We are hoping that changes with different approaches will curb the cases of academic misconduct each year," Shakir said.

Assistant Provost Greg Heiser said the Internet provides more outs for desperate students.

"I think that since the beginning of the Internet as a research tool, we have seen a dilution of the idea of what writing should be," Heiser said.

Heiser said each time a teacher encounters a case of academic misconduct, the teacher must make a choice either to charge the student or admonish them.

"It's like the highway patrolman giving a warning." Heiser said.

Heiser said if the assignment is worth less than 10 percent of the final grade, a professor may just admonish the student by informing them of the violation.

But the choice to admonish is not always available, Heiser said. School policy requires a professor to charge each account of academic misconduct if it occurs on the final.

Once a professor charges a student, the student enters an institutional process that will determine the penalty for the student, if any, Heiser said.

"The institutional penalty can go from nothing at all to expulsion," Heiser said.

Other penalties include an offer of community service and suspension for one semester, Heiser said.

Heiser said there were 191 cases of academic misconduct during the 2005-2006 academic year and no cases that resulted in expulsion.

The number of academic misconduct cases is down from previous years, Heiser said, with 191 cases representing less than 1 percent of the student body.

Once an academic misconduct board determines guilt, the professor then imposes the penalty for the class, Heiser said.

Tredwell said she is asking for many students to fail the course, though others may just fail the final.
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