In an unusual turn, it’s professors that are stressing patience and understanding as students call for significant academic penalties, as 15 Foundation Year Programme (FYP) students have been accused of plagiarism in their most recent essays.
In the morning of Dec. 3, FYP Director Dr. Peggy Heller addressed this year’s class. She told them that some students had been accused of plagiarising from an online source on the most recent essay on Dante’s The Divine Comedy.
Although she’s disappointed (this was the most allegations of plagiarism she’s seen at one time in her academic career), she made clear that the students will remain at the school.
“For first time offenders, [the punishments] range from marks being deducted to failing the paper,” said Heller in a later interview. “There is no possibility of expulsion.
“I’m appalled by the desire to punish. You have to allow people to make mistakes.”
Heller saw the site that the students borrowed from, and said that the copying was not “wholesale”, but rather only “little bits”.
Students didn’t see it the same way. With many of them hearing from friends that at least one alleged plagiarist copied an essay in full, most students are demanding significant punishment.
“I felt like that wasn’t harsh enough where people had plagiarized entire essays,” said Karen Gross, a first-year student. “It’s not more of a serious punishment than handing in a third late paper or just writing a bad paper.”
Second-year student Kate Howell agreed. “If they are taking full essays from online, they deserve to be kicked out of the program.”
“Expulsion might not be getting the point across, the point that the people up there want — that one can get a second chance,” said FYP student Taylor Saracuse. “But to say that plagiarism is just the same as a late paper, for me, is just very inconsistent.
“I feel like my degree is being devalued by the punishment they are most likely going to be served, that’s the thing that pisses me off the most.”
Heller also stressed that no one has been proven guilty. All the students who have been accused will have the opportunity to defend themselves when they meet with the academic integrity officer, Stephen Kimber.
But considering the higher standard they hold themselves to, and the frequency of the reminders of the perils of plagiarism — the definition and its consequences are iterated and reiterated on every set of FYP questions and every King’s class’s syllabus — King’s students are disappointed.
“I was kind of embarrassed,” said Saracuse. “You come to this program at least knowing that you are going to be with people who you believe care about education.”
Check back for updates on this story as we get them.