A mess this big can't be swept under the rug. Ohio University's Russ College of Engineering has taken steps to resolve its plagiarism scandal, but the college should be doing much more to investigate a pattern of academic misconduct that has already confirmed 21 plagiarized theses. The university must take every measure to weed out everyone involved with the plagiarism ' students, faculty and administration alike ' and send a clear message that this behavior results in extremely grave consequences.
To this point, the college has been lackadaisical in its pursuit of the plagiarists. Tom Matrka, a former graduate student in the college, found several cases of plagiarism while doing research for his thesis in 2004. The Post reported Matrka's discovery in May 2005, and nearly a year later the college's new Academic Honesty Oversight Committee finally is taking action.
Authors of plagiarized theses have three months to respond to OU and then another nine months to rewrite the thesis. If not, the committee will recommend the author's degree be revoked.
Matrka says this disciplinary action is a joke that cater(s) to the plagiarists
and he's absolutely right. Giving these frauds a second chance is unwarranted. They knowingly took credit for other people's work, and their degrees should be revoked immediately.
On the first day of every class, students are read an academic honesty agreement that plainly lays out the consequence for plagiarism: failure. Students can even be expelled for plagiarism if referred to judiciaries. These cheaters deserve no special privileges. Even freshmen know better than to copy someone else's work; for a graduate student, it should go without saying.
Nonetheless, the policy should be explained to students on a regular basis. Many of the theses under investigation were by international students. Some might argue that these students did not understand the immense consequences of plagiarism in this country, but ignorance must not be a free pass.
The scope of the investigation is unsatisfactory as well. The committee examined 46 theses written over about 20 years. If Dean Dennis Irwin truly wants to clean up his college, he would do well to send the committee back to work and make it review every thesis written during that time period. The process would be long, hard and expensive, but it is necessary to begin rebuilding the college's reputation.
Furthermore, the committee must investigate the faculty that supervised and approved plagiarized theses. Was this a function of negligence or a long-concealed, dark secret? If professors knowingly approved plagiarized theses, how widespread was the scandal? The public deserves to know whether these professors were corrupt or negligent.
Whatever it takes, OU must make sure something like this never happens again. The scandal in the Russ College of Engineering devalues the degree of every student at the university now and over the past 20 years. It is more than a black eye for OU ' a blow this harsh requires reconstructive surgery. Thus far, the College of Engineering's investigative committee has not gone far enough, and until it takes more severe measures, the wounds to OU's reputation will continue to fester. 17
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University must do more about plagiarism to restore its reputation
