Article by Brad McLeod
Photo by Mark Burnham
BURNABY — Last week, professors teaching first year courses from all SFU faculties once again banded together to dedicate the first week of the semester to raising awarenessabout academic dishonesty.
Dubbed ‘Plagiarism Awareness Week’ by its organizers, the event’s goal was to help eliminate cheating from the university by having at least 50 per cent of each participating courses’ lecture time spent repeating the exact same, fairly obvious information about plagiarism.
Along with the lectures, a campaign of handouts, e-mails, and website links containing identical content were also readily distributed to students whether they asked for it or not.
“We all got together this year to make sure that every one of us had the exact same thing to say” explained one first-year communications professor about his lecture last week. “Plagiarism might seem like a pretty black-and-white issue, and it is, but we made damn sure that we dragged it out for as long possible, and gave as many improbable hypothetical scenarios as we could think of.”
Although some might feel that dedicating so much time and energy on an issue which is essentially not copying someone else’s work is ridiculous when all the students are legally adults, these professors believe it’s an absolutely necessary cause.
“I think it’s safe to say that most of the cheating that occurs in university happens only because the students were simply not aware that they had to do their own work,” said another elderly professor who grew up in a world before plagiarism. “Like, did you know that even something that sounds completely innocent, like paying someone to write an essay for you, can be considered cheating?”
‘Plagiarism Awareness Week’ also served as a harsh introduction for a lot of first year students, many of whom spent more than three total hours listening to lectures about how they have to do their own work.
“There’s nothing that gives you more of a sense of independence during your first post-high school days than to listen to hours of presentations about exactly what it means to be dishonest,” described freshman Jay Sanders, who, like the majority of his classmates, attended a high school that also did not allow plagiarism. “It’s really got me exciting about next week, when hopefully they’ll thoroughly explain the concept of sharing.”
While most students felt that an entire week wasn’t necessary for the cause, there were some who actually found the information quite valuable.
“I had no idea there were so many ways to cheat before,” realized Tim Peters, another first-year student, eager to put what he learned into practice. “If only I could have gotten this information in high school, I wouldn’t have had to try so hard . . . anyways, at least university will be a breeze.”
Although the week of awareness is over until next semester, professors have ensured that they will continue to bring attention to plagiarism for most days in the upcoming term, during any essay, test, or time they forget their lecture notes.
Though students might think that these special events are behind them for the rest of the year, according to inside sources, the school’s T.A.s are planning their own ‘Plagiarism Awareness Week’ for the first week of tutorials in conjunction with their tri-annual ‘Icebreaker Games Appreciation Week’.
