March 31, 2008
Dear Mr. Jones,
My name is Daniel Wueste (Weestee). I am the director of the Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University, which now houses the Center for Academic Integrity.
You recently published an article, “University students plagiarized parts of honor code”,
which, like the article it is based on (San Antonio News Express) dismays me. Both articles quote me and wrongly suggest (a) that I think the honor code at the University of Texas at San Antonio was plagiarized, (b) I believe the students who worked on the code think of “the Internet as a cut-and-paste free for all,” or in the AP version, that they “think of their computers as cut-and-paste machines,” and (c) that there was something wrong in making use of materials made available at the annual conference of the Center for Academic Integrity without a citation.
I have written to the president and provost of the University of Texas at San Antonio as well as the student who was identified in the article to try to set the record straight. I write now to share the key points from that letter with you. With an eye to reaching a larger group, I am hopeful that you will see your way clear to publish this email correspondence.
It is commonly understood among the organizers and those who attend the annual conferences of the Center for Academic Integrity that information about honor codes, best practices and so on, is meant to be used freely in campus efforts to promote academic integrity.
This fact casts a different light on the following passage, which is taken from the USA Today Associated Press Story (the mysa.com story is quite similar):
Materials from the conference, which are used by many universities, were probably the main source of UTSA's proposed code, Thusu said. That's why parts of the Texas draft match word-for-word the online version of Brigham Young University's code.
BYU credited the Center for Academic Integrity, but the San Antonio draft doesn't.
"We don't want to have an honor code that is stolen," Thusu said.
The Center for Academic Integrity strives to promote academic integrity by, for example, creating an opportunity for students, faculty and administrators from the United States and other countries to come together and share best practices. No one at the Center for Academic Integrity would say that UTSA’s honor code was stolen. That BYU included a citation is nice, but it was not necessary.
Perhaps the key point is that originality is not a desideratum of an honor code. That honor codes on various campuses are the same—even word for word—is a good thing. Consider an analogy. Suppose, for example, that an employee at a new hotel is given the task of coming up with “Pool Rules.” Suppose further that this employee does some fieldwork examining carefully the pool rules at every comparable hotel. Should we be dismayed if the pool rules she comes up with are the same as the pool rules at other hotels? Would we expect a footnote at the bottom of the sign on which the pool rules are posted? Clearly, both questions should be answered with a firm no. One who thinks otherwise misunderstands the task that the employee had. So too, with one who cries foul looking at the UTSA honor code. The wrong turn is easy to identify: thinking that an honor code is scholarly work product as, for instance, a student term paper or faculty research publication is. That this is what happened in the case of the San Antonio Express News piece seems clear, since the lion’s share of that article focuses on the thoughts of John Barrie, co-founder of Turnitin.com.
An especially worrisome thing in all of this is that while the “gotcha mentality” evident in these articles makes for catchy headlines, it also generates absurdities. (The wrongheaded accusation of plagiary in the case of the UTSA honor code is a case in point.) When people start saying, “if that’s what this about...,” serious efforts to promote academic integrity will be jeopardized. I received email from several professionals who made this point in their expressions of incredulity that a citation would be required with an honor code.
Playing “gotcha” seems to be a favorite past time in America; if you doubt this you should pay a bit more attention to campaign news. I can’t do much of anything about the campaigns, but in setting things straight about the UTSA honor code, perhaps I can help keep things on track so far as academic integrity is concerned.
Sincerely,
Daniel E. Wueste
Daniel E. Wueste, Ph.D.
Director, Robert J. Rutland Institute for Ethics
President, Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum
242 Hardin Hall Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0528
864-656-6147; Fax: 864-656-2858
Office email: ernest@clemson.edu
http://www.clemson.edu/ethics