- A senior in an upper level science course copied several passages from the course's lab manual into his lab report without quotation marks or citations and claimed to have done so for multiple lab reports without the professor's notice. Despite the professor's inability to recognize the student's previous examples of plagiarism, the Honor Council did not lighten its sanctions. Because the student had committed plagiarism prior to this case, he received a 1-semester suspension, an F in the course and a permanent mark on his record. When he appealed for a lighter sanction, the appeal panel upheld the original decision.
- An upper level humanities professor confronted the Honor Council after noting that a freshman student's paper draft included unusual technical language. The student, who claimed to believe that quotation marks could only be used to cite direct speech, had largely copied an entire paragraph from a cited source and changed the original language only slightly. Due to the fact that the student had referenced his source and appeared to have no malicious intent, the Honor Council found him not guilty. There was, however, some dissent – a unanimous decision is required to find a student guilty.
- A sophomore in a lower level social sciences course submitted the book analysis of a friend who had taken the course during the previous semester. The professor, however, had changed the analysis questions, and noticed that the student's responses corresponded to questions from the last semester. The student claimed to have been consulting his friend's work for help with the subject and submitted his friend's analysis by accident. Because his name had been placed at the top of his friend's analysis, and because he had a prior, less-serious violation, the student received an F in the course and a 4-year mark on his record.
– Compiled by Lydia O'Neal
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