Students around campus said they are unsure about the Faculty Senate’s new plan to use the plagiarism software TurnItIn and iThenticate.
The Faculty Senate passed a resolution Wednesday to use plagiarism software to catch students who plagiarize and teach students how to correctly paraphrase and cite information.
“There really are a few students who don’t quite grasp what plagiarism is. A system that would at least give them a fairly reliable indication of where material might have been borrowed would be an educational tool,” said Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope. “The opportunity for plagiarism even within a relatively short paper is quite prominent. Therefore, the automation of the checking is useful to ensure the integrity of the teaching project.”
Biochemistry freshman Ashton Sells used it in high school and said the effectiveness of the software depends on how it is used.
“It counts how many words you use that are similar to a certain topic. There are only so many words you can use for the topic, so of course they’re going to line up or there’s going to be some correlation between those. It’s kind of hard to prove how much is actually plagiarism and how much is authentic,” Sells said. “For biology essays, there are specific topics that are very concise, and you have to use certain words or phrases for it to make sense.”
Communication disorders senior Leigh Ann Benbow, who used the software in high school, said she does not see the harm in using it.
“I could see why professors would want to use it. I’ve never seen plagiarism to be a huge threat because I’ve never encountered it while I’ve been here,” she said. “I’ve never plagiarized anything, so I just assume that no one else has plagiarized anything either. I feel like students know better because they know what they’re risking.”
But she said a student should not be held accountable if he or she doesn’t know what plagiarism is.
English freshman Katie Keller said she thinks an initiative against plagiarism is good.
“I don’t know how you can be in college and not know what plagiarism is,” she said.
“There are only so many words you can use for the topic, so of course they’re going to line up or there’s going to be some correlation between those.”
