_2.gif)
By Mahdi Abdullah
AUIS Voice Staff Reporter
www.auisvoice.org
AUI-S has a strict policy for students who plagiarize, dismissing EWPLI students from the University with four offenses and dismissing academic students with three. The policy is stated in the Student Handbook.
John Agresto, AUI-S provost, defined plagiarism, describing it a kind of stealing.
“Taking someone else’s words and have a people think that it is yours,” he said. “It is taking credit for something that is not yours.”
Rosalind Warfield, director of EWPLI, said plagiarism is a huge problem all over the world.
“It is a problem for two reasons,” she said. “One is because many people don’t know what it is, so they make mistake innocently. Second, the people who do know what it is, but they think that they can get away from being caught. It is a crime in any levels, and it is a breach of trust between the teachers and the students.”
Warfield added that the teachers should make sure that their students have enough information about plagiarism.
“My message for the teachers is that make sure the students know what plagiarism is, make sure you’ve taught them well, make sure to understand them why it is important, what it is, and how to avoid it,” she said. “Do your job to make sure the students know about it.”
Specifically, Warfield said EWPLI teachers should instruct the students that quoting is not as useful as paraphrasing.
“AUI-S professor Roger Geyer said warning academic students three times before dismissing them from the University is a reasonable punishment.
“Plagiarism is not an easy problem to overcome,” he said.
Geyer added he has never committed plagiarism in his academic life.
“I’ve never wanted to be passed through cheating. I never like it. Anytime you cheat or copy, you really diminishing your self. Once when I get a student cheat I will be very upset with that student,” he said.
Richard Gray, a Level 4 teacher, said the school policy is much lenient than him concerning plagiarism.
“In my class there is no negotiation,” he said. “If you plagiarized, you’ll face serious consequences. There is no way you’ll have three chances in my class. You’ll be lucky if you survived after one time.”
Gray said that he usually has sense if a student plagiarized.
Geoffrey Gresk, a lecturer in Level 4, said plagiarism might be a good excuse for the first day in Level 1, but it is just not acceptable for the other levels.
“There is no excuse for any of my students to plagiarize,” he said. “One they know from previous teachers and previous levels that is not acceptable in the American system. Two, even if one of my students didn’t learn that from previous levels, they have learned from me, we talked about it at the first day of the class, and they all understand what plagiarism is.”
Grisk said the students can use the Internet for plagiarism, and teachers can use it to detect plagiarism.
Aws Muhammed, 19, from Baghdad, said that not all AUI-S students have enough information about plagiarism.
“The rules about plagiarism are not clear especially for the new students,” said Muhammed, who is a Level 4 student.” They simply don’t know how to define the word plagiarism itself.”
But Suzan Khalid, 20, from Kirkuk, said that all AUI-S students do know about plagiarism.
“There is not any excuse for any students to plagiarize,” she said. “The teachers explain plagiarism perfectly. All students know that plagiarism is a problem. The only students who are lazy and don’t work hard will plagiarize.”
Christine Vandeen Toorn- A lecture in reading level 4- said if a students understand why plagiarism is wrong, then they hopefully would not do it.
“If you plagiarize especially in learning English, you are not actually learning,” she said.
Vandeen Toorn added that the AUI-S students are smart enough to know what plagiarism is.
“I don’t think that AUI-S students have any excuse to say that they don’t understand plagiarism.” She said, “How should AUI-S students be in that low level?”
Carolyn R. Caldwell, assistant professor, said that grade is a critical issue.
“The biggest problem for college students is that they are not trying to receive education but to get good grade,” she said. “When the pressure is on them to get good grade, that makes them do things that they wouldn’t normally do.”
R. Cardwell added that the rule is fair and pretty strict, but she feels badly about it.
Aryan Barzan 22, from Darbandikhan, said that some of the students have gotten used to plagiarism.
“There are students who used to copy materials in secondary and high school.” He said, “They still continue to do that at AUIS even they have learnt enough about plagiarism and don’t have any excuse.”
Barzan complained about GPA system.
“GPA system has bad effects on the students to think about copying and plagiarism.” He said.
R. Cardwell added her thought concerning GPA system.
“GPA system absolutely has effect on students.” She said, “They need to get a good grade; they need to keep their scholarship because it is expensive to go to school here, so they always try to get a good opportunity to get their goal, good grade and to keep their scholar ship, but I don’t have an easy answer as how we correct that problem.”
Barzan complains that all teachers don’t apply the policy regarding plagiarism in the same way.
“Some of the teachers are very strict, but some others are just careless,” he said. “I don’t think that AUI-S policy is strict with plagiarism. We have examples of students who were caught plagiarising, and there were not any kinds of punishments. The issue is still going on.”
Kosar Ghalib Taha-20- From Kirkuk- said that AUI-S teachers are too nice about plagiarism.
“AUIS student plagiarize a lot. I know the students that 3\4 of their work is plagiarism, but I can’t understand why the teachers don’t know about this.”
But Agresto said that he would punish any teachers who don’t apply for the rules.
“All teachers are supposed to apply for these rules,” he said. “You find me a teacher that doesn’t apply for these rules; I’m going to punish him. I want everybody to apply the rules and be strict with the rules.”
www.auisvoice.org
AUI-S has a strict policy for students who plagiarize, dismissing EWPLI students from the University with four offenses and dismissing academic students with three. The policy is stated in the Student Handbook.
John Agresto, AUI-S provost, defined plagiarism, describing it a kind of stealing.
“Taking someone else’s words and have a people think that it is yours,” he said. “It is taking credit for something that is not yours.”
Rosalind Warfield, director of EWPLI, said plagiarism is a huge problem all over the world.
“It is a problem for two reasons,” she said. “One is because many people don’t know what it is, so they make mistake innocently. Second, the people who do know what it is, but they think that they can get away from being caught. It is a crime in any levels, and it is a breach of trust between the teachers and the students.”
Warfield added that the teachers should make sure that their students have enough information about plagiarism.
“My message for the teachers is that make sure the students know what plagiarism is, make sure you’ve taught them well, make sure to understand them why it is important, what it is, and how to avoid it,” she said. “Do your job to make sure the students know about it.”
Specifically, Warfield said EWPLI teachers should instruct the students that quoting is not as useful as paraphrasing.
“AUI-S professor Roger Geyer said warning academic students three times before dismissing them from the University is a reasonable punishment.
“Plagiarism is not an easy problem to overcome,” he said.
Geyer added he has never committed plagiarism in his academic life.
“I’ve never wanted to be passed through cheating. I never like it. Anytime you cheat or copy, you really diminishing your self. Once when I get a student cheat I will be very upset with that student,” he said.
Richard Gray, a Level 4 teacher, said the school policy is much lenient than him concerning plagiarism.
“In my class there is no negotiation,” he said. “If you plagiarized, you’ll face serious consequences. There is no way you’ll have three chances in my class. You’ll be lucky if you survived after one time.”
Gray said that he usually has sense if a student plagiarized.
Geoffrey Gresk, a lecturer in Level 4, said plagiarism might be a good excuse for the first day in Level 1, but it is just not acceptable for the other levels.
“There is no excuse for any of my students to plagiarize,” he said. “One they know from previous teachers and previous levels that is not acceptable in the American system. Two, even if one of my students didn’t learn that from previous levels, they have learned from me, we talked about it at the first day of the class, and they all understand what plagiarism is.”
Grisk said the students can use the Internet for plagiarism, and teachers can use it to detect plagiarism.
Aws Muhammed, 19, from Baghdad, said that not all AUI-S students have enough information about plagiarism.
“The rules about plagiarism are not clear especially for the new students,” said Muhammed, who is a Level 4 student.” They simply don’t know how to define the word plagiarism itself.”
But Suzan Khalid, 20, from Kirkuk, said that all AUI-S students do know about plagiarism.
“There is not any excuse for any students to plagiarize,” she said. “The teachers explain plagiarism perfectly. All students know that plagiarism is a problem. The only students who are lazy and don’t work hard will plagiarize.”
Christine Vandeen Toorn- A lecture in reading level 4- said if a students understand why plagiarism is wrong, then they hopefully would not do it.
“If you plagiarize especially in learning English, you are not actually learning,” she said.
Vandeen Toorn added that the AUI-S students are smart enough to know what plagiarism is.
“I don’t think that AUI-S students have any excuse to say that they don’t understand plagiarism.” She said, “How should AUI-S students be in that low level?”
Carolyn R. Caldwell, assistant professor, said that grade is a critical issue.
“The biggest problem for college students is that they are not trying to receive education but to get good grade,” she said. “When the pressure is on them to get good grade, that makes them do things that they wouldn’t normally do.”
R. Cardwell added that the rule is fair and pretty strict, but she feels badly about it.
Aryan Barzan 22, from Darbandikhan, said that some of the students have gotten used to plagiarism.
“There are students who used to copy materials in secondary and high school.” He said, “They still continue to do that at AUIS even they have learnt enough about plagiarism and don’t have any excuse.”
Barzan complained about GPA system.
“GPA system has bad effects on the students to think about copying and plagiarism.” He said.
R. Cardwell added her thought concerning GPA system.
“GPA system absolutely has effect on students.” She said, “They need to get a good grade; they need to keep their scholarship because it is expensive to go to school here, so they always try to get a good opportunity to get their goal, good grade and to keep their scholar ship, but I don’t have an easy answer as how we correct that problem.”
Barzan complains that all teachers don’t apply the policy regarding plagiarism in the same way.
“Some of the teachers are very strict, but some others are just careless,” he said. “I don’t think that AUI-S policy is strict with plagiarism. We have examples of students who were caught plagiarising, and there were not any kinds of punishments. The issue is still going on.”
Kosar Ghalib Taha-20- From Kirkuk- said that AUI-S teachers are too nice about plagiarism.
“AUIS student plagiarize a lot. I know the students that 3\4 of their work is plagiarism, but I can’t understand why the teachers don’t know about this.”
But Agresto said that he would punish any teachers who don’t apply for the rules.
“All teachers are supposed to apply for these rules,” he said. “You find me a teacher that doesn’t apply for these rules; I’m going to punish him. I want everybody to apply the rules and be strict with the rules.”
