Professor Fired for Humiliating Students for Plagiarism

Writingcomp From the Daily Texan a couple of weeks ago:

Texas A&M International University in Laredo fired a professor for publishing the names of students accused of plagiarism.

In his syllabus, professor Loye Young wrote that he would “promptly and publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating or stealing.” After he discovered six students had plagiarized on an essay, Young posted their names on his blog, resulting in his firing last week.

“It’s really the only way to teach the students that it’s inappropriate,” he said.

Young, a former adjunct professor of management information systems, said he believes he made the right move. He said trials are public for a reason, and plagiarism should be treated the same way. He added that exposing cheaters is an effective deterrent.

This seems like a shaming method of punishment. Does it actually matter whether it works as an effective deterrent or is the medicine much worse than the disease?

Cross posted at Workplace Prof Blog.

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Michael M. O'Hear

    I wonder if this even counts as “shaming.” There is no shame in being labeled a plagiarist unless the label carries with it some sort of stigma within the community of people whose good opinion one values. Presumably, a college student is most concerned about his or her reputation among other college students, but (given evidence of widespread cheating and plagiarism among college students, as well as the more general breakdown of concepts of originality and authorship in the digital age) I am not so confident that the college students of today really see plagiarism as such a bad thing. Publicizing the names of plagiarists may be no more shaming than publishing the names of people who get speeding tickets. Imagine your reaction to seeing the name of someone you know on the speeding ticket list: it would not be “what a terrible person,” but “I wonder how the poor chump got caught.” Or consider another analogy: do college students consider those accused of plagiarism any differently than those who have been sued for file-sharing?

    By the way, I hope this won’t be taken as an endorsement of plagiarism — I’m just wondering whether shaming is capable of working as a response to plagiarism.

  2. Bruce Boyden

    I’m not as skeptical as Michael. But there’s a privacy issue here I want to note, which is that this professor announced that plagiarists would automatically get Fs. Divulging grade information is a clear FERPA violation. FERPA is sort of toothless as a statute, but no school wants to be the first one to experience an enforcement action.

  3. Mike McChrystal

    This instructor’s approach is to “promptly and publicly fail and humiliate” students who violated his standards. Problem one is identified by Bruce: is his approach lawful? Problem two is whether his standards for plagiarism are substantively appropriate and appropriately applied, which one may question given what appears to be six offenders on a single assignment. Problem three is the notion that his approach is the “only way to teach students” that plagiarism is inappropriate, which suggests a rather inflated level of confidence in his pedagogy. Problem four is that his presumably expert approach to “management information systems” got him fired from his part-time teaching job. Problem five is Michael’s suggestion that the strategy may not have the desired impact. Problem six is . . . (never mind)

  4. Nathan Zimmermann

    Professor McChrystal makes an important point. That is, whether Professor Young had objective standards to determine whether a student had plagiarized. Plagiarism carries a stigma and sometimes dire consequences. Were these cases of failing to cite a quote or information, or were these cases of trying to pass off another author’s information as the student’s own information? Were they cases of accidental lack of citation or were they deliberate attempts to falsify the source of information? In 1987, when our Vice President elect Joe Biden was accused publicly of plagiarism, it greatly hurt his presidential campaign. Before Professor Young decided the students were guilty of plagiarism, it should have been reviewed by a governing board or objective body to determine whether plagiarism had actually occurred. Objective standards should have been used before he publicly humiliated these students.

  5. Judith McMullen

    Professor Young argues that he should be able to do this partly because “trials are public for a reason?” In a trial, the accused gets a chance to defend himself, and there is a real likelihood that he will be found innocent. Any decision is made according to a published standard, evidence is admitted (or not if it is improper) and carefully considered. Here, there is none of that, only a publicly announced decision and penalty which, aside from violating FERPA as Professor Boyden points out, sounds more like a Star Chamber proceeding than a trial.

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