Wichita State may slap new F on cheaters
By: Katherine Leal Unmuth/Knight Ridder Newspapers
Issue date: 12/2/04 Section: News
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As part of the class, students write essays on ethics and, eventually, on why they chose to cheat.
"I know there are faculty who say, 'Why are you giving them a second chance?' " she said. "It's not about policing and punishing. It's about educating. They're still growing in how they make decisions. College is a training ground for your profession."
Faculty at Wichita State handle academic dishonesty any number of ways, from flunking students on the assignment to expelling them from the university.
Faculty Senate president Will Klunder, a history professor, said he supports the XF grade and doesn't want students "tarred" for life.
"It's an excellent idea because it calls attention to a real problem," he said. "Sometimes if this happens early in the semester, the students can just drop the course and nothing shows up on the transcript. That's why this makes sense from our perspective."
Philosophy professor Dan Russell is more critical of the proposal. He has caught many a plagiarizing student by simply inserting essay passages in the Web search engine Google. And he argues that at Wichita State, where the average age is almost 30, students are hardly innocent kids.
"There's an argument that a lot of these kids don't know any better - but we're not really talking about kids," he said. "This course is going to be a farce. It's going to be a course made up with the worst students on campus. Who's going to be the poor instructor who's going to teach the thing?"
However, student senator Jen Unruh, 23, said it's clear the university's academic dishonesty policy needs to be changed. She said her degree is devalued if students are allowed to get away with cheating without being confronted by faculty.
"This is a better option than just ruling with an iron fist," she said. "This is an opportunity for students to learn from their mistakes instead of being punished for the rest of their lives."
"I know there are faculty who say, 'Why are you giving them a second chance?' " she said. "It's not about policing and punishing. It's about educating. They're still growing in how they make decisions. College is a training ground for your profession."
Faculty at Wichita State handle academic dishonesty any number of ways, from flunking students on the assignment to expelling them from the university.
Faculty Senate president Will Klunder, a history professor, said he supports the XF grade and doesn't want students "tarred" for life.
"It's an excellent idea because it calls attention to a real problem," he said. "Sometimes if this happens early in the semester, the students can just drop the course and nothing shows up on the transcript. That's why this makes sense from our perspective."
Philosophy professor Dan Russell is more critical of the proposal. He has caught many a plagiarizing student by simply inserting essay passages in the Web search engine Google. And he argues that at Wichita State, where the average age is almost 30, students are hardly innocent kids.
"There's an argument that a lot of these kids don't know any better - but we're not really talking about kids," he said. "This course is going to be a farce. It's going to be a course made up with the worst students on campus. Who's going to be the poor instructor who's going to teach the thing?"
However, student senator Jen Unruh, 23, said it's clear the university's academic dishonesty policy needs to be changed. She said her degree is devalued if students are allowed to get away with cheating without being confronted by faculty.
"This is a better option than just ruling with an iron fist," she said. "This is an opportunity for students to learn from their mistakes instead of being punished for the rest of their lives."
