I hear ya. I've had an interesting one recently, and it's somewhat encouraging for a change.
One of my students came to me to confess she had plagiarized in one of her other classes and was having a very hard time living with it. She knows it was a stupid and unethical thing to do, and she is going to come clean with the professor.
cindy -- how cool!
mel -- man, I hated that. The mental drain is especially unpleasant.
I don't know what advice to offer, except what I know you've already thought of (talk to her in office hours, then talk to her with someone "scary" like the dean or chair present, then fail her). You have my sympathy.
Mine too. This is one of the many reasons I think I'd make a lousy professor -- I'd find it hard to resist going medieval on the ass of anyone who pulled that stuff. I can understand doing it in desperation, then repenting and confessing (like Cindy's student); I can't understand the ones who seem to think it's par for the course. What do they think the academy is about?
Plagarism is possibly one of the most selfish acts anyone can do that taints so many people. It cheapens the academic world for the other students, the professor, and even the university where it occurs.
For a long time I thought that sanctions for plagarism were a little too harsh (e.g. permenant honor code violation stamp, suspension or expulsion from the university), however, I now feel like permanent blacklisting from the academic world is more than reasonable.
I have little sympathy for those who cheat.
Thanks, everyone for the sympathy. This case was especially irritating since she didn't seem particularly repentant--just irritated that she got caught. It remains to be seen how she conducts herself during the departmental hearing with the chair (that's Large Urban University's procedure).
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