Plagiarism may be on the rise in universities across the country, but faculty and administrators at Marquette do not think that is the case here.

The claim that plagiarism by students may have risen at Marquette was printed in an article about the subject in the Jan. 19 issue of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In the article, written by Nahal Toosi, a senior in the College of Business Administration claimed that he had plagiarized a number of his research and essay papers, starting his freshman year. The article also discussed the apparent rise of plagiarism in college campuses nationwide.

Robert Lueger, the associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Arts & Sciences and a psychology professor, said it was questionable as to whether or not plagiarism was rising on campus.

"Really, the issues (of plagiarism) have always been there," Lueger said. He said he hears appeals from students accused of plagiarism, and he has not seen a huge number of accused students. However, he said that he did not know exact figures for plagiarism in the college.

William Elliott, dean of the College of Communication, agreed.

"I have not noticed a significant increase, although it's nuts to say that plagiarism doesn't happen," Elliott said. Elliott did not have specific figures of plagiarism available.

Elliott also said many students who plagiarize may not realize that they are doing so.

"Often plagiarism is due to a lack of knowledge among students," Elliott said. Elliott said many students do not know how to do proper citations, an easy way of avoiding incorrectly being accused of plagiarism. He said much of the evidence that supports the theory that plagiarism is growing is more anecdotally-based than fact-based.

University Provost Madeline Wake said efforts were in place to teach students proper citations to avoid plagiarism.

But while Noel Adams, an assistant professor in the philosophy department and a teacher in ethics, agreed that many students don't realize they are plagiarizing, he said intentional plagiarism is probably widespread, even if students are not caught.

"I find (plagiarism is) fairly common, with the most common method being passing another's paper as your own," Adams said. He cited the rise of the Internet as the greatest cause in the rise of plagiarism, saying that using the Internet to plagiarize was "efficient."

Plagiarism "was so widespread that I stopped assigning papers," Adams said. "Now, the philosophy department has gone out of its way to catch cheaters."

Cheryl Maranto, an associate dean in the College of Business Administration, said her position includes hearing appeals from students accused of plagiarism, and she has dealt with very few cases lately. However, she said that did not mean that plagiarism was necessarily down.

"A lot of times, faculty members choose to deal with plagiarism themselves" Maranto said.

Wake said from her experience talking to deans from the various colleges, it sounded like cheating was evolving, using the Internet more and other ways of cheating less, instead of growing.

In the case of an accusation of plagiarism, students have recourses to make sure they are given fair hearings, Lueger said.

For example, in the College of Arts & Sciences, after an instructor believes that he has caught a student plagiarizing or cheating, he must express his concerns to the student. A hearing takes place on the department level, where fault of the student is determined and a penalty is given. The instructor is not allowed to fail a student for cheating, but the College of Arts & Sciences may fail a student from the course. An appeal to Lueger is allowed to the student.

Elliott and Maranto said their colleges have similar procedures in place.

Adams said he was concerned that the work of pursuing a plagiarism case could deter some instructors from attempting to deal with plagiarism in their classes.

"It's a very distasteful experience for any faculty member," Lueger said. However, he said teachers who were concerned with the problem of plagiarism would still pursue their cases.

Maranto said that, as an instructor, she had been in the position of suspecting plagiarism, but without absolute, concrete proof, "I can't take action."

Lueger said he saw the possibility of lawsuits as another possible deterrent to pursuing a plagiarism case, but said the chance of such a lawsuit was remote.

Wake said colleges were responsible for tracking plagiarism, and there was no centralized system of tracking academic dishonesty on campus, unlike schools such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but there had been talks in the Committee of Academic Procedures of changing some of the policies having to do with academic dishonesty.

Of more concern to Adams, however, was the disruption of the academic process cheating caused.

"When you pass someone else's work as your own, you're not learning," Adams said.