UVA Honor Committee Drops 25 Plagiarism Cases

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 13, 2001

The University of Virginia's Honor Committee has dropped 25 of 130 honor code violations after finding the accused students' papers were originals that others had plagiarized.

One student has been found guilty of plagiarism in the school's biggest cheating scandal in recent memory.

The cheating scandal came to light in May, after professor Lou Bloomfield designed a computer program to catch students who duplicated parts of term papers in his popular introductory physics class. More than 120 students were found to have duplicated phrases from other term papers during the past five semesters. The number has since increased to 130.

Thomas Hall, the chairman of the Honor Committee, said 36 cases have been investigated so far, with 25 dropped and 10 ready to go to trial.

"We're slowly moving through them," says Hall. "The problem has been getting in touch" with the accused students during the summer. "Things will speed up the next few weeks."

The committee has 94 cases left to investigate, he says.

The incident made national news and was reported by CNN and the Daily Telegraph in England. It has been a major blow to the university, which boasts one of the oldest honor codes in the country.

The expelled student, who was a member of the Class of 2001, did not receive his degree.