Today I had my first (non-virtual) class meetings of the spring semester. There’s nothing like having every available seat filled and then having folks stream in to sit on the floor to make an academic feel popular. (Of course, in the past, a significant portion of those who have gotten add-codes have then disappeared until the midterm, after which most of those disappeared for good. But right now I’m popular!)
When it came time to give “the talk” about academic integrity, I was less dispassionate than I have been in years past. It’s no secret that I think plagiarism is lame. But, in the vain hope that it might make a difference — that this might be the term with no instances of plagiarism — I decided to lay it on the line. Here’s a close approximation of what I told my classes:
