The Thieves of Academe: Plagiarism in the University System

Abstract

The story is told of the historian, Clinton Rossiter, who whi e attending Cornell University as an undergraduate, wrote a paper for a class which was sub sequently returned with the grade of A. Being a dutiful fraternity man, Rossiter turned the paper over to the files of his brothers. Some years later, Rossiter was given the opportunity to read his paper again?turned in by a student of his old fraternity to a class Rossiter was teaching (6). Plagiarism is perhaps as old as education itself. Cer tainly the abduction of another's ideas is not exclusively a twentieth century phenomenon, nor is it reserved for the cloistered halls of our institutions of higher educa tion (9). The present article examines the problem of literary piracy as it is encountered at the collegiate level. The main points are: