Following embarrassing revelations about a former football player’s plagiarized term paper, UNC chancellor Holden Thorp told the school’s board of trustees today that the university is working on improving the school’s student-run academic honor court.
"Regardless of our situation with football, it makes good sense to look at the honor system and discus how we could provide resources to the students and faculty to help them in their academic work and understand academic honesty in the electronic age,” Thorp told the Board of Trustees today.
Earlier this month, it was discovered that UNC failed to discover that a paper in a Swahili course turned in by former Tar Heel player Michael McAdoo included substantial material copied from other texts.
The honor court failed McAdoo, suspended him and gave him an F in the course based on inappropriate bibliography citations, but did not notice the plagiarism in the paper. The material lifted from other texts was not discovered until McAdoo’s paper became public in a court case where McAdoo unsuccessfully argued to be reinstated.
N.C. State fans and later media members ran the paper through an online plagiarism checker. The News & Observer found that 39 percent of the paper was copied from other texts.
“I am deeply disappointed by the recent revelation of plagiarism in one student-athlete’s favor,” Thorp said. “…I wish we could have caught that.”
Thorp told reporters after the Board of Trustees meeting that he didn’t know what specific changes might be made to the student-run honor court, and said discussions are ongoing.
He said the situation has brought attention to the honor court, which has a long tradition at UNC.
"I am very encouraged by the discussions I've had with faculty members in the last couple of weeks," Thorp said
Students have pledged to abide by an honor code for more than 130 years. When students are accused of violating the code, they are judged by a court of their peers.
Katelyn Ferral and Ken Tysiac
Comments
I wish we could have caught that?
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 17:28 — Walt_in_DurhamHolden wishes the Honor Court could have caught a plagiarized paper? Really, what about the professor? What about the Athletic Director and university lawyer who vouched for the paper to the NCAA? What about the University Provost? What about the Chancellor. Each and every one of them bears a great deal of responsibility for this fiasco, yet all Holden can say is "I wish...." This taxpayer says, time for a new Chancellor.
Walt-in-Durham
Butch
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 16:56 — gvillegatrHes been fired
How on Gods green earth
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 17:17 — gvillegatrHas this not gotten a single reply in 19 mins ?? Whatever you thought was gonna happen to the football team is certainly gonna happen now. Chaos. Putrid timing. Butch better have killed someone for this to come out now.
not verified yet
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 17:28 — willncsuwait and see.
Honor Court Problem?
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 16:55 — gagamagIs Thorp so blind or stupid that he does not see this as an academic department matter? I am not the sharpest brick in the wall but hell it does not take a genius to figure out that the problem lies with the athletic department, not the honor court but the whole athletic academic program is suspect. Just how deep can this bunch shove their heads up their collective rears.
what was the closed session about?
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 16:53 — teepackApparently the BOT went into closed session during the meeting. What was discussed? Rumors are flying in Twitterville that Butch will soon be fired.
DIDN'T HE PREVISOUSLY SAY IT WASN'T AN HONOR COURT ISSUE?
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 16:33 — pressingncaaDoes Thorp have any clue what he's talking about? This is an academic department issue before it is an honor court issue. Whoever graded the paper - professor, grad student or no one - is where the corrections need to be made first. Beyond that, why does a foreign language class require papers in English? The course description is "Third semester Kiswahili, designed to increase reading and writing skills. Introduction of literature. Aural comprehension and speaking skills stressed."
A detailed analysis of the
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 16:28 — awdracerA detailed analysis of the paper showed that 65 words out of the entire 21 page paper were original. Most were prepositions and tense changes.
We need an independent investigation into academic impropriety at UNC-CH. A paper with that much plagiarism shows absolutely no fear of being caught. A paper like that can't exist in a vacuum. Run all of the papers from the UNC-CH football team through a plagiarism checking program and watch the fur fly. I dare you.
39% is copied is an incomplete assessment
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 16:23 — PackMan97The 39% is what an online plagarism checker found. However, the Red and White cyber sleuths found that much of what remained was quoted (without attribution) from Charles Cornelius' "The History of the East African Coast". This text was not available to the online plagarism checker and not included in the 39%. While I do not believe I have seen a "calculated" number that includes both the 39% from plagarism checker and the content from the Cornelius work, rough estimates put the range of plagarized work in the 80-90%.
I am also very disappointed in Chancellor Thorp's reaction to this incident. Apparently he doesn't think the academic integrity of UNC-Chapel Hill, or of the entire UNC System is worth his time.
Chancellor Holden Thorp, in an interview last week, said he is not going to dig into Nyang'oro's handling of the paper.
"It's very unfortunate what happened here, but I don't get into grading for faculty members," he said.
From the N&O Blogs - UNC professor back home, still unavailable on McAdoo plagiarism Submitted by dkane on 07/21/2011
BTW - You guys should really allow links to your own website in comments.
Moral relativism anyone?
Wed, 07/27/2011 - 16:07 — TheLibertine"Truth is what your contemporaries let you get away with." — R.M. Rorty