Sacramento State’s cheaters have been prospering. Cases of student academic dishonesty doubled last year, according to campus statistics.

The Student Affairs office reported 22 cases of academic dishonesty in the 2001-2002 school year. Eleven cases were reported the previous school year. So far this year, 19 cases have been received by the student disciplinary officer.

Academic dishonesty is considered cheating and plagiarism.Of the 19 cases last semester, nine were for plagiarism.

“We have seen an increase (in academic dishonesty) and most of it is Internet plagiarism,” said John Morris, a student disciplinary judicial officer. He cites the Internet as the cause for the increase because it is easy and fast for students to use.

Web sites like Schoolsucks.com provide whole papers on subjects ranging from psychology to the Cold War. They allow students to find term papers for free, or purchase ready-made papers. Referred to as “paper mills,” these sites can also generate custom papers, reportedly written by former college professors. An eight-page paper with 15 sources on the Southern justification of slavery can cost $64.

But the Internet site Turnitin.com is a resource to help professors stop plagiarism. Professors submit their students’ papers to the site, and using its software that scours the Web for similar and word-for-word excerpts, the site will generate an authenticity report for an individual student paper.

The California State University system has a license to use Turnitin.com, according to the company Web site. Morris was unaware of the university’s permit to use the site’s services and could not confirm its existence.

“But we would certainly support any tool that would support the academic integrity of the campus,” he said.

Morris said most professors use the search engine Google to catch student plagiarism. Professors generally send him student papers and the Internet printouts where the plagiarized material originates from when they catch plagiarizing students.

“What I’ve been very impressed with is the role the faculty have taken in educating the students about it,” Morris said. He said most instructors take the time to discuss plagiarism and state the policy in their syllabus.

When a student is accused of plagiarism, he or she is given the opportunity to discuss the incident. If the student admits to cheating, an Academic Dishonesty Report is filed with the Vice President of Student Affairs. If the student denies the charge, a report is still filed and the incident is investigated.

The most likely disciplinary action for first-time offenders is probation, Morris said, though the punishment can be suspension or expulsion.

Instructors retain the right to assign a grade, regardless of the disciplinary action taken. “The disciplinary process is separate from the grading process,” Morris said.

Plagiarism is defined in the University Policy manual as “the use of distinctive ideas or works belonging to another person without providing adequate acknowledgement of that person’s contribution.”

Policy also requires that students be reminded of the academic dishonesty rules through notices on campus kiosks and in publications like The State Hornet.

A faculty senate committee is revising the university’s academic dishonesty policy.

“At this point there has been no formal decision on what the revised policy might contain or how it might differ from the current policy,” said Tom Krabacher, chair of the academic policies committee.

Krabacher said they would likely make a recommendation to the Faculty Senate on the policy change in mid-March, however, this could change.

Senior Brandon Guyton said that although he always does his own work, he feels he would not be caught if he did plagiarize.

“I don’t think (teachers are) really going to take the time to check the citations because there are so many papers they have to correct,” the business major said. “But some teachers are sticklers.”