WASHINGTON (TNND) -- Concerns surrounding academic integrity have recently come up after three different university presidents across the country were accused of plagiarism.
Claudine Gay from Harvard, Darryll Pines from the University of Maryland, and most recently Richard Muma from Wichita State. Gay, now former President of Harvard stepped down after these allegations came out, following her testimony on antisemitism, before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Muma and Pines have not yet stepped down. Both have denied the allegations, but proof of Muma's plagiarism was published by the Kansas Reflector newspaper. The Reflector found 20 instances where Muma didn't properly cite or give credit to sources in his doctoral dissertation. As for Pines, the University of Maryland is still investigating the allegations, after the Daily Wire claimed he plagiarized large portions of a 2002 scholarly paper.
According to the University of Maryland's academic code of conduct, "suspension or expulsion from the university may be imposed even for a first offense of plagiarism". As for Wichita State, according to their academic policies, "a student found guilty of plagiarism could get a failing grade in the class, get suspended from the university entirely."
There aren't any universally agreed-upon standards for plagiarism, each school has its own definition and policies. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, you can get sued for plagiarism if it infringes on the original author's copyright, patent, or trademark. The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School also confirms:
Plagiarism can also result in a lawsuit if it breaches a contract with terms that only original work is acceptable.
Donald McCabe from Rutgers University did a survey with 63,700 undergraduate and 9,250 graduate students across the U.S. over the course of three years and found that 38% of undergraduates admitted to paraphrasing or copying multiple sentences without sourcing their information.
Another survey, by theJosephson Institute Center for Youth Ethics with high school students, found that one out of three high school students admitted that they used the internet to plagiarize an assignment.