Report: Integrity cases on the rise

The number of undergraduate students accused of academic integrity violations has doubled over the past year -- rising to 41 students between September 1998 and August 1999, according to a report by the Office of Student Conduct. The report covers incidents concerning undergraduate and graduate students and is released annually. It includes a variety of academic integrity and conduct violations -- ranging from cheating to alcohol complaints to computer misuse -- as well as information on the sanctions that were imposed. Twenty-one undergraduate students were accused of academic integrity violations during the previous year. Though the numbers are significantly higher than last year's, OSC Director Michele Goldfarb said the reason isn't that more people are breaking the rules, but that members of the University community are more willing to report academic integrity violations. "[The increase] is not because a lot more people are cheating," Goldfarb said. "We have done an enormous amount of outreach training, and now more people are willing [to report incidents]." College junior Rikki Tanenbaum, chairwoman of the University Honor Council, agreed with Goldfarb's assessment of the report. "We think that Goldfarb has made OSC very popular," Tanenbaum said. "Before, faculty were reluctant to report cases, but Goldfarb has made herself more accessible and people trust her." According to the report, there were 105 undergraduate conduct violations, 10 suspensions and 104 alcohol-related complaints. Goldfarb said the alcohol numbers can be misleading because of the new method used to report alcohol-related cases. In previous years, alcohol-related cases only included reports made directly to the OSC, but over the past year the cases have also included reports made by the 12 college houses. The college house incidents make up 78 of the 104 recorded. The remaining 26 incidents are eight down from last year's 34. Over the past year, OSC has also seen 10 incidents of computer misuse, up seven cases from last year. "[Computer misuse] is very ubiquitous," Goldfarb said, adding that it largely accounts for the increase in plagiarism incidents. The OSC, formerly known as the Judicial Inquiry Office, handles all academic integrity and conduct violations occurring at Penn's four undergraduate schools. The office also deals with some graduate students, excluding the Law and Medical schools, which have their own internal disciplinary process. Goldfarb was named director of the office in August 1996. She said the OSC has already dealt with "a dozen or so cases" of academic integrity violations since the beginning of the school year.