Faculty Senate Supports One-Year Trial for Plagiarism Checking Software

by Terri Winters

In May 2005, the Faculty Senate passed a resolution that the university should adopt Turnitin software for one year to address plagiarism on campus. The motion was as follows:
As a part of a broad effort to address plagiarism on campus, the university should adopt Turnitin for a period of at least one year. During that year, the Student Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate should continue to explore other strategies for preventing plagiarism. In addition, CIS should document how many faculty members are using Turnitin and how useful faculty find it is; and CIS should report that information to the Student Affairs Committee of the Faculty Senate. For the complete motion, rationale, and Senate actions, please point your browser to
www.unh.edu/fac-senate/pub/Plagiarism-5-2-05-IX-M22.htm.

CIS Academic Technology is now planning for a pilot to make available plagiarism-checking software. We hope to have substantial faculty involvement in our planning. Under the auspices of the Committee for Instructional Technology, we are forming a working group. This group will not be concerned with technical issues involved in making the plagiarism-checking software available, but will address pedagogical, ethical, and practical issues facing faculty regarding the use of plagiarism-checking software as a tool to detect plagiarism. If you have questions regarding our efforts, please contact Terri Winters, Director of CIS Academic Technology
( terri.winters@unh.edu, 862-4639).

-Published in December 2005