Plagiarism

Sally is a college student who has spent hundreds of hours studying for her classes and paid thousands of dollars for her education. She is a very good student and works very hard to finish her homework correctly; however, it was just one of those weeks where she worked almost every day and had multiple papers to turn in to her professors. Her science research paper on ringworms included a quote that Sally ran out of time to properly cite, and she turned it in even though it was not completely finished. The professor went to the college authorities with Sally’s paper, and she was automatically expelled. Sally is in an extremely difficult situation because she is out of college, away from home, and not knowing what she is going to do next. She never even got a chance to defend her side of the story. College students, like Sally, who purposely plagiarize a first time should not face automatic expulsion. The college agreed to a contract when they accepted the student into their institution, so they have an obligation to the student. Getting automatically expelled from an institution can ruin the rest of a student’s life, and everybody deserves a second chance.

First of all, the college agreed to provide the student with an education when they accepted the student into their institution. Most students leave school unprepared for the vigorous courses they will face in their academic years after high school. This information is known by colleges, yet they accept these students into their school. According to researchers from the Manhattan Institute Center for Civic Information, only 32% of students leave high school academically prepared for college (“Fusaro”). Both the school and the new students have an obligation to this contract—the students have promised to support themselves financially, to challenge themselves academically, and behave according to the school rules, and the school has promised to help the students succeed by ethical and financial...