The Termpaper Caper

DISHONESTY breeds more dishonesty. With the recent discovery of stolen termpapers in the possession of local termpaper-selling companies, it has become clear that what was last year a thorn in the side of the University administration has become a problem for everyone.

The administration is right to press for the prosecution of companies that sell papers to students who will try to pass them off as their own work. In spite of the series of imaginative self-defenses written by termpaper dealers in the local press, it is clear, from the fact that they buy papers for as little as 25 cents per page and resell them--over and over--for as much as two dollars per page, what they really are: academic racketeers exploiting student dishonesty for juicy profits.

The necessity of taking legal measures against these firms points to one of the most unfortunate situations in education here--that many professors and teaching fellows don't know their students well enough to distinguish a store-bought item from the student's own work.

Stealing academic material is a serious problem because it is so hard to uncover; it is not limited to the undergraduate academic world. Writers and researchers of every kind are frequently guilty of failing to credit ideas to their sources; professors have been known to pirate ideas for their books and articles from student papers without acknowledgement.

BUT THE weight of responsibility must rest with the students who buy the papers and submit them as their own. It is a case of dishonesty, and this dishonesty cannot be tolerated.