A New York University professor alleges he was penalized for highlighting the level of plagiarism in his classes. In a blog posted last week, Panagiotis Ipeirotis, who teaches at NYU’s Stern School of Business, said he would “never pursue cheating” by his students again, claiming his vigilance had been punished by a lower-than-average annual evaluation and salary increase.
His blog, which has been withdrawn, recorded how he began using plagiarism-detection software, Turnitin. By semester’s end, he said, 22 out of 108 students had admitted cheating.
He said the exercise was instructive in “how pervasive cheating is in our courses.” But exposing the cheating created problems in the classroom, leading to worsening performance by his students. And he said that led to him suffering “a significant financial penalty for doing the right thing.”
Official denial
Ingo Walter, vice dean of faculty at Stern, denied any punishment.
“Faculty members are obligated to support … honor codes and are never sanctioned for doing so,” he said.
