An accomplished English professor at UNLV is currently being accused of serial plagiarism.
As both students and journalists, we have decided to speak out about the consequences that should follow if a professor is caught using work not belonging to him or her.
At this point, it is probably safe to assume most of us have received a syllabus for each of our classes. It is also probably a safe assumption that each syllabus contains an academic integrity policy.
Most professors will tell students that they consider academic dishonesty, especially plagiarism, to be a breach of trust between teacher and student. The university punishment for plagiarism can be as minor as a warning or as harsh as expulsion from the university.
In the particular case we are referencing, Professor Mustapha Marrouchi has been accused of taking credit for words that were not his own, for the past 24 years.
“He is a professor in our department and he is teaching his classes,” said Richard Harp, the chair of the English Department at UNLV, just three days ago.
As of now, university officials have declined to comment and have offered no insight as to whether a formal investigation is pending or will result.
So far as we know, an accomplished professor with a base salary of $102,500 can portray the work of others as his own for nearly a quarter of a century without any repercussions. Meanwhile, if we, as students, so much as copy and paste a paragraph and forget the citation, we can face expulsion.
Now let us be clear, we do not condone academic dishonesty of any sort. As journalists, originality is in our blood and, as students, it is expected of us.
We are only saying that if we as seekers of higher education are going to be held to a certain standard, we expect those providing us with that education to hold themselves to an even higher standard.
