Parts of honor code draft apparently lifted from another school's code

SAN ANTONIO -- Their goal was an honor code that discouraged cheating and plagiarizing.

However, the wording in a draft by students at the University of Texas at San Antonio appears to match another school's code -- without proper attribution.

The student currently in charge of the honor code project said it was an oversight, but cheating experts say it illustrates a sloppiness among Internet-era students who don't know how to cite sources properly.

Student Akshay Thusu said that when he took over the project he inherited a draft by earlier participants, including students who attended a conference five years ago put on by The Center for Academic Integrity at Clemson.

Materials from the conference were probably the main source of the proposed code, Thusu said.

That's why parts of the Texas draft match word-for-word the online version of Brigham Young University's code. BYU credited the Center for Academic Integrity, but the San Antonio draft doesn't.

That will change, said Thusu, who plans to include proper citation and attribution when the draft is submitted to the faculty senate.

"We don't want to have an honor code that is stolen," Thusu said.