Twelve students in a Spring Quarter Introduction to Philosophy class are under investigation after their teaching assistants uncovered papers suspected to contain instances of plagiarism.

The students are suspected of lifting portions of their 10-page final papers from various Internet sources, including Encyclopedia Britannica and the Internet Philosophy Page, said Jason Leddington, one of the two TAs who reported the possible violations.

After Prof. Axel Mueller learned of the TAs’ concerns, he referred the students to Assoc. Dean for Undergraduate Studies Robert Coen. The students could face penalties as stiff as expulsion if they are found to have violated Northwestern’s academic integrity principles.

Leddington and fellow TA Sebastian Rand became suspicious when they noticed inconsistencies in the writing styles of some of the papers. Several papers contained isolated paragraphs that demonstrated highly advanced levels of philosophical study next to large sections of basic or incorrect material.

Acting on their suspicions, the TAs entered various phrases from different papers into the Google online search engine and discovered that they were identical to material available on the Internet.

Leddington noted that “these cases … seem to be unconnected.” The 12 students implicated were part of a lecture class containing 90 students.

In accordance with the Weinberg procedures of investigating violations of academic integrity, the students must meet individually with Coen, who can decide whether a violation occurred and issue a sanction.

Information about the students, including names, years and schools, is not being released, and their absence from campus “complicates” the investigation, Coen wrote in an e-mail from France, where he is vacationing.

“Our goal is to settle (the cases) as quickly as possible,” he wrote.

There is no timetable to conclude the investigation, and so far no action has been taken, said Al Cubbage, NU’s vice president for university relations.

If any violations are discovered, students face penalties ranging from a letter of warning to expulsion, according to Weinberg policies. Any graduated seniors who are implicated face the revocation of their degrees.

“The penalties imposed depend on the circumstances of the particular case,” Coen said. “Plagiarism is an extremely serious offense in the academic world. (It) amounts to the theft of the most important type of property in which scholars deal.”

Mueller and philosophy department Chairman Kenneth Seeskin declined to comment on the cases.

If verified, these would be the first known cases of Internet plagiarism at NU, Cubbage said.

“(Internet plagiarism) was bound to happen sooner or later,” said classics Prof. Dan Garrison, chairman of the Undergraduate Academic Conduct Committee, the group that could handle an appeal of Coen’s decision. Garrison admitted that the prospect of such dishonesty has affected his lesson plans in the past. “It makes it hard to assign papers. You have to avoid general assignments.”

As students turn to the Internet more for their research, the allure of cut-and-paste technology has proven too strong for some. In May, 122 students at the University of Virginia were accused of cheating on term papers in an introductory physics class, The New York Times reported.

Garrison said that while the Internet has moved plagiarism from the library to the dorm room, it has also given professors and TAs a new tool in fighting academic dishonesty.

“As long as there’s an Internet, somebody’s going to get caught on it,” Garrison said.

Coen agreed that the Internet provides “powerful methods for detecting plagiarism.”

“It is much easier to track down the source of text using Internet search tools than looking through books in the library,” he said.

Cases of academic dishonesty are usually not widely reported, Garrison noted.

“The university doesn’t want to wash its dirty laundry in public,” he said.

But Leddington hopes that pattern changes in the future. A doctoral candidate, he says this experience will influence his teaching career in the future.

“I’m going to spend more time discussing plagiarism (with students) … I’m going to dedicate more time to detecting it in grading,” he said.