Red Riner, a sophomore in Computer Engineering, found himself in a heap of trouble last Thursday after being accused of plagiarism during his test. The incident, as normal as it sounds, has sparked controversy over the definition of the term plagiarism.
Riner stated to a committee of administrators that “plagiarism is when you take credit for information that isn’t yours. Well I didn’t do that. If you refer to the attached sheet of my test, you will find two bibliographies: one in MLA format, and the other in APA.”
Riner later told Nugget reporters that both forms were included so that administrators couldn’t find a loophole.
The committee, although reluctant on the ruling, found that Riner hadn’t broken any rules with his cheating.
“I’m surprised this hadn’t happened sooner,” said head committee member Blu Barbs. “We were hoping students wouldn’t realize this so that we didn’t need to reprint anything, but it looks like the cat’s outta the bag.”
Fellow students cheered with celebration after the hearing on Friday when Riner was found innocent. Riner has since been deemed as a hero amongst college students everywhere.
The results of the trial have been brought to other schools as well. Locally and nationally, colleges across the nation are now reviewing their rules to ensure that this will not happen to them as well. IPFW has even proceeded to halt all upcoming tests until their lawyers have had a chance to redefine plagiarism in the next release of the rules.
Nugget journalists urge students, however tempting it may be, to refrain from attaching bibliographies when cheating.
“This may have worked once, but they’ll soon rule it out, and new cheaters will be given zeroes and/or expelled,” exclaimed Barbs.
The Nugget does not condone cheating, nor does it see Riner as the coolest college student in the world for his awesome rebellion.
