The number of reported academic dishonesty cases reached an all-time high in fall 2011.

A total of 224 students were reported for possible incidents of academic dishonesty last semester — 52 more than in fall 2010 and the highest since the policy was created 12 years ago.

Debbie Bell, coordinator of academic honesty, said she had never seen numbers this high but could not pinpoint the cause of the increase.

Debbie Bell, coordinator of academic honesty, said the increase of dishonesty cases could be due to better reporting from teachers. Evan Stichler/Staff

“I would like to think that there isn’t more cheating going on,” Bell said. “I would like to think that faculty, graduate students and students themselves are taking the policy more seriously.”

Bell said she receives reports of cheating for both undergraduate and graduate students and was not sure if the increase of incoming freshmen last year contributed to the spike.

The breakdown of the statistics for fall 2011 will be in the annual academic honesty report for 2011-12, available at the end of the year.

Bell said she is unsure as to whether or not an increased number of incidents will be reported again this semester.

Academic Honesty Council member Win Blair, a senior consumer economics major from Commerce, said he does not think the high numbers will be indicative of a future trend.

“It’s probably just a cycle. I imagine the numbers will change as the student body continues to change,” Blair said. “It’s just a random occurrence.”

Bell said she thinks faculty may simply be reporting more incidents than in the past.

“We are doing a much better job talking to graduate students and faculty members about the policy,” she said.

Honesty violations can be classified under five categories: plagiarism, unauthorized assistance, lying/tampering, theft and other. Bell said the majority of cases fall into the plagiarism or unauthorized assistance.

For the 2010-11 academic year, 45 percent of cases were classified as plagiarism and 72 percent as unauthorized assistance.

Students found copying answers from another student’s paper or working together on an exam would be in violation of unauthorized assistance.

Yet some students do not even realize what they are doing could be considered a violation of the policy, Bell said.

“Our policy says that all work is to be individual unless the instructor has said it’s OK to work with another student,” she said. “A lot of times, students think just the opposite — that it’s OK to work together unless the instructor specifically says it’s not.”

Bell said she is willing to talk to professors for students who want clarification.

“Our policy covers even unintentional violations,” Bell said. “I do see a lot of those, where students truly thought that what they were doing was OK. Asking questions can never hurt.”

Bell said some departments reported more honesty violations than others, although she would not specify which ones.

Management Information Systems professor Janine Aronson said she thinks many academic honesty violations are detected in MIS classes because the use of technology makes it easier to find cheaters.

“I wouldn’t call it a problem in the department,” Aronson said. “We have an automated system that can detect cheating.”

Aronson said she suspects one of the contributing factors to the increase in reports is faculty awareness.

“There might be more cases of students trying to raise their grades and keep the HOPE scholarship,” she said. “Faculty might just be getting better at detecting it.”