[MissouriConservative]

What the h*ll is wrong with supposed educated people?

[teacherwoes]

I wonder how many students who were against the program plagiarized

[Dahoser]

They're so behind the times up north: Plagiarism gets you a holiday in the United States.

[coconutt2000]

I'm sure the majority of students who run for student government organizations cheat and plagiarize on a regular basis.

In fact, the 15% of the student body that cheats probably all sit on the student body government or work for it.

[SkyPilot]

"Everyone has the right to learn in an environment that is free of guilt presumption and fear, and Turnitin.com does exactly what it shouldn’t be doing in a higher educational environment," Ms. Brushett said. "It creates a culture of fear, it creates a culture of guilt and to me, that hinders some people from pursuing higher education and doing it with an open mind."

What a joke.

Colleges and Universities have established the greatest "culture of fear" on the planet with their speech codes, hate (thought) crimes, ivory tower bureaucracy, kangaroo student courts, and their brutal and politically biased faculty.

Furthermore, they are the least "open minded" people on the planet.

[Logophile]

But many student groups believe that using a service like Turnitin is too punitive and automatically presumes guilt.

Their reasoning is faulty on two counts. First, punitive means "inflicting punishment." Turnitin is a an investigative tool; it does not punish anyone. Second, simply checking papers for plagiarism does not presume anything except that some people will cheat (15% according to the article).

And that is the point. Some people will cheat, and these "student groups" want them to get away with it. If they were honest, they would admit their real motivation. But of course, if they were honest, they would not be working to aid plagiarists.

[kitkat]

***"Everyone has the right to learn in an environment that is free of guilt presumption and fear, and Turnitin.com does exactly what it shouldn’t be doing in a higher educational environment,"...***

MORAL RELATIVISM

And that's just wrong.

[Logophile]

In a landmark decision, the Halifax school has banned the popular plagiarism-detection software used by hundreds of universities around the world.

Another point: How exactly does a university "ban" a web site?

Presumably, professors will still have access to Turnitin.com. The rules in Canada may be different, but here in the United States no one could prevent a tenured professor from using the software to detect plagiarism.