Plagiarism and Privacy

[Laura Olson]

With regard to Daniel Collins' posting --
        While using students' names in discussions about plagiarism would
undoubtedly be a breach of privacy, there is no reason to curtail
discussions that involve professionals giving advice to each other about
how to handle cases of plagiarism, if those discussions do not use names.
In fact, I think this forum _should_ be available for such purposes, since
many of us occasionally need advice about teaching matters, and we may
teach in universities where we are alone in Russian or East European
languages. Our colleagues may not have encountered similar cases.
        Your caution about generalizing these cases is well taken.  We
should not allow ourselves to become prejudiced against emigres, whether
those at the universities mentioned or at our own.  However, I seriously
doubt that the information given is enough to reconstruct the identity of a
specific student.
        --Laura Olson