But some professors prefer to root out plagiarism without the help of computers.

Lecturer on Sociology Mark J. Zimny says he has uncovered several instances of plagiarism in his class the old-fashioned way—by getting suspicious when a paper doesn’t seem quite right.

“It’s almost like trying on a piece of clothing that isn’t made for you,” Zimny says. “It doesn’t fit the way it should.”

However, Zimny has yet to embrace anti-plagiarism software.

“This is our job,” he says. Using an anti-plagiarism service “would be like sub-contracting your grading to a grading company. I think it’s our onus as faculty to...determine whether or not it’s actually genuine work.”

Zimny also says there are security concerns of sending student work to a website like TurnItIn.com, since submitting student papers to a third party could be construed as a breach of trust and privacy.

Currently the College has no official policy on the use of such programs for disciplinary purposes, says Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis ’68.

Fordham, too, says the benefits of the technology do not yet outweigh its drawbacks.

“It took an astounding amount of time... I don’t know that I would do this again, I would think twice or get my TF’s to do it,” he says.