In an attempt to emphasize student creativity, professors in the Art Department here at PC encourage independence of thought, which leads to originality in student artwork. Painting and design professor Ann Stoddard says, "I can only encourage a student to explore [his or her] own pursuits and search for originality." She says it is obvious to her "when a student uses others' ideas or brings in work done in the past to try to fill a requirement. Integrity always reflects." She emphasizes the importance and significance of each individual's own ideas and opinions.

Professors in the art department have different ways of discussing plagiarism and reminding students about the Honor Code. A guru of computer technology, professor Mark Anderson is a stickler for honesty in student work involving the Internet. He verbally warns art history students of plagiarism in creating their Web site pages and shows them specifically how to cite images and text copied from the Web. By demonstrating to his students how easy it is to use search engines to detect plagiarism, Anderson encourages original thought and proper documentation. Anderson also makes himself available throughout the semester to work with students who may have questions regarding citation.

As the instructors of the Junior Art Seminar and Senior Art Show courses, both Anderson and Ralph Paquin stress the importance of creativity and respect for the ideas of others. Anderson tells the art students that they cannot include works in their senior exhibit that are assigned by professors because such works are not completely original in their concept. Paquin says that he tries to prevent plagiarism by assigning "odd projects that [students] could not copy--except from one another in the classroom." When he sees students copying someone else's idea in class, he talks to them about using "their own imagination, insights, or experiences."

Instead of blatantly badgering students with the Honor Code's rules on plagiarism, Paquin says, "The natural thing for me to do is teach that copying (except when one is doing a study of [a] work--pastiche) is an ignorant act. The opposite of plagiarism is creativity!"