After seven years of legal processes, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts dismissed a lawsuit against Brandeis on Feb. 27. The suit rose from a plagiarism incident in 1997, according to General Counsel Judith Sizer.In May 1997, Drew Morris '97 was in the second semester of his senior year at Brandeis. Having completed all of the requirements he needed to graduate, Morris submitted a term paper to Prof. Alice Kelikian (HIST) that she found suspicious.

Kelikian said the plagiarism was easy to catch since his spelling of the German letter eszet, which often looks like the Greek letter beta, appeared in multiple forms throughout the paper.

"[It] seemed suspicious to me because the German eszet appeared differently throughout the text, sometimes even as a just 'b,'" Kelikian said. "This sort of problem regularly happens with scanned documents."

Kelikian submitted a report about Morris' alleged academic dishonesty to the University Board of Student Conduct (UBSC), which found Morris guilty of plagiarism. The UBSC suspended Morris for a year, during which time he got a job at a law office in Pennsylvania, where he lived.

Morris spent his free time at work filing a suit against Brandeis, accusing the University of misguiding him in the ways of student conduct and following an unfair administrative system.

In the court docket, Morris explained his appeal of the case, saying that Brandeis practiced "breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, negligent misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duty."

Kelikian, still a professor at Brandeis, said she is a firm believer in the most stringent enforcement of anti-plagiarism rules. She was surprised Morris appealed the case after the University made a decision. But Kelikian said she was even more surprised by the long duration of the case.

"I was astonished to learn Morris had filed a [federal] case given the weight of the evidence against him," Kelikian said. "Since Morris offered no compelling argument against the charge that he had plagiarized, I always expected the case would be dismissed. That this saga has dragged out for seven years still baffles me."

Morris could not be reached for comment.

Prof. Antony Polonsky (NEJS) agreed with Kelikian's view on plagiarism. But, feeling bad for Morris, he wrote a recommendation for his law school application and said he was later upset to have found it used against the University in court.

According to Polonsky, the letter was written under the condition that it only help Morris get into law school and not for any other purposes. Polonsky said Morris agreed to this arrangement and he broke his promise in the trial.

"Drew Morris was justly convicted of plagiarism and the University procedures functioned appropriately," Polonsky said. "The letter that I wrote was a private one to enable him [Morris] to get into law school, but I was shocked to find him using it against the University."

Among various defense claims in court, Morris accused Brandeis of not informing him properly about his rights and proper student conduct. More specifically, he blamed then-Associate Director of Campus Life Lori Tenser for having "misled him about the role of the student adviser."

While surprised by Morris' statements, Tenser believes that Morris, as any other American citizen, has the right to file suit and claim what he wishes.

"In this country you have the right to file suit if you want to do, so I don't fault [Morris]," Tenser said. "I do think a great deal of time and energy was devoted to getting it through the legal process, and I don't know whether he now thinks it was worth it, but I certainly don't fault him."

Sizer, who served as one of the attorneys for this case, said during the Morris v. Brandeis trial, the Massachusetts Supreme Court also heard another case filed by a student against the University.

Schaer v. Brandeis involved a Brandeis student who sexually harassed another student. That case was settled in 2000 after a 5-year process.

According to Sizer, the ruling for the Schaer case served as the main reasoning behind the court's decision in Morris v. Brandeis.

"With the Schaer case, the decision was that if a university has a process and follows it in accordance with proper and fair judgment, then it has every right to practice it," Sizer said. "This case is fairly constant and is cited when colleges have a query about how to approach their administration of procedures."

Tenser, along with her colleagues, said she believes the dismissal of the Morris case is a testament to the justness and stability of the current administrative system.

"This is another affirmation of the fact that our policies and procedures afford students considerable rights and that we take great pains to follow those to the letter," Tenser said. "Both because we believe that it's fair and because it's what we say we will do, so we do it and we do it right."

Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer also emphasized the caution with which the administration approaches punishment - like suspensions.

"We are very careful, with anyone's case, for suspension because we know the stakes and they are very high," Sawyer said. "We're aware that occasionally cases come up on any campus that go to a level where there are such high stakes."

Sawyer also said that while cases like Morris' reflect a student's breach of University policy, the preservation of the student's personal rights are just as important as the efficiency and the fairness of the University's administrative duties.