I think somewhere it is definitely being communicated that this is OK, perhaps in a “you’re not supposed to do it, but everybody does” with a grin kind of thing.
Last semester, one of my students from the education graduate school copied most of her paper from a Website. Of course, I caught this in about 5 seconds, googled it, and printed it out. I stapled it to her paper and wrote a big zero on her paper. Of course she came crying and saying, “I’m sorry. It was a mistake.” Although I hadn’t mentioned her name in class, I warned my students that I had caught someone and had given them an automatic zero with no chance for a rewrite. I stressed again (as I had already covered this in the beginning of the class) that this is a big no-no and showed them again where I say clearly on my syllabus that the first time they get a zero on the paper, the second time they are out of my class. Her classmate figured out who it was because he saw her come up to me after all of the other students had left. And guess who tried it this semester? You guessed it. The same guy that watched his classmate suffering over her “mistake” last semester. I printed out the Website he used again, made quick work of putting the big zero on the top, and passed it back. Then he tried the “I’m so sorry teacher, can I do it again?” Routine. No way. I don’t know if they think I won’t catch them when in the middle of a paragraph their writing suddenly becomes perfect or what.
Notice though, that they were both GRADUATE STUDENTS. I have yet to have any trouble with undergraduates plagiarizing. So somewhere they are getting the message that this is OK. It only seems to get worse the higher up they get. I tried to help “edit” a Taiwanese woman’s PhD dissertation last year. I gave it back and said, "I think the writing is already very good, since it’s already been written up and published in… (and I mentioned the journal I had found it in). Then she tried to get me to write it for her, and started crying that her English was not good. But she’s in an English related PhD program for cryin’ out loud! She’s supposed to teach the next generation how to use the language. :loco: