PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A nursing student at Linfield College is suing the school after she was expelled amid allegations of self-plagiarism.
The term is defined by the Computer Science and Engineering unit at the University of Buffalo as “the submission of the same work for academic credit more than once without permission.”
According to the lawsuit, which seeks $46,848 in damages, Shelby Ingebrigtsen was enrolled and attended classes at Linfield’s Good Samaritan School of Nursing in NW Portland.
In October 2016, one of Ingebrigtsen’s professors contacted her and said she wanted to meet to talk about a written assignment that Ingebrigtsen had submitted. Several days later, the two met and the professor, identified in the court documents as Carmen Ingulli, concluded Ingebrigtsen had committed “self-plagiarism.”
The lawsuit claims Ingebrigtsen did not know Ingulli’s definition of self-plagiarism.
After the meeting, Ingulli emailed the dean for the nursing school and recommended that Ingebrigtsen not be allowed to move forward in her studies because of the allegations, according to the lawsuit.
The dean wrote in an email that she “fully supported” Ingulli’s recommendation that Ingebrigtsen kicked out of the program.
Ingebrigtsen was told by Ingulli that she failed the assignment and that she was expelled from the nursing school.
Scott Bernard Nelson, director of communications at Linfield said via e-mail, “We have not been formally served with this lawsuit, and have no comment at this time.”