A physics professor at the University of Virginia (UVA) Bloomfield found himself in the middle of an international media frenzy last year after he caught a group of more than 60 students plagiarizing their final papers for his popular class "How Things Work."
Last December a student tipped Bloomfield off about the possibility that other students were recycling previous years' papers. The computer-savvy Bloomfield wasted little time writing a program that would cross-check current papers with thousands of current and older final papers he had on file. The program found plenty to be suspicious of.
Within hours of Bloomfield breaking the news of his ignominious findings to the University, he was inundated with calls from newspaper reporters from papers like The Washington Post and The New York Times, domestic and international networks, morning shows and even talk shows. "That very Friday I ended up on television talking with Bryant Gumble. It was crazy," he said.
Physics phanatic
Bloomfield certainly never passed off others' work as his own while at Amherst. In fact, it's probably safe to say that Bloomfield did not have any difficulty writing papers or explaining the physics behind how things work. As the co-founder of a WAMH all-night trivia show, he seemed to have little trouble explaining how anything worked. "We would start out trivia contests at ten in the evening and wouldn't wrap the festivities up until six in the morning," Bloomfield explained. "It seemed like we had half of the campus up all night calling in to answer each question and chalk up another point for their team. I guess it was the pizza party rewards that motivated everyone-it's amazing what food can accomplish on a college campus."
During the time when Bloomfield wasn't busy firing questions at fellow students, singing in the choir or working on the movement to ban fraternities, he was off in the physics lab writing his nationally recognized, award-winning senior thesis, "Unsaturated Helium Films on Graphite." "I didn't even know the Apker Award existed," said Bloomfield. "So it was pretty shocking when I found out after I graduated that my thesis had won the only undergraduate physics thesis award in the country!"
Despite his obvious brilliance in physics, Bloomfield found himself taking an equal number of science and non-science courses at Amherst. In fact he pinpointed writing-a tool he has used repeatedly in his professorial career-as the most important skill he learned in college.
As for cheating, "I was oblivious to it at Amherst. It rarely seemed to be an issue on campus."
Red Hat physicist
"When I was five I wanted to be a fireman," he said. "All my friends told me I was going to be an atomic physicist and that's what I ended up being, although it didn't involve top-secret interactions with nuclear weapons like they thought. I just work with a bunch of atoms."
Bloomfield's current job teaching physics to mostly non-majors at UVA seems natural considering his stellar accessibility and love for a well-rounded liberal arts education. However, his road to Charlottesville was a bit more winding than one might expect.
"I'd been programmed to be a doctor since I was a little boy," he said. "It actually took a phone call to my father to seek permission to change this dream in order for me to continue on in physics and switch career paths." In the spring of 1979, Bloomfield was accepted to and enrolled at The Johns Hopkins University medical school only to rescind his acceptance one month later and instead attend Stanford University's doctoral program in physics. "I felt guilty in front of my professors for not applying to graduate school for physics, so I picked three names out of a hat, applied, and got accepted," he said.
Bloomfield credits now-retired Professor of Physics Robert Romer '52 with playing a large part in his decision to become a physicist. "He was appalled when I turned down Princeton-his alma mater. When he offered to see if he could get the admissions offer reinstated for me, I was rattled."
'Meet Virginia'
The day after getting married in California in 1983, Bloomfield and his wife Karen hit the road and drove back east. Bloomfield had accepted a prestigious position at Bell Labs in New Jersey, where he would spend the next two years working on post-doctoral research. "[Bell Labs was] definitely the place to be," he said. "It was where the laser, the transistor and the ego were all invented."
Although he was excited to be working in such a high-energy environment, he was a little cautious. "You lost your fingers and toes to the sharks if you said something dumb. It wasn't the most friendly environment for a non-cutthroat person like me," he said.
After turning down numerous job offers, Bloomfield finally accepted a position as assistant professor of physics at UVA. It was only a matter of time before being promoted to associate professor in 1991 and then professor in 1996. Even before the cheating scandal broke out, Bloomfield had made a name for himself as one of the most popular professors on campus, and enrollment in his class "How Things Work" swelled to nearly 500 students a semester.
Honorable mention
"When I was alerted to the possibility that students were recycling papers from past semesters, I felt compelled to look for these violations," Bloomfield explained. "After all, such cheating is disastrous. We have an honor system here and [that] is a complete violation of this system."
Bloomfield didn't just get angry at what was going on, he got serious. Only three months after getting wind of the cheating, he had crafted a computer program that cross-referenced current papers against the past four semesters worth of final papers. Once over one hundred names were pinpointed by the program, he submitted his evidence to the honor system board. So far, forty cases have made it past the investigation stage of UVA's judicial review board, eleven have been sent on to trial from there and two students have been convicted resulting in permanent expulsion from the university.
Not only has Bloomfield used the computer program for his classes ever since, but the program has now spread to high schools, universities and corporations around the globe. "As soon as the national papers got wind of the story, I started getting hundreds of requests for a copy of the program," he explained. "I spruced it up, made it faster and more efficient and set it up to be downloaded off of a website." Since then, it has been downloaded well over one thousand times.
A group from Japan even approached Bloomfield personally to ask if the program could be expanded to include non-English language capacities. Another woman is using it to search for a correlation between lobbying and governmental legislative language. Most faculty members are just using it for peace of mind because, as Bloomfield pointed out, "Plagiarism doesn't just affect students, it has various demoralizing effects on faculty."
Another 24 hours
"If all I did with this situation was get a bunch of students thrown out of school, it would be a sad business. I want to raise the level of awareness of academic integrity at both the University of Virginia and elsewhere," Bloomfield said.
Bloomfield's strong emphasis on education over grades has become obvious during this scandal. "I think the problem comes from a prevailing mentality," he said. "The purpose of a university isn't getting a diploma or credentialing, but getting an education. Grades motivate students but create a target we don't want. Unfortunately, high grades don't equal lots of learning." So despite his frustration with certain aspects of the grading system and the lack of integrity that was shown by certain students, Bloomfield has resolved to change his teaching and grading style as little as possible.
While he does admit to having changed his testing procedures by forcing students to remain in the testing room during exams instead of taking it anywhere they choose, he has stuck with his approach to the final exam as it has been in the past. "I could change the topic each year so that it's harder for students to cheat, but these things will weaken the assignment." Only days after the news broke on the UVA campus last spring, Bloomfield's students had to turn in their final papers for "How Things Work." Not too surprisingly, there was very little cheating detected that semester. Says Bloomfield, "I don't think this is a coincidence. Do you?"