“So you can play while we make your papers go away”
UnemployedProfessors.com, a web-based essay mill founded in Montreal, is currently climbing to infamy within the academic sphere. The site refers to itself as “a service [provided] to make your life easier.” Operating as a bidding process, students can purchase original academic work from “unemployed professors.” The site currently hosts 30 ghostwriter professors who bid on projects with an asking price and estimated completion date. The student then accepts whichever bid is most attractive.
“Let’s face it,” reads the “About Us” page, “academia is a machine that thrives only on what it incestuously produces. The people writing for you here are those who’ve been sucked in and spit out by this machine…our job is to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to you.”
The senior news editor of the Sheaf , the Univesrity of Saskatchewan student newspaper, recently interviewed the people behind UnemployedProfessors.com and discussed the media buzz they have experienced recently. Of course, the primary concern of this attention is the ethicality of it all.
“Isn’t it really unethical for you to be writing these essays for cash?” one of the site’s FAQs reads. “Incredibly so” is the answer. “Because the academic system is already so corrupt, we’re totally cool with that.”
In the correspondence with the Sheaf, however, the site takes a slightly different stance. “We don’t see an ethical dilemma on our side,” they said. “The ethical burden really is on the students. We produce custom research; it’s up to the user to do with it as he or she sees fits.”
The concept of buying academic work is certainly not new. Essay mills existed before the Internet era, with a focus on selling previously submitted essays rather than creating “custom research” for individuals. Essay mills allowed students to purchase essays dependent on the grade they wished to receive. Students looking to boost their average could purchase an A paper, while those with poor academic records could purchase a paper in the C range to avoid being flagged for plagiarism.
However, sites like TurnItIn.com have ended the era of students buying recycled essays, and so UnemployedProfessors.com fills this void, targeting those with poor English, who are lazy, are busy, and those who simply resent being asked to write papers.
The Ontarion submitted a fake assignment to the site and within ten minutes had a response from an “unemployed professor” going by the pseudonym “Politically-Suspect,” who claims to have not one, but two PhDs.
“I am a rare find,” claims Politically-Suspect. “I actively enjoy learning about new topics and I take pride in my work. As a result, all the essays I write are not only learned, cogently argued, and sophisticated; they are also written with style and panache.”
Hilary Jarvis, the Governance and Judicial Officer for Student Judicial Services, noted that the U of G has an extensive policy on academic misconduct. Though lacking a specific section for the fraud encouraged by UnemployedProfessors.com, a section labelled “Unauthorized Aids and Assistance” states that “it is an offence to use or possess an unauthorized aid [or]…unauthorized assistance…in connection with any form of academic work. Such aids may include…commercial services (such as writing, editorial, software, or research survey services).”
“[W]hile the University has attempted to present as comprehensive a list as possible,” continued Jarvis, “the list of potential academic offences contained in the policy should not be considered exhaustive.”
At the time of publication, the Ontarion had 6 bids on the fake assignment, with ghostwriters asking between $150 and $300 to write a six-page philosophy paper. Clearly, academic misconduct is costly in more ways than one.