An adjunct professor at Texas A&M International University has been fired for publicizing the names of six suspected plagiarizers.

Professor Loye Young’s syllabus declared that he would “promptly and publicly fail and humiliate anyone caught lying, cheating or stealing. That includes academic dishonesty, copyright violations, software piracy, or any other form of dishonesty.” (It is not clear from published reports or Young’s own statements whether the syllabus made any explicit reference to plagiarism, or defined the terms used above in any way.)

When Young found evidence, less than halfway through the semester, that six of his students had plagiarized portions of an assignment, he submitted failing grades in the course for each of them, reported them to the university, and posted their names on his blog.

It appears that Young, who owns a computer business, had never taught before, and that he may not have consulted with anyone in the university’s faculty or administration before publishing the students’ names.

Within two days of his posting the students’ names on his blog, Young was fired for possible violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law that limits the release of students’ educational records.

The students’ cases have been referred to an honors council for review, and the law blog The Volokh Conspiracy has opened a discussion about the due process and academic freedom questions raised by the incident.