Academic Dishonesty

The University functions best when its members treat one another with honesty, fairness, respect, and trust. Students should realize that deception for individual gain is an offense against the members of the entire community, and it is their responsibility to be informed of University regulations on Academic Dishonesty by reading the catalog. It is a duty of faculty members to take measures to preserve and transmit the values of the academic community in the learning environment which they create for their students and in their own academic pursuits. To this end, they are expected to instill in their students a respect for integrity and a desire to behave honestly. They are also expected to take measures to discourage student academic dishonesty, to adjust grades appropriately if academic dishonesty is encountered, and, when warranted, to recommend that additional administrative sanctions be considered.

EXAMPLES OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

1. Cheating: possessing unauthorized sources of information during an examination; copying the work of another student or permitting copying by another student during an exam; completing an assignment, such as an exam, paper, lab report, or computer program for another student; submitting material produced by someone else; submitting out-of-class work for an in-class assignment; altering graded work after instructor evaluation and resubmitting it for regrading; retaining exams or other materials after they were supposed to be returned to an instructor; inventing data or falsifying an account of data collection.

2. Plagiarism: taking the words or substance of another and either copying or paraphrasing the work without giving credit to the source (e.g., through footnotes, quotation marks, reference citations).

3. Other forms: providing material to another person with knowledge it will be improperly used, possessing another student's work without permission, selling or purchasing materials for class assignments, altering another student's assignment, knowingly furnishing false or incomplete academic information, altering documents affecting student records, forging a signature or falsifying information on any official academic document.

PREVENTION OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

1. Students should be aware of the standards of academic honesty by being provided with a clear definition of expectations and standards and of the consequences for dishonesty.

2. Faculty should seek appropriate opportunities to become familiar with student capabilities (e.g. in-class assignments, quizzes).

3. To minimize or eliminate cheating, faculty shall keep exams in secure locations, consider developing multiple versions of exams, consider avoiding the use of exam questions in instructors' manuals, provide space or exam books for test responses.

4. To discourage plagiarism, faculty can meet periodically with students to review progress on their papers, require submission of a preliminary draft, provide a sequence of separate assignments in the development of papers.

DEALING WITH INSTANCES OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

1. Cheating: the student should be informed promptly of suspicions (in private, if possible), materials should be confiscated if the exam is in progress and the student allowed to finish, and the names of adjacent students should be noted.

2. Plagiarism: documentation should be assembled and the student promptly informed in private.

SANCTION

1. Whenever academic dishonesty occurs, the faculty member should take appropriate action by reporting the infraction to the Dean of the student's major.

2. If it is found that suspected student(s) performed an act of academic dishonesty, the Dean will determine the penalty in accordance with the following:

(a)   First Offense, minimum penalty: "F" for the course in which the act of academic misconduct occurred, maximum penalty: suspension from the University for the remainder of the semester.

(b)   Second Offense, maximum penalty: Indefinite suspension from the University.