Academic Integrity

Definitions:  

Plagiarism is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own …[to] present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 898).  

Collusion occurs when two or more students who are preparing individual assignments work together and submit similar work for assessment. Any student who allows another to use their materials is guilty of collusion. Collusion does not occur if students have been assigned group projects.  

Cheating includes, but is not limited to, looking at, copying, or using the work of another for assignments or projects, sharing test questions, using unauthorized test banks, or by using unauthorized notes or materials on examinations.  

Examples: A student may be found responsible of violating the academic integrity policy if any of the following occur: 

•  Submits a paper, examination, computer program, project, speech or assignment as their own work if someone else prepared it. 
• Copies verbatim (word-for-word) the written materials of others without putting such words in quotation marks and/or without documenting the source of those words.  
• Paraphrases (puts into the student’s own words) the ideas of others without documenting the source of these ideas. 
• Copies the artistic creations of others without documenting the source of those ideas.  
• Copies a table, chart, diagram, or any illustration without documenting the source. - Uses terminology or concepts created by another without documenting the source.  
• Presents false, fabricated, or altered information or data to support the thesis or main idea of the work.  
• Submits the same assignment for more than one course without the permission of all the instructors. 
• Downloads and uses text or materials from the Internet, from a hard drive of any computer (on campus or elsewhere), or from a USB, CD-ROM or other electronic storage device without documentation and the original author’s consent. 
• Performs and/or accesses any work for another enrolled student, regardless of delivery mode. 

Possible Sanctions for Academic Integrity Cases

In Academic Integrity cases, the instructor may impose the following sanctions:  

1. Give the assigned work a zero or an F.  
2. Notify the student’s program instructors of the incident.  
3. Ask the student to create original work in a supervised setting.  
4. Drop the student from the course with an F. 
5. Suggest to the Dean that the student be dropped from the student’s academic program.  
6. Adhere to the penalty stated in each course’s syllabus.  
7. Record an event of cheating in the student’s disciplinary record.