Academic Honesty
The Marywood University community functions best when its members treat one another with honesty, fairness, and trust. The entire community, students and faculty alike, recognize the necessity and accept the responsibility for academic honesty. Students must realize that deception for individual gain is an offense against the entire community. Cheating and plagiarism are behaviors destructive of the learning process and of the ethical standards expected of all students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Students have a responsibility to know and adhere to the University’s Academic Honesty policy. Violations of this academic honesty statement or the intent of this statement carry consequences. University procedures for investigation of alleged violations of this policy ensure that students are protected from arbitrary or capricious disciplinary action. Initial sanctions for violations of academic honesty ordinarily are determined by the course instructor. The faculty member will employ a range of sanctions, from a minimum of a failing grade for the specific coursework in which the infraction occurred to a maximum of a failing grade for the entire course. If necessary, the chairperson and/or academic dean may become involved in investigating the allegation of academic dishonesty and the determination of sanctions.
The faculty member will file a report with the Office of the Provost, with copy to the faculty member’s department chairperson and the student’s academic dean. An academic dean may choose at any time to inform the Dean of Students of charges of academic dishonesty for adjudication in the University conduct system. Likewise, a member of the University community may submit a conduct report against a student, group of students, or student organization for alleged violations of the Academic Honesty policy to the Dean of Students, who will inform the appropriate academic dean for possible adjudication.
The Provost will maintain a register of established cases of academic dishonesty in order to identify an individual student’s pattern of violation. Two established cases of academic dishonesty will result in suspension from the University; three established cases will result in dismissal.
In a case in which the student is involved with violations of both academic and conduct policies from the same incident, the Dean of Students and the cognizant Academic Dean of the college in which the student is enrolled will confer regarding sanctions to assess their academic impact and to assure that a consistent message is communicated to the student.
Definition
Cheating
Defined as, but not limited to, the following:
- having unauthorized material and/or electronic devices during an examination without the permission of the instructor;
- copying from another student or permitting copying by another student in a testing situation;
- communicating exam questions to another student;
- completing an assignment for another student, or submitting an assignment done by another student, e.g., exam, paper, laboratory, or computer report;
- collaborating with another student in the production of a paper or report designated as an individual assignment;
- submitting work purchased from a commercial paper writing service;
- submitting out-of-class work for an in-class assignment;
- changing grades or falsifying records;
- stealing or attempting to steal exams or answer keys, or retaining exams without authorization;
- submitting an identical assignment to two different classes without the permission of the instructors;
- falsifying an account of data collection unless instructed to do so by the course instructor;
- creating the impression, through improper referencing, that the student has read material that was not read;
- artificially contriving material or data and submitting them as fact;
- failing to contribute fairly to group work while seeking to share in the credit;
- collaborating on assignments that were not intended to be collaborative.
Plagiarism
Defined as the offering as one’s own work the words, sentence structure, ideas, existing imagery, or arguments of another person without appropriate attribution by quotation, reference, or footnote. It includes quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing the works of others without appropriate citation. No claim of ignorance about the nature of plagiarism will excuse a violation.
Procedures
The student has a right to appeal sanctions resulting from academic dishonesty. A student who decides to file a formal grievance must submit the request in writing to the departmental chair or the dean. This is ordinarily done within thirty working days of the date an alleged incident occurred or a problem began. The necessary form is available from the Academic Dean of the college or school where the alleged problem occurred. The Provost is the final recourse in the academic appeal process.