Academic Integrity at Roanoke College

Created by Dr. Angela Allen

What is wrong with cheating or plagiarizing?

• It is a fundamentally dishonest and unfair way of gaining a personal edge (maybe) and is counter to the values of the College.

• It runs counter to the goals for the College and your own goals…the intention is to learn, not just “pass”.

• It sets the “cheater” up for failure later in higher level classes• It can negatively affect academic integrity of other students by

setting up cheating as a norm, or as an acceptable behavior.• It can negatively affect the grades of intellectually honest

students• A college or university where cheating is known to occur

suffers a blow to its reputation, and to the reputation of its alumni.

• Most, if not all, students know this. Academic integrity violations are usually impulsive, not planned. Resist the impulse.

Consequences of getting caught

• Frequently, the offense takes place near the end of a semester and the culprit gets an F or XF in a class for which a great deal of work was already done.

• An XF, an academic suspension, and expulsion become part of a student’s permanent academic record and appear on transcripts. Graduate schools and some jobs require copies of those transcripts.

• Academic integrity violations are kept confidential but can be revealed on a need-to-know basis if the student is applying for an internship or qualifies for an honor society or scholarship. In many cases, an AI violation is a deal-breaker.

Specific violations of academic integrity

• Cheating– Using unauthorized assistance with regard to tests,

papers and other assignments– GIVING such assistance knowingly– Altering a grade or test answer

• If you aren’t sure if collaboration or use of aids such as a calculator are acceptable, ASK YOUR PROFESSOR. Assume that if collaboration is not explicitly made permissible, it’s not OK. It’s YOUR responsibility to know what is OK and not OK in your classes.

• Lying– Any statement, written or oral, that is false and is

intended to dishonestly improve one’s grade in a course, or to protect another person.

• Plagiarizing– Passing off another’s work as one’s own without

sufficient acknowledgement. Rephrasing someone’s work without quotation. Using someone else’s writing without quotes. Buying a paper online is plagiarism (and a waste of money because they’re usually bad).

• Impeding an investigation• Denying access to academic materials.

Paraphrasing, a common plagiarism issue

• The absence of quotes in a given piece of text is functionally saying “I wrote that myself”.

• Slight rephrasing of the original without use of quotes is basically stealing someone else’s writing.

• Either completely rephrase and cite the source of the idea (which usually works better anyway), or keep the phrasing intact and put quotes around it.

• Original, from “Mismeasure of Man” by Steven Jay Gould:– “The concept of evolution transformed human thought during the

nineteenth century. Nearly every question in the life sciences was reformulated in its light”.

• Use 1– Gould makes the case that “the concept of evolution transformed

human thought” (Gould, 1981, pg 113) soon after Darwin proposed it.

• Use 2– According to Gould, the idea of evolution changed human

thought during the 1800’s. Almost every question in the life sciences was reformulated to reflect it (Gould, 1981).

• Use 3– Gould makes the case that the theory of evolution significantly

altered scientific thought, especially in the life sciences. It not only provided explanations but caused re-thinking of the questions. (Gould, 1981).

• Use 2 constitutes plagiarism. Even though the source is cited, it is evident that the phrasing is almost exactly lifted from the original, without quotes.

What should you, or I, do if we suspect an academic integrity

violation?

• If you are a student, contact the professor of the course or Jennifer Berenson, who is the chair of the Academic Integrity Council.

• After discussion, a charge may be made and a hearing scheduled. Cases are heard by an Academic Integrity Panel or Board, depending on the severity of the case. Both have faculty and student members.

• Penalties imposed by Academic Integrity Council, if “clear and convincing evidence” is presented – F in the course (this is the usual minimum penalty)– XF in the course (denotes an academic integrity failure)– Academic Integrity probation of at least one term after the term of the

violation– Academic Integrity suspension of at least one term after the term of the

violation– Academic Integrity expulsion, with this noted on the student’s transcript– Restitution

• Appeals may be granted under certain conditions

• Don’t make us sit across the table from you. Nobody needs this situation.

Case 1

• Debra is taking Sociology 101. One assignment is a short paper on different views of the effectiveness of busing as a way to achieve racial integration. Debra finds a website with some interesting information. She selects a lot of the information, pastes it into a Word document, adds some sentences and changes a few words. She does not use quotes around the pasted material, but she does acknowledge the source of the information.

Case 2• In an upper-level Biology class, students

work in pairs for a project, and the pairs often study together. The professor gives the class a take-home test but reminds them not to work together on the test. One pair have some very similar wrong answers, which they attribute to using the same set of notes during the test. The professor charges them with cheating, but emphasizes that sharing notes was permissible; she believes that they actively collaborated on the test questions.

Case 3• Zack is in a philosophy class in which he

regularly turns in a journal of his interpretation of a reading assignment. The journal is graded and returned; the cumulative journal grade is worth 10% of his final grade. The professor realizes that for two entries, his entries are very similar to an online set of notes on the same material. Zack admits to having looked up the information on that site and having used some of the same wording, but since it wasn’t a test, he thought it was OK. He didn’t indicate in the journal that he had used the online notes.

Case 4• Darlene’s French professor has agreed to give

Darlene an exam a day early. Darlene shows up at the professor’s office with a pen and a handbag. She then is taken to a storage room with a desk and given the exam; the professor leaves. About 20 minutes later, another person enters the room to access the storage and finds Darlene with her French notes out in plain sight. At the hearing Darlene admits to having the notes but says that she was looking over them before starting the exam.