Student Affairs

Academic Honesty

The office of the Dean of Students is here not only to assure that the statewide policy is fairly administered regarding violation of student codes of conduct, but to assist faculty members in ensuring academic integrity at a campus-wide level.  Faculty members are encouraged to report each instance of academic dishonesty to the Office of the Dean of Students in part so that the University can maintain a data base of students who have committed such offenses.   The instructor who "takes care of it in my classroom" might be compared to a police force which issues tickets and collects the fine, but doesn't share this information with statewide agencies.  Who knows if that driver has a history of speeding, reckless driving, or, worse, drunken driving?  So it is with academic dishonesty.  Reporting it and allowing the University to take action is to enforce the severity of the offense to the student in particular and to better serve the "law-abiding" students in general. 

To keep the "red tape" to a minimum, we suggest faculty furnish the following when submitting cases for review.

Reporting Academic Dishonesty Form

Name and Cal State San Marcos I.D. Number for the student

The formal process begins with a letter from the Office of the Dean of Students to the student charged with the offense.  The correct I.D. number allows us to identify the appropriate student from the vast data base at Cal State San Marcos.

Title/Course Number

This helps us identify the specific course in which the alleged offense took place.

The faculty member's policy on academic dishonesty and how this is shared with the students.

Faculty have "the responsibility to clarify their positions on academic dishonesty to their class early in each class."  Policy also allows faculty quite a bit of latitude in how to deal with individual incidents of academic dishonesty, from failing an assignment to failing the class.  What is this faculty member's policy and how it’s shared?  If this is included in the syllabus, please include a copy.  If not on the syllabus, how do the students know how an individual faculty member will respond to academic dishonesty?

A brief description of the incident

• Is this plagiarism?  How can you tell?  Can you identify the source?
• Is this cheating on an exam? 
• Is this collaboration on a project?
• Is this a forged signature?
• Is this another instance of academic dishonesty?  What is the offense?
• In each instance, please also answer these questions:  How was it detected? What evidence is available to support the charge?

Describe any contact with the student since the incident

Did the faculty member confront the student?  How did they respond?

Describe any action already taken

University policy notes that "any form of academic dishonesty in class could result in a failing grade for the assignment related to the instance or in a failing grade for the class."  Please provide any information on actions already taken.

More information is available from the Office of the Dean of Studentsat 760/7504935 or through e-mail at gtoya@csusm.edu. Please don't hesitate to ask any questions or to seek advice in pursuing an incident.

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From the University Catalog, pages 321 – 322:

The maintenance of academic integrity and quality education is the responsibility of each student within this University and The CSU system. Cheating and plagiarism in connection with an academic program at a campus is listed in Section 41301, Title 5, California Code of Regulations, as an offense for which a student may be expelled, suspended, put on probation, or given a less severe disciplinary sanction.  Academic dishonesty is an especially serious offense. It diminishes the quality of scholarship and defrauds those who depend upon the integrity of the campus programs. Such dishonesty includes:

A. Cheating

Using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.

Comments:

1. Faculty members are strongly encouraged to make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct. This includes adequate communication of expectations about what kinds of collaboration are acceptable within the course. Instructors should state in course syllabi their policies and procedures concerning examinations and other academic exercises, as well as the use before examinations of shared study aids, examination files, and other related materials and forms of assistance.

2. Students completing any examination should assume that external assistance (e.g., books, notes, calculators, conversation with others) is prohibited unless specifically authorized by the instructor.

3. Students must not allow others to conduct research or prepare any work for them without advance authorization from the instructor. This comment includes, but is not limited to, the services of commercial term paper companies.

4. Students who are required to do a paper in a course should assume that submitting the same or similar paper to different courses (regardless of whether it is in the same semester or in different semesters) is not permitted without the explicit permission of the instructors of both courses.

B. Fabrication

Falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.

Comments:

1. “Invented” information may not be used in any laboratory experiment or other academic exercise without notice to and authorization from the instructor. It would be improper, for example, to analyze one sample in an experiment and covertly “invent” data based on the single experiment for several more required analyses.

2. One must use/acknowledge the actual source from which cited information was obtained. For example, a student may not reproduce sections from a book review and indicate that the section was obtained from the book itself.

3. Students who attempt to alter and resubmit returned academic work with intent to defraud the faculty member will be in violation of this section. For example, a student may not change an answer on a returned exam and then claim that he/she deserves additional credit.

C. Facilitating Academic Dishonesty

Intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to commit an act of academic dishonesty.

Comments:

1. For example, a student who knowingly allowed copying from his or her paper during an examination would be in violation of this section.

2. Providing information about the contents of an examination to a student who will later take the examination, or taking an examination on behalf of another student are violations of academic honesty.

D. Plagiarism

Intentionally or knowingly representing the words, ideas, or work of another as one’s own in any academic exercise.  The act of incorporating the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, or parts thereof, or the specific substance of another’s work, without giving appropriate credit, and representing the product as one’s own work. The act of putting one’s name as an author on a group project to which no contribution was actually made; and Representing another’s artistic/ scholarly works such as musical compositions, computer programs, photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures, or similar works as one’s own.

Comments:

1. Direct Quotation: Every direct quote must be identified by quotation marks, or by appropriate indentation or by other means of identification, and must be promptly cited in a footnote. Proper footnote style for academic departments is outlined by such manuals as the MLA Style Sheet, APA Publications Manual, or K. L. Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations.

2. Paraphrase: Prompt acknowledgment is required when material from another source is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in your own words. To acknowledge a paraphrase properly, one might state: “to paraphrase

Locke’s comment...” and conclude with a footnote identifying the exact reference. A footnote acknowledging only a directly quoted statement does not suffice to notify the reader of any preceding or succeeding paraphrased material.

3. Borrowed Facts or Information: Information obtained in one’s reading or research which is not common knowledge among students in the course must be acknowledged. Examples of common knowledge might include the names of leaders of prominent nations or basic scientific laws. Material which contributes only to the student’s general understanding of the subject may be acknowledged in the bibliography and need not be immediately footnoted. One footnote is usually sufficient to acknowledge indebtedness when a number of connected sentences in the paper draw their special information from one source. When direct quotations are used, however, quotation format must be used and prompt acknowledgment is required. Inquiries and assistance in reporting student misconduct is available through the Office of the Dean of Students, Coordinator, University Student Conduct.

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What's wrong with cheating?

by Professor Michael Bishop

Chair of the Iowa State University Department of Philosophy and Religion

 A version of this essay originally appeared as a letter to the editor in the Iowa State University Daily in 1993, and was subsequently revised by Professor  Bishop for publication in *Synthesis: Law and Policy in Higher Education.*

I caught a student last week rifling through his book bag while taking a makeup exam.  It's not the first time I've caught a cheater, and it won't be the last according to a survey I took of my ethics classes.

53% of my upper-class students have cheated on a test or plagiarized a paper while at Iowa State, 91% know someone who has, and 18% know someone who has been punished for academic dishonesty. The figures on my first-year students are, respectively, 19%, 71%, and 10%.

I'll bet these results are as unsurprising to most students as they are shocking to the typical faculty member or administrator.  I've met lots of cheaters, both as a professor and as an undergraduate member of a judicial panel that tried cases of academic dishonesty. Most cheaters are neither immoral nor stupid. While they know cheating is against the rules, most of them don't understand how serious it is.

A student caught cheating will typically insist that it was his first time, he thought he could get away with it, it was stupid, he'll never do it again, he's truly sorry,  and 'please dear God don't tell my parents.'  But get below the surface, and you'll find an implicit attitude that says: everybody cheats, it doesn't really hurt anybody, and this material isn't important to me. There is seldom a deep understanding of why cheating is wrong.

So why is cheating wrong?

Most obviously, cheating is unfair to honest students.  A cheater receives through deception what honest students work hard for; and in classes graded on a curve, he lowers their grades to boot.  Cheating also cheapens the diploma. How valuable can a sheepskin be if so many people receive it under false pretenses?  But the devaluation is not just figurative. An Iowa State degree is a valuable commodity, only if people trust that it is a mark of excellence. That trust is undermined as people become aware of the amount of cheating on campus.

But more disturbing is that academic dishonesty perverts the central mission of a university . . . An education is much more than just learning facts.  And it's more than mastering the ability to solve problems, to understand complicated issues, to detect bullshit (sophistry), and to articulate your views.  A quality education requires a commitment to an ever deeper understanding of self and of one's place in the social and natural world; and when successful, it leads to a critical examination of the assumptions that guide one's life.

The Cheater cheats himself of an education.  His actions imply that he either does not understand what a quality education is or does not care about getting one...

But what's worst is that cheating contributes to an environment in which otherwise honest students learn to view education as merely the temporary acquisition of facts.  And if it's temporary, what can it matter whether it's understood, memorized, or written on a cheat-sheet?

Many in our community will point to a lack of moral integrity among students who cheat as the primary cause of academic fraud. Others will cite a greed-driven society in which a university diploma is seen as the fastest way to make a buck. These assessments are partially true but ultimately self-serving. They omit the crucial role played by the rest of us (faculty, administrators and honest students) who unwittingly nurture an environment in which cheating is bound to thrive.

A close look at my survey suggests that almost two-thirds of the first-time cheaters are upper-class students.  Most people don't arrive here inclined to cheat. Cheating is both cause an effect of an atmosphere in which too many of us ignore or disrespect quality education and minimal standards of decent conduct.

We work very hard to be a place that sends competent people into the world. But we do not work nearly as hard to be a place that sends ethical people into the world. Is this really a wise combination?

We have failed as a community to clearly articulate why academic dishonesty is wrong.  We have failed to communicate the academic principles we expect everyone to obey and the consequences of flouting those principles. And we have failed to convince most students of our genuine commitment to academic integrity.  No wonder so many of them view cheating in academia as little worse than a white lie.

That's not to say that cheaters are innocent victims or that they are not responsible for their behavior. But we must be frank and clear-headed about why academic dishonesty happens if we intend to do anything about it.

So what can we do about academic dishonesty? A lot.

Professors need to discuss with their classes why academic integrity is indispensable to any community of scholars. And we must demonstrate our commitment by confronting cheaters. This involves engaging in a dialogue that gets beyond the student's pathetic pleas and achieves some kind of moral insight. It also involves referring the student to Judicial Affairs.

Too many professors shun the administrative route for fear of a judicial morass . . .  hours wasted on interminable proceeding that result in a slap on the wrist or a verdict of not guilty. What justifies this concern?  Perhaps a bad experience, but usually it is based on anecdote. The irony is that no professor would ever accept such reasoning from a student. A single experience, or worse yet, a colorful anecdote is no basis for a valid general conclusion. Five minutes of research would furnish a more accurate picture of campus judicial proceeding.  And this picture does not justify our turning a blind eye to academic dishonesty.

By ignoring academic dishonesty we tell students that cheating is a minor infraction. You can get in more trouble for parking in the wrong lot!  And without reliable records, it is practically impossible to expose habitual cheaters.

Campus administrators must also combat academic dishonesty. They need to do something about the widespread impression that judicial proceedings are interminable and ineffectual. Insofar as this impression is true, the administration bears responsibility for the amount of cheating ignored on campus.  And insofar as it's false, the administration needs to convince skeptical profs.

The administration can lead in other ways. The University of Maryland, for example, used to print in the school newspaper the number of students suspended and expelled for academic dishonesty in a semester. It was an effective way of informing people that cheating was not tolerated.

Honest students, you must also help create a positive environment, worthy of your efforts.  The minimum you can do is express disapproval when your friends cheat. This requires moral courage.  But if you can't stand up to your friends in a university, where candid debate is supposed to flourish, how will you ever stand up for what's right?

(Used with the permission of the author)

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