A GUIDE TO ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AT WESLEYAN
What Is Academic Dishonesty At Wesleyan?
For specific examples of plagiarism from Wesleyan's Standard of Conduct,
visit this site: http://www.wesleyan.edu/acaf/policy/sc_plagiarism_complete.html
Section A of the Wesleyan Honor Code
entitled, "Acts Constituting a Violation of the Honor Code," reads as follows:
- The attempt to give or obtain assistance in a formal academic exercise
without due acknowledgement.
- Plagiarism.
- The submission of the same work for academic credit more than once
without permission.
- Willful falsification of data, information, or citations in any formal
academic exercise.
- Deception concerning adherence to the conditions set by the professor
for the formal academic exercise.
- The failure
to take constructive action in the event of committing or observing a violation of an apparent
violation.
(See appendix for more detail regarding
the Wesleyan Honor Code and Honor System.)
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What Does It Mean
to Have an Honor Code?
An Honor Code has at least one of
the following characteristics: un-proctored exams, obligation to report,
student judiciary, and/or honor pledge. Wesleyan University's Honor System
encompasses all of these elements. However, the following excerpt from
an interview of a student, who was expelled from the University of Maryland
for repeated acts of academic dishonesty, shows that having an Honor Code
means more than having a judicial system that merely possesses the previously
stated characteristics.
Q. Is engaging in cheating fair to
honest students?
A. I don't think of it like that.
I know some students who do. But the attitude is generally, this is the
way it is. When they work, a lot of these kids, either their fathers work
in business, whatever they do, they get a shortcut - the other guy doesn't.
That's the way I look at it. If I'm sharp enough to know the right people
to get what I need, and he's not, then that's the point of the whole thing.
(excerpt taken from article, "Academic
Integrity and the Will-to-Power" written by Gary Pavela, Director of Judicial
Programs at the University of Maryland)
The above excerpt exemplifies the
underlying tension between individual freedom and community interests that
exists within an institution whose central mission is education. An Honor
Code is representative of an institutional commitment to and philosophy
of. community responsibility, personal integrity, and education for the
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Why Do Some Students
Violate Honor Codes?
-Lack
of familiarization with the expectations leads to instances where students
may not realize that their actions are academically dishonest
-Climate on campus - "everyone
does it" attitude makes it easy to rationalize cheating and/or plagiarism
-Convenience - feeling that the assignment
was too long or that the professor is not doing a good job may also serve
as a faulty rationale
-Worth of the assignment - some students
feel that it is not that serious to cheat or plagiarize on an assignment
that does not count for a large percentage of the grade
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Why Is Cheating/Plagiarizing
Wrong?
In an article entitled, "What's Wrong
With Cheating?" Michael Bishop, an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at
Iowa State University, states that cheating is wrong because:
-It is unfair to honest students
-It cheapens the worth of the diploma
-It perverts the central mission
of a university
-It cheats the cheater of an education
-It contributes to an environment
in which otherwise honest students learn to view education as merely the
temporary acquisition of facts
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How Frequently Do Students
Cheat/Plagiarize?
Donald McCabe, an Associate Professor
of Graduate School Management at Rutgers University and President of the
Center for Academic Integrity, completed a study of academic integrity
in the fall of 1990. Thirty-one academically selective schools agreed to
participate in his study, and out of the 6,096 students who responded to
his survey 70% admitted to at least one cheating violation in college.
Fortunately for Wesleyan, McCabe found that,, "there is definitely
less cheating overall at honor code schools than at non-honor code schools.
And that difference is strong ... 20% at non-honor code schools said that
they had never engaged in academic dishonesty ... at schools with honor
codes, 42% claim that they have not engaged in any cheating."
In comparing his study to one done
by William Bowers in the 1960s, McCabe concluded that, "..cheating rates
appear to be more or less stable, but they're stable at a level many of
us would consider rather high." One major difference that McCabe cited
was the increase in percentage of students who admit to collaboration.
He stated, "At code schools the number of students admitting to unauthorized
collaboration has gone from 8% to 27%. So to me this suggests a very definite
change in how students view working together. In other words, at least
some forms of cheating may be moving from an individual to a group phenomenon."
Another trend that McCabe drew from his research was that there is a correlation
between grade point average and academic dishonesty. He stated that, "The
students at the top and the bottom of the grade point scale tend to engage
in more academic dishonesty than students in the middle."
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What Does This Mean
For Me?
-Familiarize
yourself with the Honor Code.
-When in doubt, ask. If you are not
sure what the guidelines for your assignment are, ask your professor or
your teaching apprentice/writing tutor.
-Ask for an extension. If you feel
pressured to plagiarize or cheat because of time, ask your professor for
an extension.
-No grade is worth it. Learn for
the sake of learning - don't cheat yourself.
-Confront it when you see it. If
you know of a student who has cheated or plagiarized, follow the appropriate
procedures as outlined in the Blue Book. They can also be found
in the appendix of this guide.
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A Word To Writing Tutors
It is easy to overlook the amount
of influence that you may have over the students in your class. However,
you simply need to go for a walk around campus and pay careful attention
to the ways that they identify and interact with you to realize that this
is indeed the case. You may see one of them at an all campus party and
s/he will ask you about a paper assignment. Or, you may be eating lunch
at the campus center and one of them might point to you and say, "That's
my TA." Or, they may just be friends of yours who respect you and the authority
that your position represents. In any case, your actions and comments with
respect to academic integrity have far reaching implications. Some suggestions:
-Speak with the professor about
working together on a short presentation for the class that will stress
the importance of academic integrity and outline the expectations specific
to that class.
-Confront it when you see it. Become
familiar with the proper modes of dealing with a possible violation of
the Honor Code.
-Remind students who come to you
for help that they must document the fact that they spoke to you about
their paper. Take the time to explain that professors will view the fact
that they sought help as positive, not negative.
-Do what you can to help create an
environment that will not inspire students to cheat by insuring that they
are given enough time to write papers and that the assignments are reasonable.
All articles cited are from "Synthesis: Law
and Policy in Higher Education" volume 5, number 1, Spring 1993.
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APPENDIX
1. Pages 65-73 of the 1993-94 Blue
Book
11. The Honor Board procedure sheets
111. The most recent Honor Board
case summaries.
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