Students are expected to conduct themselves
honestly in all academic
endeavors. Any act of academic dishonesty
is a violation of the Honor Code.
Introduction
East Central College is an academic community. Since integrity and honesty in the classroom, in academic programs and in all related learning experiences is critical, the Student Conduct Code lists, as its first item for which students may be subjected to disciplinary action, "Failure to adhere to the college's Academic Honor Code."
The Academic Honor Code is a statement of the college's position regarding student conduct as it relates to academic integrity. It is not intended to supercede any specific course or instructor's printed guidelines or policies contained in any course syllabus; it is, however, to be considered academic policy for all students and a benchmark for student intellectual conduct. Any violation of the Code will be first viewed as an issue of behavior and therefore subject to discipline as stated in the Disciplinary Action Policy. It is not a matter of academic performance.
This document is provided to all students and is part of college academic policy. Students are responsible for learning about and being fully aware of activities which constitute violation of the Academic Honor Code. The following list is presented for information and clarification and is not intended to be exhaustive.
Faculty retain the right to recommend remedy when students are in violation of the Academic Honor Code. Students retain the right to appeal any accusation of policy violation as outlined in the Student Grievance/Appeal Policy in the Student Handbook. Further, it is the responsibility of the student to know these policies exist.
Academic Honor Code Definitions and Clarifying Comments
Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty is defined as any form of cheating or dishonesty that has the effect or intent of interfering with any academic exercise or a fair evaluation of a student's performance. Some examples and definitions are given below. The college faculty can provide additional information, particularly as it relates to a specific course, laboratory or assignment.
The following non-exhaustive list contains acts satisfying the definition of academic dishonesty which will subject the offending student to appropriate disciplinary action.
Cheating: an intentional use or attempted use of unauthorized material or study aids in assignments or tests, or unauthorized assistance by any other party in any academic exercise.
Examples: unauthorized use of notes for a test; using a "cheat sheet" on a quiz or exam; any alteration made on a graded test or exam which is then resubmitted to the teacher.
Plagiarism: careless or deliberate use of the work or the ideas of another; representation of another's work, words, ideas, or data as your own without permission or appropriate acknowledgement.
Examples: copying another's paper, work, computer disk, or answers and submitting or representing it as your own; submitting an assignment which has been partially or wholly done by another and claiming it as yours; not properly acknowledging a source which has been summarized or paraphrased in your work; failure to acknowledge the use of another's words with quotation marks.
Facilitation of academic dishonesty: knowingly assisting another in violation of the Academic Honor Code.
Examples: working together without permission on a take home test; providing another with information about a test you have already taken before they take it.
Multiple Submission: submission of work from one course to satisfy a requirement in another course without explicit permission.
Example: using a paper prepared and graded for credit in one course to fulfill a requirement and receive credit in a different course.
Fabrication/Forgery: use or submission of contrived, invented, forged, or altered information in any assignment, laboratory exercise or test; tampering with or production of a counterfeit document, particularly documents which make up the student's academic record.
Examples: making up a source or citing a nonexistent publication or article; representing made up data as real for an experiment in a science laboratory class; forging a change of grade or student withdrawal record; falsifying any document related to a student academic exercise.
Obstruction: behavior that limits any student's opportunity to participate in any academic exercise or attempts to block access to resources.
Examples: destroying a library resouce before another student can access it; interfering with another student's efforts or work in any academic exercise; tampering with a computer resource before other students can gain access.
Misconduct in Creative Endeavors: the misrepresentation of another person's ideas, writing, computer images, artistic effort, or artistic performance as one's own.
Examples: representing a musical performance as original when it is not; using copyrighted artistic material inappropriately or illegally.
This list is not exhaustive. Faculty can and will question acts of academic dishonesty which may not be part of this list. Students should always question whether an act can be construed as academic dishonesty prior to participation and carry the responsibility for clarification with the teacher, who will gladly engage in any discussion regarding the college's Academic Honor Code.
Professional Behavior
Students are expected to adhere
to the standards of their program of study or of particular courses.
Such standards are generally presented to the students by the faculty
in programs or courses to which professional standards apply. An
example would be specific ethical and professional standards
associated with the nursing program or the education majors.
Violations of these standards will be treated in the same fashion as
academic dishonesty.