The City University of New York

Academic Integrity 

A Project of the

 Website Resource for A Model Program

V. Proactive Strategies and Resources

Honesty and integrity are essential for all of the academic community.  It is in the interest of students and faculty alike to create and maintain a campus environment of honesty, respect, and fairness in order to promote academic integrity in the classroom and to have graduates bring those values into their workplaces and into the general community.   

Both students and faculty also have a responsibility to promote academic integrity.  The following are suggested strategies for those in the campus community to encourage academic integrity: 

For students 

Understand the importance of academic integrity.  Students often cheat thinking they are not doing anyone any harm.  This attitude could not be further from the truth.  The learning process and the acquisition of new information depend upon free, open, and honest dialogue.  Habits of dishonesty can follow the student into the working world, and can result in grave professional and legal consequences.  Academic dishonesty in college will also make the student less competent professionally.   

Be aware of the rules.  Often plagiarism and other forms of academic integrity occur due to a student’s unfamiliarity with the rules of citations, taking exams, etc.  Be sure to ask your instructor about proper classroom procedures if you have any questions.   

Develop good study habits.  Studies show that otherwise honorable students sometimes cheat simply because they are not prepared to complete the assigned work.  Note taking, reading, and time management skills can improve a student’s performance in class.  This will make you a better student and help you to avoid being tempted by dishonesty. 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you need help, get it!  Ask questions of your instructors, seek tutoring, form study groups, or seek out other opportunities to improve your study habits and avoid placing yourself in a situation that promotes academic dishonesty.  Questions are essential to academic dialogue and the learning process.  You are not bothering your instructor if you have questions—they expect them and it’s their job to answer them for you as best they can. 

Do not tolerate dishonesty among fellow students.  When another student cheats, you lose!  Let your fellow students know that you resent their cheating, and inform your instructor when you know academic integrity is being violated or challenged.   

For faculty 

Show students your concern for academic integrity.   If the instructor suggests a lack of concern for academic integrity, some students may feel license to cheat – or perhaps may even feel encouraged to do so.  Make clear from the beginning that academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in your classroom.  A clear statement of the importance of academic integrity on your course syllabus or making students sign a pledge to uphold standards of honesty can raise the issue with your students. 

Tell students what is expected of them.  Plagiarized papers, using unauthorized notes on an exam, or other forms of academic dishonesty frequently result from the student’s ignorance of the rules rather than an intent to deceive.  State clearly exactly what you expect of students, both on the syllabus and in class.  Clear and concise directions for exams and assignments will also minimize unintentional dishonesty. 

Cultivate a perception of fairness.  Interviews with students suggest that cheating often occurs when students are under the impression that they are not being treated fairly.  Encourage students to ask questions and seek your advice and your help, either in class, during office hours, or by email.  If students feel you are making an appropriate response to their concerns and that they have a “sporting chance” to pass and succeed in class, most will respond positively and try their best.  Otherwise, they may feel academic dishonesty is the only way to succeed in your class. 

Don’t unwittingly promote academic dishonesty.  Change your examination questions and paper assignments frequently.  Recycling old exam questions might save time, but some students might know former students of yours and have access to those questions already.  Overly broad assignments might also encourage students to turn in plagiarized work.  Consider giving assignments that are unique to the course.  Making students submit drafts of written assignments will also help alert you to potential plagiarism. 

Be aware of new and changing technologies.  Students are sometimes more informed about new communications technologies (Internet, cell phones, instant messaging, etc.) than the faculty, and some students will take advantage of this situation to cheat in the classroom.  Make it your business to understand new avenues for academic dishonesty. Watch for Palm Pilots or the equivalent. Some have cameras built into them and could have an entire textbook, a set of cheat sheets, or any number of essays right there  at the press of a button! See NOTE below.

Monitor carefully.  Instructors must be constantly on the lookout for plagiarism and other forms of cheating.  Some surveys suggest that as many as 75% of college students have admitted to at least one instance of academic dishonesty.  Monitor students carefully during exams.  Use proctors if possible.  Scrutinize term papers and other assignments carefully.  If academic dishonesty is discovered, the student must be dealt with accordingly.  Failing to reprimand or otherwise punish violators is another way to unwittingly promote academic dishonesty. 

NOTE:  The College should have a plan whereby every student will receive a copy of the Academic Integrity Plan, will a sign a form indicating that s/he has received and read this document, and will honor the Academic Integrity Code of the College.

NOTE:   ELECTRONIC CHEAT SHEETS

Students' New Cell Phones Make High-Tech Cheat Sheets  - From Contra Costa Times

Teachers thought they had seen it all when it comes to cheating. A tiny cheat sheet tucked up a sleeve. A math formula saved on a calculator. An essay pulled off the Internet. Now, sneaky students have found a new way to covertly ask friends for help on tests.

Students can send silent questions and answers to one another, right under teachers'
noses, on cell phones with built-in cameras and text messaging.

Jan Bunten, a math teacher at College Park High in Pleasant Hill, Calif., was shocked last fall when a student showed her a picture on his cell phone of a test question sent to him by a friend in another class. She has heard of students taking pictures of tests

and posting them on the Internet... 

For the full story, visit: http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8037702.htm

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ADVICE:

 Students entering college are arriving from high schools in which all surveys indicate there is a high incidence of violations of academic integrity.  The culture of high school appears to accept, if not condone, such violations.   Despite this most students in this college do not accept that such violations should be accepted as they think it is basically unfair that some students gain advantage over others by their willingness to violate academic integrity in any one of a number of ways.  These students, in the majority, work hard to attend college and work hard for their grades and do not want faculty to accept or promote or aid or abet such violations through which others achieve grades that are not earned.  Faculty need to be vigilant to guard against condoning such violations directly or indirectly.

Tape players, ipods,mp3 players, cell phones, calculators, pda's and indeed any electronic devices that carry or store information in any form are capable of being used in a variety of ways that violate academic integrity.

Unless a student  is certified by the office for services for students with disabilities to have need of such an electronic device, such devices should not be  permitted within the testing or assessment exercise environment.  Even if such certification is presented, the assistive device should be checked by the office for services for students with disabilities to insure that it does not also provide for communication of information that would give the user unfair advantage in the assessment exercise: quiz, test, examination, etc..

Students can record and play back chapters of information on their tape players, ipods, mp3 players, pda, calculators and through cell phones. Students can take photos of examination materials and transmit them to others within 15 seconds with only 4 to 6 clicks on their keypads.  The exams and quizzes received through cell phone transmission can be downloaded and printed and distributed within minutes and made available to others outside of the assessment room while the assessment is still going on.

What is to be done? It is within the right of the instructor to prohibit from or restrict within the assessment environment such devices.  The rules must be made clear and enforced strictly and uniformly.  The rules and restrictions should be made known prior to the assessment exercises and presented in the course syllabi at the start of the semester.

What if a student, despite the well expressed and communicated restrictions, brings such a device into the assessment area? The instructor is not permitted to remove personal property from a student.  To do so would be a violation of law.  Should an instructor learn that a student has such a device in violation of the expressed restriction the instructor may:

1. prohibit the student from participating in the assessment and grade them accordingly.  This result should be made known prior to the exercise and presented in the course syllabi at the start of the semester.

2. ask that the student place such a device away from their persons in another location within the assessment area.  The instructor must make it clear to the student that neither the instructor nor the college takes any responsibility for safeguarding their personal property in that location.  This disclaimer should be made known prior to the assessment exercises and presented in the course syllabi at the start of the semester.

What if a student claims that the cell phone is needed because persons dependent on them may be prone to a health or other emergency? Such devices were not available until recently and so to have them present within the assessment area was never a right to which learners were due.  If the instructor wants to accommodate a request to have such devices available within the assessment location then  the instructor may observe (2) above.