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Policy on Plagiarism and Other Infringements of Academic Honesty

Definition:

Students at The College of Saint Rose are expected to be honest in every aspect of their academic work. All work presented as a student’s own must be the product of her or his own efforts. Plagiarism, cheating, academic misconduct, or any other submission of another’s work as one’s own is unacceptable. Students working in groups are each individually responsible for the academic integrity of the entire group project.

Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

  • Purchasing, copying, down-loading, printing, or paraphrasing another’s book, article, paper, speech, exam, portfolio, creative work, argument, or any other work and presenting it as one’s own, either in whole or in part.
  • Incorporating portions of another’s work without proper acknowledgement and documentation.

Academic misconduct includes but is not limited to:

  • Using means other than academic achievement or merit to influence one’s academic evaluation.
  • Knowingly providing assistance in a manner not authorized by the instructor in the creation of work to be submitted for academic evaluation, including papers, projects, and examinations. A student who writes a paper or does an assignment for another student is an accomplice and must be held accountable just as severely as the other. A student who knowingly permits another student to copy from her or his own paper, examinations, or project should be held as accountable as the student who submits the copied material.
  • Receiving assistance in a manner not authorized by the instructor in the creation of work to be submitted for academic evaluation, including papers, projects, and examinations.
  • Presenting as one’s own the ideas or words of another for academic evaluation without proper acknowledgement or documentation.
  • Presenting the same, or substantially the same, papers or projects in two or more courses without the explicit permission of the instructor(s) involved.
  • Obtaining and/or reporting research data in an unethical or intentionally misleading manner.

In sum, the work of others, regardless of origin, must be properly and accurately cited in an accepted style. Students avoid plagiarism by concentrating on their own words and ideas and by fully crediting others’ work when used. Students are advised to always indicate another writer’s exact words and ideas with appropriate references. Whenever in doubt, cite the source.

Procedures:

It is the responsibility of the course instructor to identify and act upon breaches of academic integrity according to her or his best judgment in conjunction with institutional guidelines.

  • In cases where the instructor determines that a violation of academic integrity has been committed, she or he will attempt to inform the student and will inform the department chairperson* of the charge and the consequence. Within two weeks of notification, the student may request an opportunity to present her or his defense to the instructor.
  • The course instructor will file a report in the Registrar’s office by either completing an Academic Dishonesty Report Form or by writing a letter.
  • The report will be retained in a central file in the Registrar’s office.The Registrar’s Office will send a letter to the student’s Saint Rose email address notifying her or him when a first report has been filed.
  • The Registrar’s Office will send a letter to the student’s Saint Rose email address notifying her or him when a first report has been filed.
  • If as the result of academic dishonesty, an instructor awards a final course grade of F, the fail will be recorded immediately on the student’s record.
  • A student may not withdraw to avoid an F which was awarded as a result of academic dishonesty.
  • If the student elects to appeal the sanction by following the steps outlined in the College’s Academic Grievance procedure, the report will be kept by the Registrar in a “Pending File.”
  • If the student’s appeal is successful, then the Registrar will remove the report from the files.
  • If the student chooses not to appeal or if the appeal is not successful then the report will be retained in a central file in the Registrar’s office.
  • The Registrar will refer repeated violations of the standards of academic integrity to the Provost.

A student who has more than one report filed in the Registrar’s Office regarding a violation of the standards of academic integrity may receive sanctions up to, and including, dismissal from the College as determined by the Provost.

*Department chairs will confer with a tenured colleague.