Academic Honesty

Academic honesty is of serious concern at Humboldt. It is integral to all six principles for building a successful campus community (see Rights & Responsibilities), especially to the maintenance of a "just" and "disciplined" campus. Students are expected to maintain high standards of academic integrity.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty is willful and intentional fraud and deception to improve a grade or obtain course credit. It includes all student behavior intended to gain unearned academic advantage by fraudulent and/or deceptive means.

Cheating

Cheating is defined as obtaining or attempting to obtain, or aiding another in obtaining or attempting to obtain, credit for work or any improvement in evaluation of performance by any dishonest or deceptive means. Cheating includes, but is not limited to:

• Taking Information
• Copying graded homework assignments from another student.
• Working together on a take-home test or homework when specifically prohibited by the instructor.
• Looking at another student's paper during an examination.
• Looking at text or notes during an examination when specifically prohibited by the instructor.
• Accessing another student's computer and using his/her program as one's own.
• Providing Information
• Giving one's work to another to be copied or used in an oral presentation.
• Giving answers to another student during an examination.
• After having taken an exam, informing another person in a later section about questions appearing on that exam.
• Providing a term paper to another student.
• Taking an exam, writing a paper, or creating a computer program or artistic work for another.

Policy on Cheating

At faculty discretion, cheating may result in an F grade on the assignment or examination or in the course. If a student denies the charge of cheating, s/he will be permitted to remain in the class during the formal hearing process (as outlined in CSU Executive Order 628).

The instructor shall contact the student in writing with evidence of the cheating within one week of discovery of the event. The Academic Dishonesty Referral form will also be submitted to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, with copies to the student and to the student's major department. Student's rights shall be ensured through attention to matters of due process, including timeliness of action.

The Student Discipline Coordinator, located in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, shall determine if any further disciplinary action is required. Disciplinary actions might include, but are not limited to: requiring special counseling; loss of membership in organizations; suspension or dismissal from individual programs; or disciplinary probation, suspension, or expulsion from the university and the CSU system.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as the act of using the ideas or work of another person or persons as if they were one's own without giving proper credit to the sources. Such actions include, but are not limited to:

• Copying homework answers from the text to hand in for a grade.
• Failing to give credit for ideas, statements of facts, or conclusions derived by another author. Failure to use quotation marks when quoting directly from another, whether it be a paragraph, a sentence, or part thereof.
• Submitting a paper purchased from a "research" or term paper service.
• Retyping a friend's paper and handing it in as one's own.
• Giving a speech or oral presentation written by another and claiming it as one's own work.
• Claiming credit for artistic work done by someone else, such as a music composition, photos, a painting, drawing, sculpture, or design.
• Presenting another's computer program as one's own.

Policy on Plagiarism

Plagiarism may be considered a form of cheating and, therefore, subject to the same policy as cheating, which requires notification of the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs and disciplinary action. However, as there may be plagiarism as a result of poor learning or inattention to format, and there may be no intent to deceive, some instructor discretion is appropriate. Under such circumstances, the instructor may elect to work with the student to correct the problem at an informal level. In any case that any penalty is applied, the student must be informed of the event being penalized and the penalty.

Within one week of discovery of the alleged plagiarism, the instructor will contact the student and describe the event deemed to be dishonest. If this is a first violation by the student, this initial contact may remain at an informal level. In this contact, the student and instructor shall attempt to come to a resolution of the event. The instructor may assign an F or zero on the exam or project or take other action within the structure of the class as deemed appropriate to the student's behavior. A report of this contact and resolution might be filed with the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs for information-only purposes. Such a report will be witnessed by both the instructor and student. If no resolution can be reached within a week of initial contact, the case could be referred to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs using the Academic Dishonesty Referral form.

If the violation is repeated, the instructor will contact the student within one week of discovery, describe the event deemed to be dishonest, and notify the student that the Academic Dishonesty Referral form has been filed with the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.

When a case is referred to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, the consequences might be severe. Disciplinary actions might include, but are not limited to: requiring special counseling; loss of membership in organizations; suspension or dismissal from individual programs; or disciplinary probation, suspension, or expulsion from the university and the CSU system.

Other Examples of Academic Dishonesty

Other forms of academic dishonesty include any actions intended to gain academic advantage by fraudulent and/or deceptive means not addressed specifically in the definition of cheating and/or plagiarism. These actions may include, but are not limited to:

• Planning with one or more fellow students to commit any form of academic dishonesty together.
• Giving a term paper, speech, or project to another student whom one knows will plagiarize it.
• Having another student take one's exam or do one's computer program, lab experiment, or artistic work.
• Lying to an instructor to increase a grade.\
• Submitting substantially the same paper or speech for credit in two different courses without prior approval of the instructors involved.
• Altering a graded work after it has been returned, then submitting the work for regrading without the instructor's prior approval.
• Removing tests from the classroom without the approval of the instructor--or stealing tests.

The policy on these and other forms of academic dishonesty is the same as that described above for cheating.

Student Responsibility

The student has full responsibility for the content and integrity of all academic work submitted. Ignorance of a rule does not constitute a basis for waiving the rule or the consequences of that rule. Students unclear about a specific situation should ask their instructors, who will be happy to explain what is and is not acceptable in their classes.

For further information on the disciplinary process and sanctions, see the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs, Nelson Hall East 216, or the Dean for Undergraduate Studies, Siemens Hall 216G.