Policy:

Students at Clarkson College are expected to be honest and forthright in their academic endeavors. The mission of Clarkson College includes the expectation of high standards in ethical behavior as well as in scholarship. Academic integrity is an integral component of Clarkson College’s mission and values. Clarkson College seeks to foster respect (for self and others), truth in honest achievement and positive relationships among stakeholders in our academic community.

Academic dishonesty includes any form of cheating and/or plagiarism that results in students giving or receiving unauthorized assistance in an academic exercise or receiving credit for work that is not their own. Cheating, plagiarism, fabrication, or other forms of academic dishonesty corrupt the learning process and demean the educational environment for all students.

Definitions of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to:

1. Fabrication: Making any oral or written statement that the individual knows, or should have known, to be untrue. Examples of fabrication include, but are not limited to, the following actions:
   1. Making a false statement to faculty, Clarkson College employee(s), fellow students or clinical agency personnel.
   2. Altering records or other academic materials.
2. Cheating: Giving, receiving, offering, or soliciting information on any examination, quiz, or other assignment, not authorized by the instructor. Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to, the following actions:
   1. Copying from another student’s paper.
   2. Intentionally using or attempting to use any unauthorized aid, materials, or electronic devices in connection with any form of academic work.
   3. Collaboration with another student without instructor approval on any examination, quiz, nursing care plan, computer or laboratory work, or any other assignment. Collaboration includes the exchange of materials or ideas verbally or non-verbally.
   4. Buying, selling, possessing, soliciting, transmitting, or using any material purported to be the unreleased contents of any assignment, including examinations and quizzes.
   5. Bribery or solicitation of any person to obtain or to provide any information relating to examinations, quizzes or other assignments.
   6. Substitution for another person during an examination or quiz.
   7. Unauthorized use of advanced automated tools, such as artificial intelligence or machine learning tools (e.g. ChatGPT) on assignments without explicit approval from the course instructor.
3. Collusion: Working together with another person with an “illegal” or “deceitful” purpose in the preparation of work which an instructor expects to be accomplished on an individual basis.
4. Plagiarism: To steal or pass off the ideas or words of another as one’s own, without crediting the source. Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to, the following actions:
   1. Quoting word for word from a source without using quotation marks, footnotes, reference, or bibliographic citation.
   2. Summarizing and paraphrasing ideas without acknowledging the source.
   3. Submitting work for credit not written by the student, including material from an online source, papers written by another person, or buying a paper from a commercial source.
   4. Submitting, without prior permission, academic work previously submitted in identical or similar form.
5. Failure to Report: When behavior suspicious of a Code of Conduct violation is not brought to the attention of the faculty for investigation.
6. Misrepresentation: "Providing false information to an instructor concerning an academic exercise" (Hollinger & Lanza-Kanduce, 1996). Examples of misrepresentation include, but are not limited to, the following actions:
   1. Giving a false excuse for missing an examination, quiz or assignment deadline.
   2. Falsely claiming to have submitted a paper or assignment.
7. Sabotage: "Consists of actions that prevent others from completing their work” (Stern & Havlicek, 1986). Examples of sabotage include, but are not limited to, the following actions:
   1. Disturbing someone’s lab experiment or project.
   2. Moving materials from a reserved reading file so that others cannot use them.

Procedure:

Faculty Responsibility:
Because academic honesty is of vital concern to the faculty and because each discipline may raise its own specific set of issues, all faculty members are required to discuss academic integrity in their classrooms and explain how Clarkson College policy applies in each of their courses. Faculty who have specific outcomes/consequences for incidences of academic dishonesty related to specific assignments in their courses are strongly encouraged to provide this information to their students within the course syllabus.

Student Responsibility:
At a minimum, Clarkson College expects the student to complete any assignment, exams, and other academic endeavors with the utmost honesty, which requires the student to:

• Acknowledge the contributions of other sources to their scholastic efforts
• Complete assignments independently unless otherwise instructed
• Follow instructions for assignments and exams and observe the standards of academic discipline
• Avoid engaging in any form of academic dishonesty on behalf of the student or another student
• Ask the faculty if there are any questions regarding academic honesty

Students found guilty of violating the Academic Integrity policy may face academic sanctions by the faculty for the course. Possible sanctions faculty may impose include, but are not limited to the following:

• Loss of credit on the assignment/exam
• Have the student redo the assignment
• Lower the student’s grade for the assignment
• Lower the student’s grade for the course
• Fail the student in the course

Academic Integrity Violation Procedure:

Incidents of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated, and students suspected of such conduct are subject to disciplinary measures as outlined below. Faculty and students involved in the academic integrity issue will be held to the strictest guidelines of confidentiality in all matters pertaining to the issue.  

Step 1: The faculty member notifies their program director (or designee) of the alleged academic integrity issue, including evidence. The faculty member must complete the Academic Integrity Conference Form (See Attachment A). The burden of proof rests with the faculty.

Step 2: Faculty contacts the student regarding the alleged violation of the Academic Integrity policy and schedules a meeting with the student to take place within five (5) business days* of when the occurrence was identified. The faculty advises the student to bring all supporting evidence to the meeting with the faculty related to the alleged academic integrity issue.

Step 3: Faculty discusses the issue with the student, and the student completes and returns Part II of the form to faculty within one (1) business day* of the meeting, attaching any additional evidence as needed.

At the meeting, the faculty member documents what disciplinary actions will be taken. Disciplinary action will be at the faculty’s discretion. Faculty informs the student of their right to due process and timeline.**

Step 4: Faculty member will write a summary letter of the incident. The faculty member then forwards a copy of the Conference Form along with the summary letter and all supporting evidence to those designated on the bottom of the form.

• The VPAA will send a letter to the student informing them of the Academic Integrity violation and possible consequences of future violations of the policy.
• At this level, the student must meet with the program director to discuss the Academic Integrity policy and remediate as appropriate.
• The program director must document what remediation was given.
• If the violation is substantiated, the student is not eligible for the Academic Excellence Award.