Academic Integrity is vital to the academic environment at Augustana College because it involves the search for and acquisition of knowledge and understanding. Evaluation of each student's level of knowledge, understanding, and ability to synthesize and integrate materials requires tangible assessment via reports, examinations and homework. Any willful misrepresentation of the relation between the work being evaluated and the student's actual state of knowledge is an act of academic dishonesty.
The following is a partial list of examples:
- Using the exact language of someone else without the use of quotation marks and without giving proper credit to the author.
- Rearranging another's ideas or material and presenting them as though they are one's original work without giving appropriate acknowledgment.
- Submitting a document written by someone else as one's own work.
- Paying for or obtaining another's work and submitting it as one's own
- Giving or receiving answers to an exam
- Copying, with or without another person's knowledge, during an exam
- Doing class assignments for someone else
- Submitting a paper that has been purchased from a commercial research firm or the website
- Fabricating items on a bibliography
- Obtaining an unauthorized copy of a text in advance of its scheduled administration
- Using unauthorized notes during an exam
- Collaborating with other students on assignments when it is not permitted
- Altering answers on a scored test and submitting it for a re-grade
- Accessing and altering records in a grade book
- Stealing class assignments from other students and submitting them as one's own
- Fabricating laboratory or research data
- Destroying, stealing or sabotaging the work of other students
- Resubmitting a previously graded assignment for a different course
The students and faculty at Augustana College commit to the highest standards of excellence by mutually embracing the Augustana Honor Code. It is the joint responsibility of students and faculty to report academic dishonesty.
Students: Academic dishonesty undermines the efforts of honest students, the value of an Augustana College degree and the integrity of the college. With this in mind, the student's rights and responsibilities are:
- To be honest and to act fairly toward others.
- To make every effort to notify the professor when a student observes a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy.
- To understand the college's policy on academic integrity, as well as each professor's policy on what is acceptable collaboration and what is cheating. When unsure, it is the student's responsibility to clarify the issue with his/her professor.
- To seek credit only for his/her own legitimate work.
Faculty responsibilities are:
- To incorporate in the syllabus of each course exactly what is expected of the student in terms of group work, proper citation methods, examination procedures, possible ambiguities, and the consequences of violating the Academic Integrity Policy.
- To confront the student if there is a suspicion of student academic misconduct.
- To consult with the Dean of Students Office to determine if the student has previously engaged in academic dishonesty.
- To exact a consequence such as giving a grade of zero or failure for the assignment in question, or a failing grade on the exam or the entire course, provided this is the student's first incident of academic dishonesty.
- To report the consequence with appropriate documentation to the Dean of Student's Office in order to establish the student's record of academic dishonesty.
In cases of extreme severity or if the student has previously engaged in academic dishonesty, the college reserves the right to suspend or dismiss the student, in which case the Dean of Students and/or the Dean of the College, in consultation with the faculty member(s) shall make the determination.