Statement on Academic Honesty (Saint Anselm College, Academic Catalogue P. 26-28)

Since the assignments, papers, computer programs, tests and discussions of college course work are the core of the educational process, the College demands the strictest honesty of students in their various academic tasks. To ensure that the standards of honesty essential to meaningful accomplishment in the classroom are maintained, the College sets forth the following clarification of academic dishonesty and sanctioning procedures.

The following actions are examples of academic dishonesty and subject to sanctions:

Examinations and Assignments
1. Copying from another student’s examination paper or allowing another to copy from one’s own paper during an examination.

2. Using unpermitted material (notes, texts, calculators, etc.) during examination.

3. Revising, without the instructor’s knowledge, and resubmitting a quiz or examination for regrading.

4. Giving or receiving unpermitted aid on a take-home examination or on any academic assignment.

Plagiarism
1. Plagiarism means the presentation by a student of the work of another person as his or her own. It includes wholly or partially copying, translating, or paraphrasing without acknowledgement of the source.

2. Since the wording of a student’s paper or computer program is taken as his or her own work, paragraphs, sentences, or even key phrases clearly copied from a book, article, essay, lecture, newspaper, program, another student’s paper, notebook or program, or any other source, may be included only if presented as quotations and the source acknowledged.

3. Similarly, since the ideas expressed in a paper, report, or computer program are accepted as originating with the student, a paper or program that paraphrases ideas taken from a book, article, essay, lecture, newspaper, program, another student’s paper, notebook, or program, or any other source may not be submitted unless each paraphrased source is properly cited. A student may incorporate in his or her paper, report, or program, without citation, ideas from texts, discussions, lectures or other programs only, when over time, a true synthesis of those ideas has made them his or her own.

4. A student may make use of the particular skills of a proof-reader or typist, but wholesale corrections and revisions of a course paper or computer program by these individuals are not allowable. The student alone is responsible for any errors or omissions in material submitted as his or her own work.

5. No paper or computer program may be submitted for credit if it has been or is being used to fulfill the requirements of another course, in whatever department, unless permission to coordinate work has been granted by both professors.

6. No student shall allow his or her paper or program in outline or finished form to be copied and submitted as the work of another; nor shall a student prepare a written assignment or program for another student to submit as that student’s work.

7. Students should be prepared—up to one month beyond the due date of a paper or program—to submit all notes, drafts, and source information which might be requested by an instructor, chairperson, or committee investigating the authenticity on that work. The failure to produce such material upon request may be considered prima facie evidence of plagiarism.

Procedures
1. If an instructor has reason to believe that a student has plagiarized, the instructor shall immediately inform the student and discuss the circumstances.

2. After such discussion, the instructor shall:

(a) decide that no further action is necessary; or
(b) require that the work be resubmitted with appropriate changes; or
(c) give the student a failing grade in the work submitted; or
(d) give the student a failing grade in the course. In this instance, the instructor will notify the department chairperson, the Dean, and the student, of the intent to fail that student in the course for which the work was done. Documentation supporting the charge is to be available upon request by the parties concerned. Further, the Dean, having been informed of the particulars of the case, may decide to extend the sanction to include:

 —suspension from the College for the remainder of the semester; or
 —suspension from the College for a period of not more that one  year; or
 —expulsion from the College

The Dean shall inform the student in writing of a decision to suspend or expel.

3. If the instructor’s decision is that set out in 2 (a), (b), the matter shall be considered closed. If the decision is that set out in 2 (c), the student may appeal using the normal process for appealing a grade. If the decision is that set out in 2 (d), the student may appeal in writing to the Dean.

4. The student shall have ten days to appeal a decision to suspend or expel.

5. If the student elects to appeal the decision of the Dean in cases dealing with suspension or expulsion from the College, the Dean shall convene a College review board consisting of three faculty members (two of whom shall be from the department involved) and two students. The committee shall invite the student and the instructor to address it but shall deliberate in private.

6. If the College review board is convened, it shall make a written report to the Dean. The report may recommend a sanction.

7. The Dean shall make the final decision regarding sanction and shall inform the student immediately in writing of that decision.