Statement of Academic Policy and Statement of Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Claremont McKenna College is an academic community where it is assumed that all individual members are committed to high ethical standards in meeting their responsibilities and in their relationships with each other. Students are expected to behave as mature and responsible members of this community and to follow ethical standards both in their personal conduct and in their behavior towards other members of the community. The College expects students to understand and to follow basic standards of honesty and integrity. Some common violations of these basic standards of academic integrity include but are not limited to, plagiarism, cheating on tests and examinations, presenting work completed for one course as original work for another, and other forms of dishonest performance on college assignments, as explained below.

Plagiarism means the use of the thoughts, ideas, words, phrases or research of another person or source as one's own without explicit and accurate attribution as illustrated in the Appendix. In keeping with this definition, all work, whether written or oral, submitted or presented by students at the College as part of course assignments or for College sponsored extracurricular activities, must be the original work of the student unless otherwise specified by the instructor.

Cheating on examinations of any kind (quizzes, midterms, finals, etc.) includes copying another student's answers, exchanging information, using notes or books unless expressly permitted to do so by the instructor, or gaining access to examinations prior to the actual taking of such examinations.

Other examples of academic dishonesty include, but are not limited to, copying or preparing another person's work; buying prepared papers; fabricating laboratory reports or experimental data; gaining unauthorized access to computer data or other privileged information.

Assisting anyone to engage in any of the violations described above qualifies as academic dishonesty.

All rules and standards of academic integrity apply equally to all electronic media, particularly all intranet and internet activities. This is especially true for any form of plagiarism, ranging from submission as one's own all or part of a paper obtained from an internet source to failure to cite properly an internet source (e.g., citing an article from The New York Times rather than http://www.nytimes.com [access date].

The faculty of Claremont McKenna College is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity. Each faculty member has the responsibility to report cases of academic dishonesty to the Academic Standards Committee, which has the duty of dealing with cases of alleged academic dishonesty. When informed of such a case by the instructor, the Committee receives statements and other evidence from the instructor and the student. If aspects of the facts are in dispute, the Committee, by itself or through a designated subcommittee, investigates through interviewing the instructor, the student, and any other relevant witnesses and considering other evidence. If the Committee finds that academic dishonesty has taken place, it then decides upon a punishment, such as suspension. The Committee determines the punishment after due consideration of all circumstances. Any penalty with regard to grades is the prerogative of the instructor. For further information on suspension and dismissal for academic dishonesty, see Statement of Academic Policy.

Since plagiarism takes a variety of forms, "Avoiding Plagiarism", by H. Ramsey Fowler is reproduced here as an Appendix.

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