Academic Honesty

Roberts Wesleyan College seeks to promote personal and intellectual integrity within the academic community. Honesty and trustworthiness are not only fundamental principles of the Judeo-Christian tradition, but essential practices within academe. The following behaviors are, therefore, unacceptable:

• Cheating in its various forms
• Plagiarizing (i.e., presenting someone else’s words or specific ideas as one’s own, including inadequate documentation of sources and excessive dependence on the language of sources, even when documented)
• Violating copyright laws and license agreements
• Denying others appropriate access to information in the classroom, library, or laboratory, including but not limited to removing materials from the library without checking them out, removing pages from books or journals, hiding or intentionally damaging materials or electronic information
• Destroying, altering, or tampering with someone else’s work
• Submitting the same or similar work for more than one course or assignment without prior approval from the professor(s)
• Destroying, altering or tampering with academic or institutional records

In cases involving questions of academic integrity, a faculty member shall follow procedures outlined below, typically beginning with direct interaction with the student. If a student wishes to appeal, discussion must move through approved procedures. In no case shall the faculty member’s perspective, authority, or autonomy be violated. Similarly, in no case shall the student’s right to a fair hearing through the Institution’s Academic Grievance Policy be denied.

The Registrar of the College is the Officer of Record concerning matters of Academic Integrity. The Registrar maintains an Academic Integrity File containing all written documentation concerning instances of integrity violation, including the nature of the offense(s) and subsequent action(s) taken. The records of all students with more than one documented violation shall be transferred to individual academic files and noted, as appropriate, on permanent transcripts.

Each academic department has a written policy regarding issues of academic integrity. However, a departmental policy does not replace institutional procedures; that is, when it is determined that a violation of academic integrity has occurred, a faculty member will report the incident to the Officer of Record.

In addition, there exists an Institutional Academic Integrity Committee made up of the Officer of Record and three faculty members. This committee shall advise faculty in first-offense cases, hear a first-offense case if a student requests a hearing, review all cases beyond the first offense, and recommend disciplinary action in relation to the nature and number of the offense.