Academic integrity violations are a major concern at Mount
Ashley Hartman
Issue date: 1/25/06 Section: News
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Academic integrity policy violations have become a major concern due to the numbers documented from the fall semester. The number of charges from last semester was 28, which surpassed the number of charges for each individual year of 2001-2004. The charges were also almost equal to the total charges recorded from last year, which were 31.
The academic integrity policy prohibits cheating and plagiarism. According to Dr. David Rehm, the associate provost for academics, most of the incidents from last semester were plagiarism on papers.
In response to why last semester's numbers were so high, Rehm said, "the tools that faculty have for determining violations of academic integrity are much stronger than they were a few years ago. A number of these violations were discovered through (turnitin.com)."
Approximately 2/3 of the violations were committed by females and 1/3 committed by males.
"I found that most of the problems were at the beginning and the end of the semester: first assignments (students getting back into school and less aware) and at the end," Rehm said.
"In addition, I think there remains a lack of clarity among students about what constitutes plagiarism," Rehm emphasized. "Any use of the writings of another (even a single sentence) that is not cited can constitute such a violation."
He does not advocate stricter punishments.
"We are an academic institution, and we are primarily about helping to form students…the idea of imposing really harsh penalties on a first offense, while a plausible approach, I believe is not consistent with our mission (and the spirit of forgiveness that is central to our Catholic mission)," he said.
Freshman Seminar is piloting an on-line workshop this semester on academic integrity. This is one way to combat violations of the academic integrity policy.
"Our goal is to make students aware of what constitutes plagiarism and to know the basics of correct citation format," explained Dr. Roberta McFadden, director of freshman experience. "Our first step in attempting to meet this goal in a uniform fashion is to require, early in the Spring 2006 semester, the students in 10 sections of Freshman Seminar to work through a web site workshop and test sponsored by the University of Indiana."
The academic integrity policy prohibits cheating and plagiarism. According to Dr. David Rehm, the associate provost for academics, most of the incidents from last semester were plagiarism on papers.
In response to why last semester's numbers were so high, Rehm said, "the tools that faculty have for determining violations of academic integrity are much stronger than they were a few years ago. A number of these violations were discovered through (turnitin.com)."
Approximately 2/3 of the violations were committed by females and 1/3 committed by males.
"I found that most of the problems were at the beginning and the end of the semester: first assignments (students getting back into school and less aware) and at the end," Rehm said.
"In addition, I think there remains a lack of clarity among students about what constitutes plagiarism," Rehm emphasized. "Any use of the writings of another (even a single sentence) that is not cited can constitute such a violation."
He does not advocate stricter punishments.
"We are an academic institution, and we are primarily about helping to form students…the idea of imposing really harsh penalties on a first offense, while a plausible approach, I believe is not consistent with our mission (and the spirit of forgiveness that is central to our Catholic mission)," he said.
Freshman Seminar is piloting an on-line workshop this semester on academic integrity. This is one way to combat violations of the academic integrity policy.
"Our goal is to make students aware of what constitutes plagiarism and to know the basics of correct citation format," explained Dr. Roberta McFadden, director of freshman experience. "Our first step in attempting to meet this goal in a uniform fashion is to require, early in the Spring 2006 semester, the students in 10 sections of Freshman Seminar to work through a web site workshop and test sponsored by the University of Indiana."