Academic Integrity at Brandeis

Erika Lamarre

Director of Academic Integrityelamarre@brandeis.edu

• The policies• Education and Prevention• Reporting an incident• The Procedures• Resources for Instructors

The Policies at Brandeis Students are required to submit material that is the product of their own

thought and study with appropriate citations and footnotes.

Students may not collaborate on work without the specific permission of the instructor.

Unless allowed by the instructor; notes, calculators, cell phones, or other aids or devices are not permitted to be in a student’s possession or accessible during exams. Talking during exams is not permitted.

Unless permission is received in advance, a student may not resubmit previous work for credit in a current course.

Complete information on policies and procedures can be found in the

student handbook Rights and Responsibilities http://www.brandeis.edu/studentaffairs/srcs/rr/

How do we teach Academic Integrity?

The expectations of academic honesty are communicated during Orientation.

Citation and writing are taught in our Comp and UWS courses.

Students have access to The Writing Center, English Language tutoring, Roosevelt Fellows, Academic Services tutoring, and online resources such as Zotero and Endnote.

Faculty are expected to include a syllabus statement on academic integrity.

Brandeis instructors now have access to TurnItIn.com for assistance in student self-editing and plagiarism detection. http://turnitin.com/en_us/features/faqs

There is still more we can do to consistently communicate the expectation of academic honesty…..

The current landscape

Many students share old lab reports, tests, and papers with friends. Often students will simply change the name and submit this work as their own or cut and paste portions. We had over 100 reports of academic dishonesty last academic year.

Most cases involve first-year students and sophomores.

Incidents increase during final exams/projects. The higher the stakes the more likely a student may try to cheat to increase their grade (Lang, 2013).

Cases that are reported are not the result of a misunderstanding of proper citation. Instructors are savvy enough to discern a scholarly error or learning curve with intentional acts.

Prevention in your ClassroomThe following suggestions come from various sources. A list of

recommended readings will be provided.

Alter your assignments and exams each year to reduce the likelihood of worked being shared among students.

Highlight the Academic Integrity syllabus statement on the first day of class. Inform students that you will be paying close attention to their work submissions.

Use the TurnItIn.com plug-in on Latte consistently.

Remind students of your office hours and available resources on campus.

Review academic honesty expectations before exams and final projects.

Actively proctor your exams and remain for the entirety of the exam.

The ProceduresIf a faculty member, instructor, or Teaching Assistant suspects that a student has violated an academic integrity policy, the following steps should be taken immediately. Note that it is important that all incidents be reported, and as soon as possible after they are detected.

Notify the student of your suspicion.

Document the incident, using a Community Standards Report . This is an online format. The

language you will see will call it a Public Incident- this simply means that anyone can file a report. The information is confidential.

Once the Community Standards Report form is submitted, instructors will be contacted by the Director of Academic Integrity and informed about next steps. Faculty should feel free to notify the Director with any questions at any time.

After the Director and Instructor have made contact and exchanged information, the Director will schedule a meeting with the accused student and begin the process.

Conduct Procedures at Brandeis At Brandeis we apply due process to each accused student. The accused student has the

option to accept or deny responsibility for the accusation(s). Most cases are resolved by the student accepting responsibility. Rarely we must convene the

student conduct board to hear a case. Possible outcomes as determined by the Director of Academic Integrity/Conduct Boards in

consultation with the referring instructor might include:

-Giving the student a grade of zero on the assignment involved.

-Disciplinary Probation.

-If the behavior is especially severe or the student has previous conduct history, sanctions may include failure in the course or possibly suspension from the university.

Why do we do this? Accurate record keeping

Fairness to students and instructors- without conduct processes students can file grade grievances or claim discrimination.

FAQs Q: Will a student’s application to graduate school or employment be impacted by a report of

academic dishonesty?

A: Brandeis does not use transcript notations for conduct violations with the exception of suspensions. Graduate schools and employers have different criteria for what they want a student to report. The University can not release student information without a student’s permission. Even then we do not release details.

Q: Can the instructor choose what type of sanction a student receives?

A: The Director and the instructor will collaborate on the outcome and/or sanction. Sometimes a student’s history (or lack thereof) impacts the type of sanction that is issued. We are working on various educational sanctions as well as grade-based sanctions.

Q: If the student and I agree on an outcome do I still need to report the incident?

A: Reporting is required in order for any type of outcome or sanction to be applied. Also, this allows for record-keeping in the event of a student’s repeat behaviors in other classes or other conduct violations. Reporting is the expectation in order to protect students and instructors.

Resources for Faculty

Books:

Cheating Lessons- James M. Lang

Cheating In College: Why Students Do it and what Educators can do about It- McCabe, Butterfield and Trevino

Pedagogy not Policing- Tyra Twomey, Holly White, and Ken Sagendorf

The Cheating Culture- David Callahan

Online:

Director of Academic Integrity: www.brandeis.edu/svpse/academicintegrity/

The Brandeis Center for Teaching and Learning: www.brandeis.edu/teaching/

The International Center for Academic Integrity: www.academicintegrity.org/

Thank You

Erika Lamarre Director of Academic Integrity

Shapiro Campus Center 2nd floor

elamarre@brandeis.edu 781 736-5075