As an institution of higher learning, RIT
expects students to behave honestly and
ethically at all times, especially when submitting work for evaluation in
conjunction with any course or degree requirement. The Department of Computer Science encourages all students to become familiar with the
RIT Honor Code and with
RIT’s Academic Honesty Policy.
As
RIT’s Academic Honesty Policy
points out,
"Academic Dishonesty falls into three basic areas: cheating,
duplicate submission, and plagiarism [emphasis added]."
Further,
RIT’s Academic Honesty Policy
states the following:
"Cheating is any form of fradulent or deceptive academic act, including falsifying of data, possessing, providing, or using unapproved material, sources, or tools for a work submitted for faculty evaluation."
Note that RIT's policy specifies "providing"; A supplier of material, provided in any format through any medium, is also guilty of academic dishonesty.
While many occurrences represent clear violations, there are also many situations that can
occur which are less clear cut. For every section of a course taught in the Department of Computer Science, the instructor will make known to students his or her expectations related to such matters as cheating, duplicate submission, or plagiarism.
Student behavior deemed by an instructor (in the Department
of Computer Science) to violate
RIT’s Academic Honesty Policy
will be subject to disciplinary action. Such behavior will be treated as follows:
- For a first offense the student involved will receive, at a minimum, a grade of zero for the assigned work.
- For a second offense, in the same or a different course, the student will receive, at a minimum, a failing grade for that course.
- For a third offense, a student will be suspended and their case will be referred to
judicial affairs.
Stronger penalties may be exacted in cases (1) or (2) above
if, in the judgment of the instructor, the offense involves a flagrant
violation of policy. Furthermore, both undergraduate and graduate students may incur additional, non-academic penalties:
- Graduate students in cases
(1) or (2) above will lose department scholarships, although the graduate program coordinator, at his or her discretion, may choose to override this penalty.
- The undergraduate program coordinator, at his or her discretion, may choose to impose
academic actions in cases (1) or (2) above for undergraduate Computer Science
majors.
According to
section D5.0
(Grades) of the
RIT Institute Policies and Procedures Manual,
“A student may not withdraw from a course … to avoid charges of academic
dishonesty.”
For each student involved in an incident of dishonest academic behavior, the
course instructor will file an academic dishonesty report detailing the incident.
If the student is a Computer Science major, a copy of the report will be placed in the student’s departmental file; otherwise, a copy of the report will be forwarded to the student’s department chair or program coordinator.
