Academic Integrity
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]."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:
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:
- 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.
According to section D5.0 (Grades) of the RIT Institute Policies and Procedures Manual,
- 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.
“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.
