CWRU has spent the last five years creating a new undergraduate academic integrity policy. In its first year of implementation, that policy has become a model for colleges and universities across the country and around the world.

The University has been selected as one of The Center for Academic Integrity's featured schools, and its new policy stands as an example of innovation. CWRU's introduction of one of small but growing number of hybrid or modified ethics codes offers an alternative to traditional honor codes (which almost exclusively are initiated and operated by students) and academic infraction policies (which typically involve only faculty and deans).

"We are recognized as a university whose efforts promote academic integrity and whose architecture for education and adjudication are seen as at the forefront of efforts to an create effective policy," said Tim Dodd, associate dean for undergraduate studies and a member of The Center for Academic Integrity's board of directors.

The Center is a consortium of 320 institutions-including CWRU-throughout the nation and world that provides resources and serves as a catalyst for energizing a commitment to academic integrity. Affiliated with the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, the center's outreach is directed toward higher and secondary education institutions.

In the first year of CWRU's new policy, the University has received more reports of academic misconduct than in previous years, but Dodd said that is not a result of students cheating more often, but rather the product of increased awareness.

"The rate (of infractions) here is not large compared to other schools," Dodd said, "but more faculty and students now are aware of this important community responsibility and have a level of comfort with the new guidelines."

This shared responsibility among students, faculty and administrators is one of several pioneering elements in CWRU's academic integrity policy. Others include the creation of a 20-member student academic integrity board to educate and stimulate discourse on the policy and preventative approaches, and the expansion of the definitions of violations to include not only cheating and plagiarism but also misrepresentation, like lying and forgery, and obstruction, which is interfering with another person's ability to conduct scholarly activity.

The policy also calls for reasonable precaution among faculty and students, faculty responsibility to report suspected infractions, and a student obligation to "do something "(such as reporting or confronting a suspected wrongdoer) if witness to academic misconduct. Along with their work on the academic integrity board, students hold the majority vote on hearing boards, which consist of three students, two faculty and two nonvoting administrators.

Faculty are permitted to investigate and adjudicate first violations but must consult about and report their adjudications; second violations must be heard by a hearing board and minimum and maximum penalties have been established under the new policy. All students found responsible for a first violation must participate in an individual ethics tutorial.

In addition, students may sign a voluntary pledge card that affirms their commitment to community values, including academic integrity.

"This really puts us in the forefront of private research institutions attempting to address this issue," Dodd said.

The model guidelines emerged from an ad hoc committee of over 20 faculty, students and administrators convened in 1997 to review the undergraduate policy on academic infractions. After two years of meetings, the committee recommended a modified ethics code. In 2000, the Office of Undergraduate Studies surveyed student and faculty about academic integrity. Two years after that, the Undergraduate Student Government, University Undergraduate Faculty and Faculty Senate passed the legislation to establish the CWRU Policy on Academic Integrity.

"Five years of deliberate effort have produced a very important and enduring change here," Dodd said. "It's important for the campus community to know about this policy, to respect this policy, to talk about this policy and, most importantly, to adhere to this policy."

Full text of the policy is available online in the undergraduate student handbook and online at http://www.cwru.edu/provost/ugstudies/hand2002.htm. The Center for Academic Integrity Web site is http://academicintegrity.org.

 

Legal Information | © 2003 Case Western Reserve University | Contact the Department