15 What About Academic Misconduct?
When Kurt first heard rumors from a classmate about a cheating scandal, he had no idea that the scandal might implicate him. But later that same day, Kurt received an email from a school official requiring him to appear the next day before a school investigator, bringing various papers and devices. Several of Kurt’s classmates received the same email. Within a short time, word had gotten around as to the nature of the allegations, involving confidential problem sets that a classmate had shared to help fellow students prepare for an exam. Kurt barely slept that night, wondering what might happen to him. And he hadn’t even realized that he might have done something wrong.
Misconduct
Your inability or unwillingness to keep up your grades can certainly interfere with your studies. The prior chapter addressed unsatisfactory academic progress. Academic misconduct, though, is a different concern that can interfere with, and indeed end, your studies. The two subjects, failure to satisfactorily progress on the one hand and academic misconduct on the other hand, can bear a relationship. Students who fall behind may face special temptation to cheat. Or it may instead be that students who seek prohibited shortcuts to studying tend to fall behind. But whether poor grades and cheating bear a relationship or not, if you face school cheating charges, you may quickly find yourself kicked out of school, much as you could face school suspension or expulsion for poor grades. Academic misconduct, though, involves a different set of considerations from academic failure. Failure to progress means not performing to standards. Cheating means deliberately violating academic norms. And of the two, cheating allegations can be a more-serious and concerning issue.
Codes
Schools at all levels have academic honesty and integrity policies, often called honor codes. Your school expects you to comply with its honor code. You may even have signed an acknowledgement or taken a ceremonial oath committing you to the honor code. Academic integrity codes vary widely, sometimes simply stating that the school prohibits cheating, leaving it to instructors and academic norms and customs to define what constitutes cheating. Other academic honesty policies attempt to list the prohibited academic misconduct that could get you suspended or expelled. Those codes also generally include broad catch-all categories like any form of cheating or academic dishonesty. The lists of prohibited behaviors typically include using unauthorized assistance, materials, devices, or services, whether to complete an assignment or during an exam. Prohibited behaviors also routinely include use of an impostor or acting as an impostor for an exam, plagiarism, and self-plagiarism or double submissions for credit without instructor knowledge and permission. Fabricating or altering research data, altering scores or grades already given, or altering work already scored or graded in an attempt to deceive are other common prohibitions. Check your school’s honor code to be sure you understand what it prohibits.
Norms
Because schools don’t always define academic misconduct, academic norms or customs often influence whether a school will accept a student’s academic conduct or will instead label it misconduct and pursue disciplinary charges. Yet students at lower levels, especially in elementary school and to a degree in secondary school, are still learning academic norms and customs. For that reason, lower-level programs will often treat cheating as a learning opportunity more so than a disciplinary matter, reserving discipline for repeated cheating after explicit warning. Don’t risk cheating charges, though. If you find yourself tempted to use a resource or service or pursue a practice that you are not sure your instructor would accept, ask your instructor before doing so. Avoid any form of deception where your statements or representations are untrue or misleading. Also avoid any secretive conduct, the disclosure of which might subject you to discipline. Don’t study using a detection ethic, where you’re doing secretive things simply because you believe you won’t get caught. Be above board in all your studies, and you should avoid cheating charges.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a good example of a form of misconduct that academic norms define. Plagiarism generally involves misrepresenting another’s work as your own. You must not, for instance, copy, borrow, or steal another student’s paper or work and submit it as if it was your original work. You must also not copy materials or images you find on the internet or in books, articles, or other texts, without clearly disclosing that the material is a quote or reproduction, and without disclosing the source. If you quote material, you should be putting it within quotation marks or double-indenting it as a block quote and properly citing the source immediately before or after it. Your program likely follows a certain citation style customary in its field. You should learn and adopt that citation practice to ensure that your instructors do not accuse you of plagiarism for failing to properly cite the source. Get training in using quoted material and in citations, to avoid plagiarism charges.
Collaboration
Unauthorized collaboration can be a special problem for students facing academic-misconduct charges. Schools and instructors commonly encourage student study groups, peer support, teamwork, and other collaboration. Schools and instructors deliberately attempt to reduce the naturally competitive environment that instructional programs can create because of its isolating and discouraging nature, especially for students who struggle to succeed. Yet schools and instructors must also evaluate students individually on their assignments and exams. Thus, schools and instructors commonly restrict and prohibit collaboration on certain student work such as papers and problem sets submitted for credit, and of course on quizzes, tests, and exams. Students may find it difficult to draw the lines between pursuing collaborations but eschewing collaboration for certain work. Temptations and relationship pressures can also play into the equation. Beware of the line between permissible and impermissible collaboration. Watch out for unauthorized-assistance charges.
Sanctions
As already suggested above, programs at lower levels of education may treat academic misconduct more as a learning opportunity than a disciplinary matter. But by high school, and certainly by college, instructors and other school officials may generally assume that students understand academic norms well enough to hold students accountable for cheating. Discipline for a first offense may be relatively mild, such as a warning, reprimand, loss of credit or points for the assignment or exam, and the requirement to repeat the assignment or exam. But at higher levels of education, and especially in graduate and professional programs, any cheating may result in loss of credit for the course, a failing grade in the course, school suspension, and even school expulsion. Factors influencing the sanction include whether the misconduct was a first or subsequent offense, or whether the misconduct was deliberate and in direct and knowing violation of instructions or instead only careless or even unknowing and innocent. Whether the wrongdoer involved or attempted to involve other students, and whether the wrongdoer destroyed the confidentiality of valuable confidential exams or other confidential materials, can also affect the sanction, among other factors.
Impact
Beware any cheating charges and sanction, whether mild, moderate, or severe. Discipline on your academic record for academic misconduct can seriously affect your academic reputation, opportunities, and relationships. Even as little as a reprimand may cause instructors, advisors, or other mentors to withdraw their support. You could also lose the opportunity for honors, awards, grants, and scholarships. You could also find yourself unable to gain admission to a preferred vocational program, college or university, or graduate or professional school. A record of academic dishonesty can also affect your ability to obtain licenses and certifications for employment, and affect your job and career opportunities.
Procedures
If you face cheating charges when believing that you did not cheat, invoke your school’s protective procedures to contest the charge. Schools generally have an obligation to provide you with due process when threatening a school suspension of more than a few days. Even if you face charges for academic misconduct that you know you committed, consider following your school’s protective procedures to advocate and negotiate for remedial measures rather than punitive sanctions. School officials may be willing to keep your academic record clear of a formal finding of misconduct, if you can demonstrate your accountability and rehabilitation. School officials may, for instance, accept that you promptly acknowledged the wrong, avoided any cover up, and sought additional training or education, peer or instructor mentoring, or another form of remediation. Keep your academic record clean, if you can do so without any form of obstruction or misrepresentation. Invoke and respect your school’s procedures. Get qualified representation from a skilled and experienced advocate if your stakes in a disciplinary proceeding are substantial.
Defenses
Just because your school accuses you of academic misconduct does not mean that it should or will find that you committed a violation and punish you for it. You may have one or more defenses to the academic-misconduct charge. Your accuser may, for instance, have misidentified you for another student. Your accuser may, for another example, be retaliating against you or covering up the accuser’s own wrong. Your accuser may have misunderstood your actions or intentions. You may have acted innocently and mistakenly, not knowing the circumstances and not having any intent to commit a deliberate wrong. You may alternatively have acted on the reasonable instruction or direction of another, such as a teaching assistant, giving you a safe harbor against the charge. Your instructor or the school may not have been clear as to your expected conduct, and you may have followed a convention other students were also following without any apparent prohibition or penalty. Get a qualified and independent advocate to assist you if you face an unfair or exaggerated charge threatening your education. Don’t let academic-misconduct charges keep you from achieving your education goals.
Reporting
Beware of situations in which you are aware, from your own first-hand observation, of other students engaged in what you believe to be cheating. Your silence in those situations may later appear, to the cheaters or officials accusing the cheaters, of your consent to and approval of the cheating. If you gained any arguable advantage from cheating by others, your advantage may implicate you in their cheating charges. Far better to object when you see classmates cheating. Better, too, to report cheating that you observe and in which you might later be implicated if you remain silent. Cheating isn’t a victimless wrong. When one student cheats, other students who are not cheating can suffer unfairness in scoring, grading, honors, and awards, and damage to program, class, and school reputation upon the cheating’s detection. Promptly speak with your instructor or advisor about suspected cheating for their guidance as to your own best conduct.
Reflection
Do you know your school’s academic honesty and integrity policy? If not, look it up now. Are you aware of any fellow students cheating? If so, would you be implicated in the cheating if school officials discovered it? Or is it adversely affecting you, other students, or your class, school, or program? Consult with your instructor or advisor about any cheating you personally observe. Do you know your program’s requirements for citing others’ work in a writing that you submit for credit, to avoid plagiarism charges? Are you following your school’s policy and instructor’s directions with regard to your use of devices, services, and artificial intelligence? Are you doing your own work when your instructor prohibits collaboration? Are you engaged in any study practice that you would not want your instructor or classmates to know?
Key Points
Schools uniformly prohibit multiple forms of academic misconduct.
Codes define academic misconduct variously as cheating or dishonesty.
Academic norms and customs influence what constitutes cheating.
Plagiarism is misrepresenting another’s work as one’s own.
Unauthorized collaboration uses help when supposed to work alone.
Cheating sanctions run the gamut from reprimands to dismissal.
Schools offer protective procedures to contest cheating charges.
A student may have one or more defenses to cheating charges.
Avoid implication in cheating by reporting suspected cheating.